From the Farm to the Streets
When McQueen reached the age of eight, his mother took him to Indianapolis to live with her and her new husband. “The day I left the farm”, he remembered, “Uncle Claude gave me a personal going-away present—a gold pocket watch, with an inscription inside the case.” The inscription on the watch read: “To Steve, who has been a son to me.”
The Blob, John Benson, Aneta Corsaut, Steve Mcqueen, Earl Rowe, 1958. Photo By Moviestore Collection/Shutterstock
But McQueen didn’t adjust so well to his new life away from the farm. He was dyslexic and partially deaf due to an ear infection he had as a child. As if that wasn’t hard enough for a young kid, his stepfather beat him so much that when he was nine, he left home to live on the streets. It didn’t take long for him to find himself in a street gang committing petty crimes.