Early On

August 06, 1972 June and Stan Strunk were careful to announce the birth of Nikki Dawn Strunk. I was what you would call an “oops” baby because I was definitely not planned! My mom June, was just turning 20 and my dad Stan was 23 and not married when I was conceived. I guess we have come a really long way, apparently back in the 70’s this was not the proper or acceptable way to announce a pregnancy. To make things even better I was premature. Not by much, only a couple of weeks, but enough to give people a scare. I was the first grandchild for both families, and a girl so after the initial shock of the pregnancy I was well received with love, or so I thought.

Early would equate my childhood to being a normal lower middle class life. A stay at home mom who did the cooking and cleaning while the dad went out all day to his job that provided for his family. We lived in a house on Chase Street in Denver Colorado until I was four. There I had all the excitement of getting in my first hot rod car, running away from home (to the teenage girls down the street), and just being a kid. When I turned four we moved from the Chase house to the one on Harlan. Stan was able to buy the house on Harlan and that was a good thing. Mom was pregnant and the Harlan house was much bigger than the current one. About a month after we moved in Kenny arrived. I had gained a baby brother and life was good. Time flew by and four years later there was another addition, my baby brother Frank joined us. My mom wanted to name him Sky Ryan but my father would not have it. So Frank it was. He was named after one of my dad’s friends, and my mother compromised only because she called Frank by the name of Franco. Franco was in reference to Franco Harris; the famous Pittsburgh Steelers football player. At this point we still had a relatively normal life. My mom stayed home and dad went to work. We saw dad in the evenings when he came home and soon after expected his dinner would be on the table. Once we ate we were excused and went outside to play until it was time to come in for bed. Like I said we were what most would consider to be a normal family in the late 70’s early 80’s.