green river, running red

circa 1990, 25 years old

Currently, I'm reading a book about the Green River Killer, by Anne Rule.

Most of the victims were prostitutes between the ages of sixteen and nineteen, and this still freaks me out. In 1983, when the majority of the killing was happening, I was eighteen. And it's not as though my life was any different than those of the girls in the book, except that I was living in Alberta, and they were near Seattle.

I'd been raised by my highly depressive and alcoholic mother when she split up with Dad, but she took us to the farm instead of the city, and that might have been a deciding factor. We endured some sexual abuse through a family friend, which also happened to a lot of kids on the street. I left home at seventeen to live with my BF, but we both worked, then a year later, got married. However, that ended when I was nineteen and I scrambled to make a paycheque and find a place to live.

In my very young days, I sold my kitchen table and vacuum cleaner and sometimes my clothes, and I waitressed and bartended and found jobs where staff lodging was included in the pay - which is why I worked in Nordegg and Red Earth Creek. If I was in a bind, my mom or my sister would help me out.

By the time I'd had Jamie, I was almost twenty-four, and the pic above was taken when I was twenty-five. By then I'd left Jamie's dad, set up an apartment with donated furniture, worked 50 hours a week in a restaurant and had my child care costs subsidized by the Alberta government.

Each day as I read more of the book, about more of the girls, I wonder what it was that made the girls turn to prostitution. I think I was lucky on two fronts - the first being that while we all smoked a little weed and drank a lot of whiskey, we didn't do cocaine, ecstacy or meth. The second was that while I've always had boyfriends, they were never the type to say, "Hey Kate - maybe you could turn a few tricks. You know, because you love me."

For those that suffered it, my heart goes out to them. It must have been a lonely burden. To be honest, I'm looking forward to the part of the book that explains what was going on in that killers mind, and what happened to him at trial. The proceedings happened after Dale's death, and back then I'd stopped watching TV, or reading papers. I have no idea if he's still on death row today, or already dead.

On a brighter note, our family has started receiving the Child Tax Benefit again, and we went out to stock up on groceries last night. It feels so good to have a full refridgerator!

Have a good Wednesday.