Not many people enjoy happy memories of their time at Alcatraz, the former prison situated in the middle of San Francisco bay. However, Sue Johnson is an exception.
"I view it so much differently than those that were locked up. It was my home," said Sue Johnson.
Johnson's father was a prison guard on Alcatraz. She lived there until she was 14-years-old.
"It was like living in a small town but it was really unique. All the guards made the same amount of money, there wasn't a class system. Everybody got along. If they didn't, they were escorted off the island," Johnson said.
The isolated land was a treasure box of adventures.
"From one side of the island to the other there was always this real strong breeze. We would get our roller skates and put sheets behind us and blow across the island," Johnson said.
75% of Alcatraz was a guardhouse for America's most notorious convicts, but a quarter of the island was a peaceful, civilian community.
Though Johnson grew up only a short distance from some of America's worst criminals, she said she always felt safe and secure.
"I did not know I was supposed to be scared because my dad never brought anything home. He never told us anything that was going on in the prison," Johnson said.
Only years later did Johnson's eyes open up to a harrowing reality.
"There was a rule on the island, that if there was a prison break and it was a hostage situation, they would have killed us. The prisoners could not get off the island. I didn't know that," Johnson said.
She said the island was shadowed with secrets.
"One prison break my mother was in San Francisco. They wouldn't let her back on the island for 24 hours until they secured it. She didn't know if it was a major prison break, were we all killed, or anything. Nobody knew anything that was going on out there," Johnson said.
Life on Alcatraz wasn't always bliss. Johnson remembers some darker memories.
"When we got off the school boat all the sirens were going off. We knew something bad was happening," Johnson said.
She recalls the chilling details.
"It was a big black blob in the water all bloated up and it had crabs all over it. It was one of the prisoners that had tried to escape," Johnson.
Alcatraz is infamous in part because of some of the legendary figures it housed.
Prohibition mobster Al Capone was one. There was also George Kelley Barnes, or as he was known then, "Machine Gun Kelley". Robert Stroud, the real "Birdman of Alcatraz" was also a resident.
Johnson actually rubbed shoulders with the convicted murderer.
"He rode the school boat with us. We knew him. We never talked to him but we knew that was the Birdman of Alcatraz," Johnson said.
However, Johnson said the name didn't exactly fit.
"The Birdman never had birds on him at Alcatraz. He had them at Leavenworth. Why they called him the Birdman of Alcatraz, I don't know," Johnson said.
Pictures of Johnson and her sisters as young girls live on in history books and museums. Those photos illustrate a childhood that was anything but ordinary.
She lived among the nation's most hardened criminals, but remembers feeling a sense of compassion.
"We were always taught they were human beings. If we ever encountered them we were told to be polite to them but not to talk to them," Johnson said.
On Alcatraz, children and prisoners lived as neighbors. However, their realities were worlds apart.
