This picture is used way too much, but hey.
River, Liberty, Heart (Arlyn), Joaquin (Leaf), Summer, John and Rainbow (Rain)
Circa 1984 (?) or 1985 (?)

The Phoenix family really wouldn't be considered "normal," by most accounts, but who really defines normal anyway? John and Heart provided for their children, while giving them more freedon than the average child gets, they treated their kids as their equals, where as most parents do not.

They were basically rejected from "normal" (there is that word again!) society everywhere they went, but they found their place with the Children of God, a radical religious cult, in the 1970's. They traveled all of the United States - even into Central and South America spreading the word of the cult. The children weren't educated in the "normal" sense of the word, but they learned things other people never do, they saw the world.

Choose a member of the family below to read about them.