I've been on my grandfather's boat, Calypso, twice in my life. My mother raised me in a pretty typical middle-class life.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I grew up in Oregon, where as a teenager I worked with my grandfather Axel on his i shing boat at the mouth of the Columbia River.
I grew up in a family full of strong women. A great aunt on my mother's side had been a matron on a hospital ship in World War II, and one on my father's side had served in the Women's Royal Naval Service.
The truth is that my grandfather was quite wealthy, a shipbuilder.
I grew up in Pittwater, north of Sydney; Elvina Bay, Scotland Island area. I had to go to school by boat. To get to the mainland, we had to go by boat, so it was just a way of life.
My dad, he was a construction worker. He was a butcher. He was a deep sea fisherman.
I grew up sailing in the North Sea.
When my parents met, my mother was a waitress and my father was a dockyard worker. They were part of that post-war better-yourself generation, so they both went to night school.
When I was a kid, my dad was in construction and used to move the family back and forth between central Florida's east and west coasts.
I grew up in a broken home, working class. My paternal grandmother raised me and my brother; my father was with us, and my mother lived in Jersey.
I grew up in a Navy family.