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Robert Eggleton was born in 1950 to an alcoholic father with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (before it had a real name) and a mother who was strong despite the domestic violence that she protected her children endure. To feed the family before food stamps, he worked his childhood -- started officially paying social security taxes at age 12. Competitive by survival instinct, he sold enough all-occasional greeting cards to become the only person that he ever met to earn the 3-speed, shiny bycycle that used to be featured on the pack page of every comic book. He was paid in dented and unlabeled cans of vegetables and damaged boxes of food for cleaning up at a grocery store. One month, he sold so many local newspapers that the next month he was featured on the front page. In high school, he worked the 11:00 P.M. to 7:00 A.M. shift at a motel before going to class.
The best thing about the Vietnam War was that it was the only reson that Robert, and others, went to college -- to get a 2S deferment from the draft. He wasn't a consciencious objector -- at that point he was a viscious protector of his family. From the point that he won the 8th grade short story contest ("God Sent"), he became a writer and concluded that he would handwrite (no computers back then) stories in prison where so many of his other relatives resided, unless he stayed in college.
In high school, after an older friend came back home in a box, Robert started an anti-war, anti-draft organization, He saw impoverished, minority youth being sent off to make money for the rich. This work continued into college, often working 23 -24 hour unpaid shifts passing out literature, organizing protests, etc. So, like had happened in high school (he had to go to American History class to graduate because he had been kick out), he was called before the college's disciplinary council for disrupting a ROTC march in front of "big wigs." Before the council could act, in conjunction with the Human Rights Commission, he wrote and distributed an article entitled, "You Don't Have to be Black to be a Nigger." The president of the colleged called Robert into his office the next day -- mandatory ROTC for freshman and sophomores ended.
Robert stuck with college, writing on the side with a few local publications in alternative newsletters and one poem in the annual State College Collection ("Our Real Warmth"). He received a Master's Degree in Social Work in 1977 (the first kid on either side of the family to go to college), obtained a LCSW, and now works in an underfunded community health center helping, especially, abused children. He created Lacy Dawn Adventures as a tund-raiser with author proceeds donated to his new cause -- the prevention of child abuse. Three short stories have been published in magazines and a novel was just reprinted and now for sale. All of his works are fully edited by professionals and he does not self-publish (no offense aspiring authors) because he doesn't believe such would be true literature.
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