My parents fled from the cult in Europe back to the United States when I was very young. We moved to Houston, near my maternal grandmother. My parents claim I was a self-taught reader by age 4. But they were in a cult, so I'm not sure how much I can trust them.

Some standout, long-lasting moments from the early 1980s for me include the first time I heard Prince, getting into breakdancing, and being absolutely enamored with the physics of Joust on the Atari 2600.