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When I think of the homes I grew up in, I think of Soledad Mountain.

Five-bedroom homes with three-car garages, some with views of San Diego's Mission Bay, the Coronado Cays, and the ocean.

Backyards? Large enough for fig trees and pools.

I think of bookshelves side to side with yellow national geographics

and World Book Encyclopedias.

I think of pancakes made on electric griddles in the morning

just before walking to school with kids whose fathers were doctors and lawyers

and whose mother stayed home.

In elementary school, I would arrive at these homes early in the morning

each weekday with my mother. She was there to clean the kitchens, wash the clothes, vacuum the

carpets, and mop the floors. As she began the work, off I went walking with the neighborhood

kids to Kate Sessions Elementary.

One of her employers led us use her address to sign me up for school. When the school bell

rang in the afternoon, I came home, a different home each day. My mother would put me to work

...