I decided to go with a new idea. I am going to write about my life as I see it. I will be honest with names and events to the best of my recollection. I'm not rich, not famous, not handsome. I never really excelled at much, but at the same time i am not poor, not completely unknown, and not ugly. I am just your average Joe.
I was born in 1969, just after Halloween. The house I grew up in was built right before I was born. My parents moved in the day I came home from the hospital. Back in those days the mother actually got to stay in the hospital for more then one day, just to make sure mom was doing alright before she went home to care for a new born. For the first few years my mother was a stay at home mom and my father worked a 9-5 job. His job was with the telephone company. Back then you could still get a good job with out a college degree. As my father tells it, he decided to take the phone company entrance exam to get out a math class in high school, and the rest is history. Getting jobs in the utilities back in the day was gold. A job you had until you retired.
The neighborhood I grew up in was what some people refer to as a cardboard village. There were about 200 homes in the neighborhood but there were only about 5 styles to choose from so most of the houses look alike, except maybe in color. When I was growing up the neighborhood was filled with families that were mostly starting out so most of the children were about the same age, went to the same school, and had the same friends. My one difference was that I went to a different school. I took a bus there because it was not with in walking distance to where I lived. I lived far from the school but there were a couple of kids that were just a little further away then I was so, the further away you lived the earlier you got picked up in the morning or dropped off i the afternoon. I attended St. Mary's School, a catholic school that went from k-8. Across the street next to the playground was St. Mary's Church, but we will caver more of that later.
One of my earliest school friends was a kid by the name of Bruce Alves. Bruce was the youngest of 8 kids. Bruce was a few weeks older then me and my mother was friendly with one of his sisters , still to this day. When I started 1st grade, my mother was working at nights and my father worked until 5 so I would take the bus to Bruce's house and his mother would watch me until my father picked me up. Bruce's mother used to make us sugar toast sandwiches as a snack, they were so good. Basically, she buttered some toast and put a sprinkle of sugar on it. It was like eating a piece of heaven, well for a 6 year old anyway. Bruce lived with one of his mother and father and one older sister. His sister Terry was probably one of my first crushes. Bruce was in most way's a better kid then I was, so I thought. He was better in school and better in sports. he was also more outgoing in most respects then I was. I remember sitting around his kitchen table one day and his mother was asking us what we wanted to be when we grew up. I was going to be your typical police officer, fireman, astronaut kind of guy; Bruce was going to be a marine biologist. At that time I didn't even know what the hell that was.
Across the road from Bruce's house was a forest. It was great to go out there and play. There was plenty of paths to run on and places to hide as well. We would pretend that we were looking for Indian artifacts, we built a bear trap once, though there were not any bears for 100's of miles. We also played baseball and rode bikes. One of our games was to ride our bikes side by side trying to put a stick in the front spokes of the other's bike, causing them to flip over the handlebars. I look back at that now and think how crazy we were. Occasionally his sister Terry would watch us. One day we were driving her crazy. I don't remember what was going on but she was so pissed off at us and told us to "go to hell." Just to be little creeps we went into the basement of the house where there was a hone in the foundation for a sump pump in case water got into the basement. We gathered two shovels and started banging then against the floor near the hole. Terry, hearing the commotion came downstairs in a huff and yelled " what are you two guys doing down there?" Of course we answered " We are going to dig our way to hell, just like you told us to." She could not slam the basement door on us fast enough.
But the times we played were not always fun. I can't believe i did this but I told Bruce one day to lay down on the living room floor because I was going to jump over him. Instead, i jumped on top of his chest, knocking the wind out of him. Needless to say he was hurt, and a little pissed because he thought I jumped on him purposely to hurt him.. The truth was that was exactly what happened but I would never admit that to him. As we grew older Bruce and I became more distant. Bruce stilled excelled at school whereas I struggled. Bruce was good at little league baseball. I on the other hand? First let me state that until my junior year of high school, I was always the shortest kid in my class. The same was true for baseball. I was not very athletic, i was not the worst player but not anywhere near the best. My biggest problem was I could not hit well and to be truthful, I didn't have a very good understanding of the game. Sure I knew where the bases were and the positions on the team. What i didn't know were the deeper things like if you were on 1st base and the batter popped up to right field , if you had taken a lead off 1st, you had to go back and "tag up" before you ran to 2nd. I learned that lesson the hard way. My 1st year on the team I was made the bat boy. In little league there is never been a position that made a child feel far inferior to all other players as the bat boy. the next year I was made the right fielder. Most adult male parents will understand that right field is usually where the worst player is assigned to play. In my 2nd year, I had the ball hit to me three or four times is 16 games. I think I only caught it once. The other times it went above my head out to the fence. Of course I could not throw it too far so the cut off man, usually the 2nd baseman would have to come way out into right fiend to get it. Yeah guess who played 2nd base on my team; Bruce.
There was one thing that I was better at then Bruce and that was in Judo class. I started in Judo after I was involved in a fight in my front yard with a neighborhood bully. This was only one of two fights I was ever in my whole life. I took a beating but not as bad as it could have been. My one big advantage was i had very skinny arms that were great for strangulating. I could not box but if I could get you down on the ground i could wrestle you like anything. After the fight my father asked me if I wanted to try Judo and it sounded good to me. Plus Bruce didn't do it so it gave me the chance to out perform him finally. It was only a matter of time before Bruce signed up too. But during the matches I usually did better then him.. One thing that was funny was Bruce's sister came to the practices a lot and she met one of my instructors named Mike. Terry ended up marrying Mike and so I always joked that it was because of my Judo lessons that they met.
s
Bruce and I are not friends anymore. As we went to high school, his friends and mine were different, His friends were more of the cool crowd, mine were the more socially awkward. Bruce went onto college and got a good job. I heard one day he was in a very bad car accident and he ended up having problems with his speech and walking for a bit but he pulled through in typical Bruce fashion. It was one of the few times I was glad that Bruce was a stronger person then I was. He married and had kids and I saw him one time back in the mid 90's. Bruce and his wife came by the house to visit, talk about old times and about our kids. I don't know what Bruce is doing now but I hope he is well.
next time I will talk about my other friend, Roger Ouimet, my neighborhood and best friend until high school.
1 comment:
Good words.
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