The Best Movies Of The Decade?!

Just as a disclaimer, please don't expect proper grammar and punctuation in this blog post, or any other future blog posts. I'll do my best with the spelling, but everything else is up in the air. Run-on sentences, incomplete sentences, numbered lists, and bullet points are all very good friends of mine, you will meet all of them very soon.

Movies.

We all know them.

We all have our favorites.

As I was thinking of blog topics for this post, I was given a suggestion.

"Best Movies of the last decade!"

So, let's do this!

I'm going to pick 9 Movies from the last decade, and then tell you why each one made the list!

Disclaimer, I'm only picking TWO Marvel movies or they will take up the entire list!

Also, this is just a list of MY personal favorites!

Let's get started!

1) Avengers - Infinity War (2018)

2) The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

3) Creed (2015)

4) Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

5) Inception (2010)

6) Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)

7) The Raid - Redemption (2011)

8) Ip Man 3 (2015)

9) Avengers - Endgame (2019)

Avengers - Infinity War

This was the one that everyone was waiting for.

This movie is what every Marvel movie since the first Iron Man has been leading up to.

And it delivered IN EVERY WAY!

Josh Brolin as Thanos was a fantastic decision in my opinion.

His voice for Thanos was PERFECT.

Everybody knows what happens in the movie.

Even people who still haven't seen it for some reason still know what happened.

It was a lock for this list.

The Dark Knight Rises

Of all three of the Christopher Nolan "Batman" movies, The Dark Knight with Heath Ledger will ALWAYS be my favorite of the trio, but this one is a close second!

Let's face it, Heath Ledger gave one of the BEST performances EVER by an actor portraying a character.

There is no other Joker that even comes close.

I don't care what anyone says!

When I think of "The Joker", I will ALWAYS think of Heath Ledger's version.

Now with that being said, Tom Hardy's "Bane" was a character that he gave MUCH more depth to than I expected going in.

I had always seen Bane portrayed as nothing more than a "Meat Head".

Someone with muscles, but not very much for brains.

Not this Bane.

This Bane was well spoken.

He was meticulous.

He was methodical.

And he could get away with such a high pitched voice because no one would DARE try to make fun of him for it.

That's where those "muscles" come in.

And he straight up broke Batman's back.

So, there's that too.

In a way, what Heath's Joker told Batman in the interrogation scene from "The Dark Knight" pretty much came to fruition in "The Dark Knight Rises".

Bane had pretty much succeeded where the previous antagonists had always fallen short.

Of course Batman does end up saving the day, but still, it came at a HUGE price!

Creed

I've been a fan of "Rocky" ever since I saw the first movie.

I know people out there who have still never seen "Rocky".

I legit cannot comprehend that.

I mean the movie was added to the "National Film Registry" because it's a NATIONAL TREASURE!!

My personal favorite is Rocky 4 (Ivan Drago), followed by Rocky 3 (Clubber Lang).

However, when i saw the trailer for Creed, it was something I never saw coming.

I don't think anyone did.

Apollo Creed, who died at the hands of Ivan Drago in Rocky 4, had a son.

That son grew up to be a boxer, named Adonis Creed.

He wanted Rocky to train him.

Rocky eventually agreed.

What followed is one of the best movies I've seen in the last 9 years.

It was great to see a spinoff in the "Rocky" universe where Sylvester Stallone is able to take one of the most beloved movie characters of all time, and pass on his knowledge to the son of his greatest rival and best friend!

If you haven't seen it, PLEASE reconsider!

Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens

The last Star Wars before this movie was "Revenge Of The Sith" in 2005.

Let's face it, the prequel trilogy is looked upon very fondly.

Maybe because everyone knew how it was going to end before they even saw it.

Spoiler alert, Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader!

Gasp!

It would be a full decade before this movie would arrive.

This is what everyone was waiting for.

We wanted to see what happened AFTER "The Return Of The Jedi" in 1983.

I remember sitting in that theater.

The lights went dark after the previews that lasted for 25 minutes were finally over.

The ICONIC Star Wars intro played.

And then we met some new faces along with some very familiar ones.

Rey.

Finn.

Kylo Ren.

Snoke.

The First Order.

Luke Skywalker.

Han Solo.

Princess Leia.

Chewbacca.

It was a great start to the final trilogy of the "Skywalker Saga".

Inception

Dream control?

You mean like lucid dreaming?

.......Kind of?

But not really?

Was he dreaming at the end of the movie?

To this day you'll get a mixed response to that last question.

But this movie was a wild ride from start to finish!

The legit mind bending special effects were something I still remember to this day.

This also seems to be a polarizing movie.

People either love it or hate it, no middle ground.

Well, I love it!

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

I believe I have already GUSHED about this movie in a previous post, but that doesn't matter.

I. Love. This. MOVIE.

As a lifelong gamer, this movie was a legit dream come true.

The camera cuts.

The music.

The battles.

I love everything about this movie that is a legit video game from start to finish.

They also made a video game on Xbox 360 arcade, which is one of my all time favorite video games, because it's just as awesome as the movie.

I also feel like this movie really appeals to the "gamer audience" like myself more than it would to someone who's not a gamer.

There are some many "Easter Eggs" and video game references that if you weren't looking for them/didn't know what they were, they wouldn't have any significance to you.

But for someone like me?

Kid in a candy store!

The Raid - Redemption

The premise to this movie is simple enough.

Drug Lord runs apartment building.

Police Task Force attempts to raid the building to apprehend Drug Lord.

What happens from there is one of the best martial arts films I have ever seen.

With plenty of plot twists, and PLENTY of action!

This is one of those films that just goes to show that even with a limited budget, and not much when it comes to "different areas", as the WHOLE MOVIE takes place on a few floors of an apartment building, "Substance" will ALWAYS beat "Style".

I saw this movie in a empty theater.

It was a limited release.

If my buddy from work didn't tell me about this movie, I still wouldn't have known about it to this day!

But I legit couldn't believe some of these fight scenes.

It was also my first time seeing the martial art of "Pencak Silat", and I was blown away from start to finish! 

Ip Man 3

I love Donnie Yen.

I love Martial Arts.

I love Donnie Yen as Ip Man.

The "Ip Man" series is not in English.

I watch it with subtitles.

The films have some of the best fights scenes that I've ever seen.

Ever.

Ip Man's "Wing Chun" is truly a sight to behold.

Don't know who "Ip Man" is?

How about.....Bruce Lee?

Ip Man was Bruce Lee's master.

The first two installments of "Ip Man" were fantastic, especially the first one.

But I'm giving the edge to "Ip Man 3" for one reason.

Two words.

Mike. Tyson.

That's correct.

Ip Man faces Mike Tyson in this movie.

It's a "three minute" fight in the movie.

And it's amazing.

If there's anyone out there that's wondering if Mike Tyson "still has it", WATCH THIS MOVIE.

Or better yet, just find the clip of this fight scene, and you'll see what I mean!

I think there might be an "Ip Man 4" in the works, and if that's the case, I'll be there the opening weekend for sure!

Avengers - Endgame

Of course this was going to round out the list.

Of course this was by design.

We all had come this far with all of the characters, and now it was time to see how it all ends.

Iron Man.

Thor.

Captain America.

Hulk.

Black Widow.

Hawkeye.

Ant-Man.

Wasp.

Dr. Strange.

Spider Man.

Loki.

Star Lord.

Black Panther.

War Machine.

Falcon.

Vision.

Scarlet Witch.

Winter Soldier.

Gamora.

Drax the Destroyer.

Rocket Raccoon.

Groot.

Mantis.

Nebula.

The Collector.

Heimdall.

Okoye.

M'Baku.

Pepper Potts.

Wong.

Nick Fury.

Captain Marvel.

Red Skull.

Thanos.

These were all characters that were intertwined in one way or another.

And it all came to a head in one giant battle for the fate of everything.

This is what everything had led to.

This was the Endgame!

I was sad when the movie was over.

So many characters that were never all going to be in the same place again.

It was truly the end of an era!

And there you have it folks, 9 of my personal favorite movies of the last decade!

What are some of yours? 

Do we share any of the same ones?!

I'm thinking of doing another Q&A for my nest blog post, but in order to give answers, I need your questions! Please send me some good questions however you can!

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Text, E-Mail, whatever method you like, ask away!

Until next time!

YET EVEN MORE CHILDHOOD MEMORIES?!?!

Just as a disclaimer, please don't expect proper grammar and punctuation in this blog post, or any other future blog posts. I'll do my best with the spelling, but everything else is up in the air. Run-on sentences, incomplete sentences, numbered lists, and bullet points are all very good friends of mine, you will meet all of them very soon.

Here we are again.

I meant to blog last month.

But then I didn't.

Riveting story, I know.

Now as we've already established, I enjoyed my childhood.

I miss it to this day.

I've already peeled back two layers of said childhood.

Now it's time to peel back the third!

Let's say you could go back to being a kid for a week.

Where would you go?

What would you do?

That's a tall order, but I know one place that DEFINITELY makes the list.

Babb's Roller Skating Rink!

Now if you're around my age and you're from Southwick, this is no surprise.

Babb's was THE place to be, whether you actually skated or not!

I love roller skating.

I still do to this day, and it's because of Babb's!

I'm also on "Team Roller Skate", not "Team Roller Blade".

That's also because of Babb's.

I learned on roller skates.

The roller blades came around.

I wasn't interested in making the switch.

I was loyal.

"But roller blades are faster"

Roller skates have more stability.

For me, stability wins.

As a kid, a place like Babb's had it all.

Music, Video Games, Cheap Hot Dogs, and Roller Skating.

What else could you ask for?!

It also had a very specific arcade machine.

A machine that introduced me to the world of SNK.

Neo-Geo.

Now you have to understand, I was all about video games.

Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega.

Those were the "Big Three" for me.

I didn't even know that Neo-Geo even existed.

Or that it was so GOOD!

King Of The Monsters 2.

World Heroes.

Fatal Fury.

These are games that changed my whole view of video games!

I have Babb's to thank for all of it!

After a few hours of roller skating and playing video games, I never wanted to leave!

When Babb's closed all those years ago, part of my childhood closed with it!

BRING BACK BABB'S!!!

Now what else would I revisit as a kid for a week?

Simple.

"The Match".

That's right.

It was the best wrestling match ever.

In human history.

Of course I'm talking about the five way wrestling match that happened on Sefton Drive.

In Josh Gagnon's grandmother's front yard.

Five kids.

One winner.

Me, Josh, Chris, Manoli, and Chanze.

If you got pinned or "submitted", you were eliminated.

I don't know how it came about.

I don't know how it all worked out so well.

I still remember Josh winning, but he SWEARS that I did.

Either way, it was absolutely incredible.

The stars aligned on that day.

My personal highlight from that match?

The plastic lid.

Confused?

Let me try to paint the picture as best as I can.

I'm laying down on my back on the front lawn.

My arms are spread out to the side (like the old "Nestea Splash" commercial)

I'm just staring at the sky.

Chris, Josh, and Chanze are on my right.

Manoli is on my left.

Manoli is making his way over to the others to get back into the action.

Now instead of just going around me, he decided he was just going to jump over me.

Big mistake Manoli.

Big. Mistake.

Now for some reason, and random giant plastic lid was in the front yard.

We're talking about one of those lids for a plastic container that you would use to store a bunch of clothes and other items and perhaps slide it under your bed for extra storage.

This was a huge plastic lid.

Don't ask me where it came from. 

I have no idea.

It was there, and it just happened to be right next to me.

It also just happened to be in my right hand.

So when Manoli decided to jump over me, let's just say, he didn't make it to the other side.

You know in the old cartoons or when someone would step on a loos wooden board in the floor, and then the board would spring straight up and hit them in the face?

Well, I turned my right hand into that board, right as Manoli was jumping over me.

My right arm, with the giant plastic lid in hand, sprung straight up, and said plastic lid connected with Manoli's head/face area.

Now once again, we were wrestling, so we all knew not to actually hit each other as hard as we could.

You just made it LOOK like you did, and the other person "sells" it, so it looks authentic.

This is something that parents never understood.

Kids are much smarter than you give them credit for, trust me!

Anyway, the lid connected, Manoli sold it perfectly, and I pinned him for the three count.

It. Was. Magical.

I really can't say enough good things about that match.

I mean sure, you have Savage/Steamboat from Wrestlemania 3.

You've got Shawn Michaels/Undertaker from Wrestlemania 25.

And then you've got this match, the one that no one ever saw.

Only those five kids on Sefton saw it.

It was that good.

I'm not being biased or anything, I'm being 100% objective!

I'd also just like to revisit a random winter day.

Having a snowball fight, maybe making a snowman.

Then going inside to play Metroid, eat grilled cheese, and have some star noodle soup to warm up.

Then go back outside and repeat the process.

Really doesn't get much better than that.

I had no responsibility back then.

No homework.

No rent.

No cable bill.

No car insurance bill.

No cell phone bill.

No taxes.

Yes, I could have just said "no bills", but this takes up more words, it's all about the substance!

As a child you don't even realize it.

It's better that way.

Kids should only have to worry about being kids, everything else can be saved for later.

I'd also go back to the last day of 4th Grade.

Why?

Simple. The Four Square Tournament.

I tied for 1st Place that year.

A Tie.

I hate ties.

I just needed ONE MORE OUT.

But I couldn't get it.

I had to share 1st Place with someone else, and it haunts me to this day.

I mean sure, everyone got the same prize, which was a Four Square Ball, but still, I wanted to be THE BEST.

I still have the scars on me knees from when I used to literally sacrifice my body to keep a ball in play and win the point.

On Asphalt.

It's a Badge Of Honor that I'll wear forever!

Another day that I'd revisit?

5th Grade.

The Geography Bee.

I was the lone representative for my entire grade.

6th, 7th, and 8th Grade all had THREE representatives.

5th Grade only had ONE, and it was ME.

Did I feel the pressure?

Absolutely.

One I won against some of my fellow classmates at the "Grade Level" of the competition, it was time to see who was going to win for the entire school.

So all ten students gathered in the gymnasium.

Everyone got a clipboard, and there was a microphone that got passed to you to give your answer to the judge.

I didn't initially understand why me would need a microphone for just ten of us, and a judge.

Then I realized what was happening.

All of a sudden I heard the gym doors open, and kids JUST KEPT COMING IN.

We were doing this IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE SCHOOL.

I HAD NO IDEA.

I WAS TERRIFIED AND EXCITED AT THE SAME TIME.

I had my entire 5th Grade class looking at me.

Their hopes and dreams were all on my shoulders.

I couldn't let them down!

Instead, I got 3rd Place.

Which is still respectable out of 10 total, especially since I was the only 5th Grader.

But I got eliminated on a question that I knew the answer to.

I was overthinking, and it cost me?

The question - "Which U.S. Capital is the farthest west?"

My mind initially went blank.

I've got the entire school looking at me, with a microphone in my hand, and I'm racing through my thoughts to remember what's going on.

Finally I get my bearings back, and I say the first answer that comes to mind.

The problem? I was only thinking about the CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES.

In other words, I wasn't including Alaska and Hawaii.

Now that's a problem, since Honolulu is the correct answer.

I said Salem, Oregon.

As soon as I said it, I knew what I had done.

Now to be fair, Salem IS the farthest west.......if you exclude Alaska and Hawaii.

But that wasn't the question.

As soon as I heard the judge say "The correct answer is Honolulu", I was crushed.

That should have been a layup.

Instead I did the Patrick Ewing layup from the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Indiana Pacers in Game 7.

Look it up, you'll see what I mean.

But yeah, that's one I've wanted back since the second I had to get up from that chair, in front of the whole school, and rejoin my classmates on the bleachers.

I've known all 50 state capitals, postal abbreviations, and SHAPES since 2nd Grade.

Yet when I needed to open that vault of knowledge the most, I let myself down.

GIVE ME THAT DAY BACK!

But yeah, I've got plenty of childhood memories and day that I'd LOVE to revisit, but I'm going to stop here for now!

Thanks for coming along with me on this journey!

Until next time!

Even More Childhood Memories!!

Just as a disclaimer, please don't expect proper grammar and punctuation in this blog post, or any other future blog posts. I'll do my best with the spelling, but everything else is up in the air. Run-on sentences, incomplete sentences, numbered lists, and bullet points are all very good friends of mine, you will meet all of them very soon.

Shirley Terrace.

Renny Avenue. 

Sefton Drive.

That was the neighborhood.

That was where you'd find us, getting into mischief.

Back when "mischief" was still innocuous.

As I already stated in my previous post, I'd give anything to go back to those days!

But since I can't physically go back, taking a written journey down memory lane is the next best thing!

I barely scratched the surface on my last post.

But now it's time to peel back the next layer!

I guess we'll start with what I like to call "Nik's Deception".

I know that sounds nefarious, but just bear with me, it will all make sense soon!

You see, when we were running around outside as kids, playing every game imaginable, we always had to decide what the teams were going to be.

That's where Nik came in.

He made it very simple too.

Everyone against him!

Nik was older than the rest of us.

He was our De Facto Leader!

One second........De Facto? Nefarious? Innocuous?

I'M USING THESE WORDS?!

I watched a lot of Law & Order!

Anyway, as I was saying!

Since Nik was the oldest, naturally, he was the tallest and biggest as well.

That's just basic biology.

However, he also had a Silver Tongue when it came to convincing us that even though we were smaller than he was, there were more of us, so it would still be fair!

And we fell for it.

Every.

Single.

Time.

Needless to say, we never won ANY of these games.

It could be me, Chris, Josh, Chanze, Leah, Manoli, AND Niko.

SEVEN PEOPLE.

Against Nik.

Or maybe Nik & Craig.

But still, the odds should be in OUR FAVOR!!

HE ALWAYS CONVINCED US THAT WE STILL HAD THE UPPER HAND.

AND WE FELL FOR IT EVERY SINGLE TIME.

But I mean, of course we did.

We were young.

We were impressionable.

And at the end of the day, we just wanted to play!

Sometimes we'd luck out and get Jeff on our team.

That's the only time we ever had a fighting chance.

And by "we", I mean Jeff and his decoys.

That's what we were back then.

We were the perfect training partners.

And we were none the wiser!

Well played Nik, well played!

Now to be fair, this never took the fun out of anything we were doing.

As I said before, we all just wanted to PLAY!

And that's exactly what we did!

We ran just as hard after whatever ball/disc/object that we were using for whatever game we were playing at the time.

Wins and Losses never mattered anyway.

When you're a bunch of kids just looking to have fun, that's how it should be.

We were all getting grass stains.

And skinned knees.

And even skinned elbows sometimes.

The skinned elbows always hurt the worst, for me anyway.

But whether it was skinned knees or elbows, or any other "playground injury" we always had the same remedy.

Wash it with soap and water, pour some peroxide on it, grab a "one size fits all" Band Aid, and get back out there!

Rain never stopped us either.

We played some of our best games in the rain!

Sliding into second base, which was a tree stump, and getting COVERED with dirt and mud because it was a downpour was considered a badge of honor!

Sometimes Devin Myette would get in on the action.

He was just a few houses down.

He was the master of riding a wheelie on a bike.

I'm serious.

I watched him ride a nonstop wheelie for a full lap around the neighborhood.

A FULL LAP.

It's still just as insane to me now as I'm thinking about it as it was when I WITNESSED IT!

Devin used to call me "Jethro" all the time.

It's a nickname that I kept in mind when I made my first email address.

Jethroman85@juno.com.

Yes, JUNO.COM.

You read that correctly.

I still use that email address to this day!

Thanks Devin!

In between Devin's house, and Josh's grandparents house, was an elderly couple.

Frank and Viola.

Viola always told us to stay out of the woods behind her house.

It fell on deaf ears.

Those were OUR WOODS.

Not only that, the the portion of the woods that we always used was technically behind Josh's grandparents house.

Just saying!

Frank would always sit in his driveway.

He needed two canes to walk.

We would stop by and chat with him as we were riding our bikes up and down the street for hours on end.

He was soft spoken, he always had a smile on his face, and he was just a very kind human being.

I always enjoyed those chats.

Of course Video Games were always sprinkled in if it was severe weather outside, or if we we in between playing games, like one of those "we'll meet back here after lunch" type of scenarios.

One game that we used a play was Forgotten Worlds.

Think "Contra", but with jet packs.

If you still have no idea what I'm talking about, Google is your new best friend.

Now if Leah, Manoli, and Niko Karathanasopoulos were over, which happened just as many times as I was over myself, and we were all playing video games, or actually any games or any type whatsoever, Leah rarely got a turn.

Why? 

One word.

Cooties.

Boys said that Girls had them.

Girls said that Boys had them.

So obviously, that meant Girls actually had them.

None of us wanted to catch any Cooties.

You learned that ON DAY ONE of the Woodland Elementary School playground. 

It was a code.

A way of life.

It was the ETHOS!

I'm not even sure if I'm using that word correctly, but I've used a few "big words" in this post already, so I'm keeping it there.

But yeah, I mean it was COOTIES! There was nothing we could do!

Alright. 

You caught me.

If I'm going to be totally honest, we were just a bunch of selfish boys that didn't want to give the lone girl in our group a chance to play.

When it came to video games, no one wanted to give up that controller.

No one wanted to "share" or "take turns", which are two "concepts" that I've never understood to this day, in fact, I had to shudder before, during, AND after typing both of those "concepts".

Now to say that Leah was outnumbered would be the understatement of the century.

I mean let's put this into context here.

If we took everyone, all of the moving parts, and made one giant group, it would look like this - Myself, Nik, Chris, Jeff, Craig, Josh, Chanze, Devin, Manoli, Niko, and Leah.

THAT'S TEN TO ONE.

She was the lone female around a bunch of preteen boys who didn't feel like sharing ANYTHING.

That's a tall mountain to climb!

BUT, she would not be denied!

She just kept coming back!

And before you knew it, she WAS playing the group games.

She WAS playing the video games.

She WAS doing everything that we were doing.

With a few.......uhh......let's call them "Minor Tweaks".

Like for example, I mean, did she actually ENJOY playing Capture The Flag where we would keep the flag on ourselves, even though that was strictly forbidden, whenever it was her turn to look for the flag, so she would never find it?!

Or did she actually ENJOY when we'd play Marco Polo but the "Fish Out Of Water" rule magically never applied whenever she was Marco, which meant that she'd always be stuck as Marco?!

Or did she ENJOY when we would play hide and seek inside, but tell her that we were hiding outside (or vise versa)?!

Or did she ENJOY the fact that whenever it was her turn to play a video game, and someone would "accidentally" bump into the game console, which would freeze the game, and then we'd tell her that it still counted as her turn, just so that she'd have to give up the controller mere minutes (if not seconds) after finally getting it?!

Now, I can't answer those questions, you'd have to ask her.

HOWEVER, she was STILL a part of the game!!

And you can NEVER take that away from her!!

Although I still don't think she ever got to play Forgotten Worlds.......sorry Leah!

Now as far as Manoli is concerned, there's one "incident" that sticks out above all the rest..

The Brook Incident.

Like I said in my previous post, we had a sledding trail through our woods that put the High School Hill to shame.

But sometimes we just used the hill in Josh's grandparents backyard too.

Now at the bottom of these hills regardless of which side you're coming from, was "The Brook".

Not a very deep body of water by any means, and pretty narrow, maybe 6-8 feet wide.

However, it's still a running body of water.

In the Winter.

Now this isn't Florida, where "Winter" just means it might "only" be 70 degrees and sunny outside, which apparently is considered "cold" to them as well, such strange creatures down there.

This is NEW ENGLAND.

Where we have all four seasons as they were ACTUALLY meant to be.

An obscene amount of rain in the Spring.

A decent amount of nice weather and sunshine in the Summer.

ACTUAL "cold" temperatures outside (it's not cold if the bugs with zero body fat are still alive) in the Fall, along with the leaves changing color, which you won't find on a palm tree.

And then.....Winter.

Where things freeze.

And trees lose all of their leaves.

And all of the bugs that are barely hanging on go back to whatever pit they emerged from. 

So Manoli went down the path.

Which had a jump at the end of it.

Because of course we built a jump at the end of it so you could clear the brook and land on the other side.....

I mean after all, we were Engineers.

And Manoli may or may not have been the initial Guinea Pig, I mean uhhh, "Unwitting Volunteer" to see if you could get enough speed to actually hit the jump, clear the brook, and land on the other side.....

Except......Manoli decided to slow down right before hitting said jump.

So, instead of even coming CLOSE to landing on the other side, he went straight down into the brook.

In the middle of Winter.

Where the water may have been running, but it was still FREEZING.

All of Manoli's winter gear, drenched.

Needless to say, none of us ever hit that jump.

Actually we probably did, but with shovels, to hide the evidence.

The bottom line is, he had a life changing experience, and he came out stronger on the other side because of it!

He was also the youngest at the time.

When made him the lightest.

Which meant he got thrown around like a ragdoll when applicable.

For example, we'd be swimming, and Nik would be like "Hey Manoli, let me throw you into the pool".

Now at this point, it didn't matter what Manoli said.

He was getting thrown into the pool.

When you're the youngest, and the lightest, it just comes with the territory!

But that wouldn't last forever, because pretty soon, someone else came along!!

And of course, that's where Niko comes in!!

Now before I tell this next story, I must tell you, I think all children can have, let's just call them "Tendencies" at one point or another.

Also, I'm not talking about Niko when I say that.

I'm talking about me.

HEAR ME OUT!!

When Niko was a child, like, a small child, he had some toys that he used to play with.

One day, I took one of his toys.

He then proceeded to scream at the top of his lungs.

Naturally, someone came to check on him.

But before they did, I gave him the toy back, and he stopped screaming.

Problem solved!

Except......I decided to turn that into a little game.

Because I had some SMALL "Tendencies".

I'd wait like 5 minutes, take the toy away, he'd scream again.

Someone would come to check on him, I'd give the toy back before they got there, and he'd be normal again.

Now mind you, I had to be like seven, MAYBE eight years old.

Not exactly deep into the "Age Of Reason".

And this was just ONE occurrence......that lasted for like an hour or so.

THAT'S IT!!

I grew out of it in 60 minutes!!

That's remarkable progress!!

I mean who HASN'T made other kids cry when they were kids themselves at one point or another?!

Right?!

Let's just call it "A Learning Experience"!

I mean that's ultimately what your childhood is anyway right?!

But even through all of this, we all had some great times as kids!

I looked forward to each and every time I'd get on my bike, ride down the street, and see what we were going to do next!

Your neighborhoods friends are usually your first friends, even before school friends.

I always ask myself "If I never went down to Sefton on that first day, would I have still eventually became friends with Nik? Chris? Josh? Jeff? Craig? Devin? Chanze? Leah? Manoli? Niko? Their families?"

And even if we did still become friends at some point, would it be anywhere NEAR as close?

NO WAY!

I literally grew up with these people!

You can't replicate growing up with someone!

But luckily for me, I DID go down to Sefton on that day.

I DID become friends with that "core group".

I DO know all of their families.

And if I could go back and do it all again, I wouldn't change a single thing!

Well, maybe I'd change the Forgotten Worlds thing!

But that's it!

I still have so many layers to peel back of this childhood story of mine!

But for now, two layers have been fully peeled!

Until next time!