When I was little I had a hispanic friend that I played with at recess in kindergarden. After that year his family moved away for a couple of years, or at least he went to different school. In 3rd grade he moved back and he was big. I was tall, but he was tall and big. He and I had different groups of friends, but we were both athletic. One of the games that we liked to play at recess was smear-the-queer. As a little kid I had a habit of letting my fingernails grow too long before I'd clip them. Well, it was a hot day and we were playing the game (someone has a foot ball and everyone tries to tackle them). He had the ball and I was going for a horse collar tackle. My nail scratched the back of his neck and I saw the blood start as sweat dripped into the open wound. He shrieked in pain, threw down the ball, and turned with anger in his eyes towards me. The crowd started to chant, "fight, fight, fight..." and I heard someone say, "you're dead." I took off running, he chased me and the crowd followed. At one point he was close enough to throw the football and hit my legs. I ended up running for the rest of the break and was glad to hear the bell sound so that I could escape to class. I had to watch my back the rest of the day.
That night I was back at the school for some sort of parent teacher night thing. My mom was meeting with my little sister and her kindergarden teacher and I was waiting outside in the dark. Suddenly, my worst feared enemy was at my side! He said, "Hey, are we cool?" and I felt so relieved. I said, "yeah, we're cool" and then he offered me some of the candy he was eating. It was awesome to be forgiven like that. I learned a valuable lesson and gained a valuable friend.
21 August 2011
19 August 2011
Wiener Roast
One of my favorite extended family activities was, and still is, having a wiener roast in Idaho. In grandpa's back yard is a fire ring surrounded by beautiful grass and a couple of benches. There are trees with tree houses and rolling hills around that lead to gorgeous mountain skylines. It is cool in the evenings and everyone gathers round the fire to cook dinner. Yum, hot dogs and s'mores. Good food and good company. One of the few memories I have of my great grandpa (one of the ones I'm named after) is of having a wiener roast in his back yard. He had a fireplace built up with a chimney and there were big trees around the yard. I remember going down the back stairs to the basement where there was a throne surrounded by a royal purple curtain and a table with an old hand crank wheat mill attached to it. Those where the days.
We still have wiener roasts as often as possible when we're in Idaho. It's so wonderful and I'm sure that this post doesn't convey the feelings and memories that I cherish and associate with such occasions.
We still have wiener roasts as often as possible when we're in Idaho. It's so wonderful and I'm sure that this post doesn't convey the feelings and memories that I cherish and associate with such occasions.
17 August 2011
Dollar Store Bike Ralley
When Jake would come visit me in the city we would usually take a ride to the dollar store which was located about a mile away. It was quite the adventure because we would ride the back roads to the store. We had to go past the elementary school, which meant stopping to ride the lines of the basketball court. Then we rode to and through the duck pond park. Then through a couple of neighborhoods and finally we'd arrive at the strip mall that had the dollar store. Usually we would buy a cheap toy and then some cheap gum, and then as many packages of Sixlets as we could. Then we would ride back home and then ration/pig-out on our spoils for the rest of Jake's visit. I'm sure my parents enjoyed having us hopped up on sugar after our trip. I noticed my mom usually allowed us to go on the days when she knew that we would be left in the evening with a babysitter.
15 August 2011
Burning Barn
One of the places I remember playing with my cousins was an old pole barn out behind my great grandparent's house. When I say old I mean it. That barn was about 100 years old. It was basically a corrugated tin roof supported on top of old telephone poles. At one point there was some hay stored on one side of it and an auger/spreader in the middle section and then the other side was open. At the back of the barn was a set of silos and and old feed storage area. All that was left was one silo, a little grain elevator, a large round cement foundation, and an old truck without a bed parked on the cement slab. I have 3 stories associated with this barn area.
Story 1.
One day Jake and I took Jake's little brother Joe and we went exploring this place. We were going all around the back and then we thought it would be fun to climb into the truck. When we opened the door to the truck we found it already inhabited by yellow jackets! The wasps came storming out and quickly stung Joe. Jake yelled RUN! but Joe couldn't run as fast as we could because he was smaller than we were. Anyway, we finally got away, but Joe was crying and hurt bad. Jake decided that Joe needed immediate adult first aid and so we headed in the most direct route to were the adults were. They were all at Mama Fawn's (my grandmother's) house which was across a corn field. I remember going crashing through the corn in a direct route, but I felt lost. Some how we made it to care and we didn't go back to the old barn for a long time. I still keep my distance from that truck.
Story 2.
A few years later a whole group of cousins, probably 10 of us, decided to turn the old barn into a war hospital. We had doctors and nurses. We had sick beds on top of the haystack. There was an ambulance (another old truck that was parked in the barn) and there was a surgery room. The surgery room was an old grain catch tire on a board. The grain delivery chute came down and aimed directly at the surgery table giving the effect of an overhead light like you see on TV. It took a little imagination, but we had quite the hospital. One of my older cousins and I went to work the control panel for the hospital (really it was a big electrical control board for the old grain silos). We decided that it would be a good idea to turn every switch to on and then press every green button. It took quite a while to accomplish the task but we finally reached the last button. When we pressed it, things came alive. This shocked all of us because we thought that there wasn't any power connected to the old stuff anymore. The auger began to turn and old black grain chunks poured out of the auger, right into the face of the surgery patient. Ahhhhhh! The alarm sounded and there was an emergency evacuation of he hospital. We were all scared. The cousin who was helping me turn everything on decided he would be brave and run back to turn it off. Whew! that was a close one.
Story 3.
A few years later the old pole barn collapsed in storm. It just blew down and crumpled on top of itself. My grandpa paid me and one of my cousins to disassemble it. We had to pull the old nails out of the roof and salvage the tin. Then the frame of the old barn had to be dismantled and hauled by tractor to the end of the dump. I was only able to stay and help for about a week, but we got most of the roof done in that time. We did have a couple run ins with snakes and carpenter bees, but nothing major. A couple months later, after the barn was completely torn down and moved, my cousins had a bonfire with the wood that was piled in the dump and I was able to go. A whole barn going up in flames is quite the site to behold. It was supper hot and we had contests to see who could handle standing within 20 feet the longest. Generally I just ran around and admired the huge fire I had helped create. Our proudest moment came when a police officer from the town (3 miles away) came out to see what the fire was. Awesome!
Story 1.
One day Jake and I took Jake's little brother Joe and we went exploring this place. We were going all around the back and then we thought it would be fun to climb into the truck. When we opened the door to the truck we found it already inhabited by yellow jackets! The wasps came storming out and quickly stung Joe. Jake yelled RUN! but Joe couldn't run as fast as we could because he was smaller than we were. Anyway, we finally got away, but Joe was crying and hurt bad. Jake decided that Joe needed immediate adult first aid and so we headed in the most direct route to were the adults were. They were all at Mama Fawn's (my grandmother's) house which was across a corn field. I remember going crashing through the corn in a direct route, but I felt lost. Some how we made it to care and we didn't go back to the old barn for a long time. I still keep my distance from that truck.
Story 2.
A few years later a whole group of cousins, probably 10 of us, decided to turn the old barn into a war hospital. We had doctors and nurses. We had sick beds on top of the haystack. There was an ambulance (another old truck that was parked in the barn) and there was a surgery room. The surgery room was an old grain catch tire on a board. The grain delivery chute came down and aimed directly at the surgery table giving the effect of an overhead light like you see on TV. It took a little imagination, but we had quite the hospital. One of my older cousins and I went to work the control panel for the hospital (really it was a big electrical control board for the old grain silos). We decided that it would be a good idea to turn every switch to on and then press every green button. It took quite a while to accomplish the task but we finally reached the last button. When we pressed it, things came alive. This shocked all of us because we thought that there wasn't any power connected to the old stuff anymore. The auger began to turn and old black grain chunks poured out of the auger, right into the face of the surgery patient. Ahhhhhh! The alarm sounded and there was an emergency evacuation of he hospital. We were all scared. The cousin who was helping me turn everything on decided he would be brave and run back to turn it off. Whew! that was a close one.
Story 3.
A few years later the old pole barn collapsed in storm. It just blew down and crumpled on top of itself. My grandpa paid me and one of my cousins to disassemble it. We had to pull the old nails out of the roof and salvage the tin. Then the frame of the old barn had to be dismantled and hauled by tractor to the end of the dump. I was only able to stay and help for about a week, but we got most of the roof done in that time. We did have a couple run ins with snakes and carpenter bees, but nothing major. A couple months later, after the barn was completely torn down and moved, my cousins had a bonfire with the wood that was piled in the dump and I was able to go. A whole barn going up in flames is quite the site to behold. It was supper hot and we had contests to see who could handle standing within 20 feet the longest. Generally I just ran around and admired the huge fire I had helped create. Our proudest moment came when a police officer from the town (3 miles away) came out to see what the fire was. Awesome!
13 August 2011
Fort Time!
One of my favorite activities to do with my cousins when I was little was to build and then play in forts. The first forts I remember were ones that my cousins had already set up. One was where the water had leaked out of the cement ditch in front of my grandparent's house and created a large cave under the ditch. It was kind of like a little cliff dwelling perched under a ditch and overlooking a cotton field. There was another one that was made when my cousins put big blue tarp over a huge hole in the ground and then started adding weapons and creature comforts (read: dirt clods and junk).
The fort that I really remember establishing myself though was way better than a glorified dirt bunker. Jake and I found that we could climb into an old wood cotton trailer. It had steps going up on the outside at one end which we utilized to get into the box. The box was about 3 feet off the ground with dimensions feet wide, 12 feet long, and 6 feet high. We equipped it with old couch cushions, fire wood, some art work, some cool sticks (every boy's ultimate toy is a good stick), and the we built a fireplace. In one end we layed down a sheet of metal and then found and old metal rim to place on top. We put a couple of 2x4's across the box and then hung a tarp between them for a little roof.
After it was completed we camped out in it. Everything was going well until we decided to get the fire going. First of all, our ventilation wasn't great so we about smoked ourselves out (I can still remember my eyes burning). Then we noticed that our fireplace, being built on a wood floor, was hot enough to burn the floor! We had to quickly elevate the metal sheet onto a little metal frame. It's lucky our fort didn't burn down.
Our usual place for fort supplies was the local dump. It wasn't a big commercial dump, just a local family dump. We managed to find all sorts of things in that dump. It's a wonder any of us survived to tell these tales. My advice to kids today: Don't furnish your fort from the local dumpster and don't light fires in or near things you don't want to burn.
The fort that I really remember establishing myself though was way better than a glorified dirt bunker. Jake and I found that we could climb into an old wood cotton trailer. It had steps going up on the outside at one end which we utilized to get into the box. The box was about 3 feet off the ground with dimensions feet wide, 12 feet long, and 6 feet high. We equipped it with old couch cushions, fire wood, some art work, some cool sticks (every boy's ultimate toy is a good stick), and the we built a fireplace. In one end we layed down a sheet of metal and then found and old metal rim to place on top. We put a couple of 2x4's across the box and then hung a tarp between them for a little roof.
After it was completed we camped out in it. Everything was going well until we decided to get the fire going. First of all, our ventilation wasn't great so we about smoked ourselves out (I can still remember my eyes burning). Then we noticed that our fireplace, being built on a wood floor, was hot enough to burn the floor! We had to quickly elevate the metal sheet onto a little metal frame. It's lucky our fort didn't burn down.
Our usual place for fort supplies was the local dump. It wasn't a big commercial dump, just a local family dump. We managed to find all sorts of things in that dump. It's a wonder any of us survived to tell these tales. My advice to kids today: Don't furnish your fort from the local dumpster and don't light fires in or near things you don't want to burn.
12 August 2011
Riding With My Uncle's Roommate and The Sinners
Growing up I had a best friend cousin named Jake. We are about 6 months apart in age and 1 year apart in school. Even though I lived in central Arizona and he lived in eastern Arizona we still found ways to get together. We would find rides with relatives or friends. One time I rode over with a friend of a relative. I wasn't very old, maybe 9 or 10, and my uncle's roommate was headed over and offered to give me a ride. He planned to pick me up on Sunday evening and then head out of town. The first stop was the gas station where he fueled up and bought Ding Dongs. I was appalled because, as stated in an earlier post, my family holds strict observance of the sabbath. He asked me if I wanted anything and I politely declined. Then we headed on our way.
About half way between Jake and me was a little town were my rides parents lived. As we drove into town we passed by a hardware store and my ride said, "oh, there's my dad" and then he turned around and pulled into the hardware store parking lot. He talked to his dad and then we followed his dad back to their house. We then had dinner at his parent's house. I thought the food wasn't that good, but I thought that his little brother and sister were pretty cool. From there we headed out and finished our journey... oh also, there wasn't a good seatbelt and he was driving really fast and I was a little scared, but we arrived safely.
Well, later my family and my uncle's roommate's family moved to the same little town that Jake lived in. His parents became my Sunday school teachers and YSA leaders. I learned that his mom really is a good cook and that his dad really is a good person. I'm sure glad that I gave them a second chance. It just goes to show though that you never know who is watching and what they will remember. Big impressions from simple things are especially made on little kids.
About half way between Jake and me was a little town were my rides parents lived. As we drove into town we passed by a hardware store and my ride said, "oh, there's my dad" and then he turned around and pulled into the hardware store parking lot. He talked to his dad and then we followed his dad back to their house. We then had dinner at his parent's house. I thought the food wasn't that good, but I thought that his little brother and sister were pretty cool. From there we headed out and finished our journey... oh also, there wasn't a good seatbelt and he was driving really fast and I was a little scared, but we arrived safely.
Well, later my family and my uncle's roommate's family moved to the same little town that Jake lived in. His parents became my Sunday school teachers and YSA leaders. I learned that his mom really is a good cook and that his dad really is a good person. I'm sure glad that I gave them a second chance. It just goes to show though that you never know who is watching and what they will remember. Big impressions from simple things are especially made on little kids.
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