Saturday, January 12, 2008

Good Times

My brother is going to be married in a few short weeks and so I've been thinking about our childhood a lot lately. Jeff and I were best friends growing up. We did everything together. It wasn't until we both started to date people that we started to loose that closeness, then we grew up and got jobs and went to college. So I treasure my memories of our growing up years.
We lived in a Rancher in Bowie before Bowie started to really grow crowded. Our yard was large with a driveway that wrapped around the house like a L. My dad always had problems with the newspaper man delivering two papers, one at each end of the driveway. We also had several trees that were perfect for climbing. Bushes lined the property and acted like a fence. It may have looked nice but have you ever heard of Bag-Worms??? They are these nasty worms that build themselves a nest out of the leaves on the bush and hang from the limbs. There would be hundreds of these things hanging from just one bush and every summer our dad had all of us out there picking bag worms filling several large trash bags. Jeff and I would pick some off the bush and then stomp on them. Green guts from the worm would squeeze out of the bag casing like play-dough in the perfect shape of the worm. We would put our shoes on for this summer activity.
Our L shaped driveway was a hot-wheels oasis. We went Dukes of Hazard on that driveway! I had a Barbie Hot-wheel and Jeff had a G.I. Joe Hot-wheel. We would spend hours racing from one end to the other skidding into a 180 right before the road. Our mom soon got used to us doing this and it no longer caused her to yell out of the window.
We would climb trees mainly to dangle from the branches and drop to the ground just to climb back up and repeat the process. Sometimes we would sit in the branches and feel the breeze and imagine we were a squirrel or chipmunk. We had electrical wires that ran through the branches of our favorite tree and we knew to stay away from it. I was always a little jealous of the birds that could sit on them and not get fried. We had a tire swing that hung from this tree and I could never get on it for long before I felt sick. This was also the spot of many mud pies and mud balls. We played G.I. Joe's in the mud and made our tanks bust down walls and run over downed men. Mom lost a few silver spoons in this same mud much to her aggravation. It was our mud paradise.
On special days Mom would take us for walks through the forest to Grandma's house...OK not really but we would walk through the woods to 7-11 where we would buy a nice ice cold soda or Slurpee. My favorite Slurpee was Cherry! There was one special day that I can remember very well and it still touches my heart. We had just bought fountain sodas. It was a very HOT day and this was a BIG treat. We rode our bikes ("Dirt bikes" to Jeff and I) and as I got on mine my soda fell out of my hand and into the dirt. I was so upset but just like that my mom gave me her soda. She didn't drink most of it first and then give it to me and she didn't go back in to get herself another one. She didn't even scold me for dropping mine she just gave me her drink. I wish I could call her right now and say "thanks again mom. I love you." It was one of those moments in life that show us how to lead by example and how to just love. I love that memory.
We had a basement that smelled like "basement". You know a old musty moldy smell. Jeff and I would go down and play to cool off or just get a break from being outside. The floor was half carpeted and half linoleum. Jeff and I would get a running head start and slide across the floor in our socks and then fall to our butts and slide some more. This brought many giggles and bruises. I do believe it was in the fall and winter that we would get brown crickets and they were UGLY! We hated these things! I still get the creeps thinking about them. Jeff and I would take shoes and/or books and throw them at the crickets hoping to smash them. Mom said they were attracted to white socks...I still wonder if she was making that up???? Basement steps were perfect for falling down. I did it many times and never broke a bone or neck Jeff and I would play "Chipmunks" this involved speaking in high squeaky voices and we were of course Chipmunks. Our favorite names were Charlie and Henry. Charlie was the favorite of the two. Our girlfriend in this pretend play was a painting of the ballerina. It's the painting you see everywhere but I can't remember what it's called.
At bed time we would go to our separate rooms and fall asleep with one eye open because it didn't take long for one of us to sneak into the others room and jump up from the floor and scare the pee out of each other. Dad worked nights so it was also our time to torment mom if we so chose to. She waited until we were in bed "asleep" to make phone calls. So Jeff and I would meet in the hallway and sneak to the kitchen where we would giggle until she shooed us away and we would run back to our rooms laughing and do it all over again. Then she would threaten to tell Dad and we didn't dare do it again. If that got boring or if we got threatened we would drink a belly full of water and lay on the ground. We would then start to flop around on our backs and listen to the water slosh around inside. Those were probably the nights I wet the bed:) ha We were good kids that had a great childhood playing life to it's fullest the way it should be for every kid. Good Times.

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