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.
I was born on this very date, October 20th, all the way back in 1985.
I grew up in the little town of Southwick, Massachusetts, on Shirley Terrace.
However, most of my childhood would be spent two streets over.
At the other end of my neighborhood.
Sefton Drive.
If I wasn't at my house, I was roaming around on Sefton Drive somewhere.
Maybe I was at Nik & Chris Savva's house.
Maybe I was at Josh Gagnon's grandparents house.
Maybe I was at Jeff & Craig Whittaker's house.
Maybe we were in the woods behind Viola's house.
Maybe we were catching frog down by "The Brook".
Maybe we were running through the mini cornfield behind Chanze Facey's grandparents house.
It was a mixed bag of Awesome.
If would give anything to be able to relive my childhood.
It was fantastic.
I read a quote a while back that said "At some point, you and all of your friends all went outside to play for the last time, and no one knew it."
I had probably woken up a good 10-15 before I came across that quote.
I wasn't ready for something so deep and meaningful before I even had my morning oatmeal!
That quote stuck with me, and it lead me to make this very post, because it hit the nail on the head.
All good things must come to an end.
My childhood was one of those "good things".
But what a ride it was!
It all started with what I like to call "Nik's persistence".
One day he showed up in my front yard, on his bike, asking me if I wanted to come to his house and play.
I would always say "Maybe tomorrow", as if I had so much going on for me at 5 years old.
He showed up each and every day, and asked the same thing.
He would not be denied.
One day I finally said "Let's do it!"
And the rest, as they say, is history!
We did everything as kids.
We rode our bikes around the neighborhood.
We made our own jumps.
We probably had a 60% success rate on actually LANDING properly after hitting said jumps, with plenty of grass stains and skinned knees which quickly became badges of honor.
We played baseball, using a bush, a tree stump, a hole in the ground, and a stick as the four bases.
We played soccer, using two sets of trees as the goal posts for each side.
We played capture the flag, sometimes using two houses across the street from each other as the playing area.
We played football, no helmets, no pads, and sure, it may have been "Two Hand Touch" ON PAPER, but we all know what Two Hand Touch football becomes after roughly 30 seconds or so.
That's the first time I got the wind knocked out of me, but I still scored on the play, so yeah, worth it!
We played basketball in the driveway, which led to many cars almost getting hit, but that was just "part of the game".
We played Freeze Tag.
We played Ball Tag.
We played SPUD, a game with far too many complex (and most likely made up) rules for me to fully describe here, but it involved A LOT of running, and dodging a ball being thrown at you, but you couldn't move your feet......good times!
We played Flashlight Tag indoors if it was raining outside.
We played Frisbee.
We played Street Hockey, and let me tell you, a slapshot to the shin from Jeff Whittaker will make you rethink LIFE ITSELF. TRUST ME.
We would roller skate around the neighborhood, or roller blade, for me personally, I prefer roller skates, I like have more stability you know?
We played Four Square in the street, with "squares" being at least 2-3 times bigger than the normal size, and that was by design. Once we went to school and played on the regulation "squares", it was TOO EASY!!
I used to literally sacrifice my body for Four Square.
I scraped my knees on the asphalt from diving for a loose ball, if my skin had a mind of its own, it would have just stopped growing back on my knees.
Whatever it took. That was my motto. That's why I'm the two time, back to back, 1994, 1995, Woodland Elementary School FOUR SQUARE CHAMPION.
Sorry, I got caught up in the moment again.
Four Square was the first thing that brought out my true "Competitive Spirit", and I've had it to this day.
There was no better rush than sending someone to the back of the line, where the only thing they could think of was "Am I going to get back into this game before the bell rings to get my revenge on Jerome?!?!".
Look kid, I did you favor, the swings are over there.
We'd go trick or treating on Halloween.
I had this TERRIBLE pumpkin "mask" that was attached to a handle with a button, and when you pressed said button, some little green lights on the mask would light up and make a few noises.
Also know as "amateur hour".
It was enough to get the candy, and that what it was all about to begin with!
Overall my neighborhood was pretty good for Halloween candy.
Everyone knows that kids will always judge you based on what you have for Halloween candy.
If you gave you Smarties, Sweet Tarts, Necco Wafers, those little candy dots on the receipt paper, or even worse, CANDY CORN, you'd probably wake up the next day with quite a few rolls of toilet paper to clean all over your house and yard.
And you'd get absolutely no sympathy from us, you brought this on yourself!
But that was maybe one or two houses out of the 40-50 houses, so that's still a great percentage of respectable candy houses.
Mrs. Whittaker always did Caramel and Candy Apples for Halloween.
It was the only time you'd catch me eating fruit all year!
Other houses had the staple candy and candy bars, you know, the ones that any self respecting Halloween Candy Giving individual would give out, I'm talking about your Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, Milky Way, 3 Musketeers, 100 Grand, Kit Kat, Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, Milk Duds, Whoppers, Twizzlers, Twix, Chunky, Good & Fruity (not to be confused with Good & Plenty, your house would get about 3 or 4 dozen "egg visitors" if you tried that).
In other words, THE GOOD CANDY. I DON'T WANT A PACK OF RAISINS AND A TOOTHBRUSH.
No disrespect to raisins, I love raisins, but I love them in other things, not by themselves, and definitely NOT on Halloween, unless we're talking about Raisinets!!
We swam in the Summer.
Disclaimer, I love Swimming.
Like, I'm obsessed with it.
They used to have to drag me out of the pool to do anything else.
If the pool was open, that's all I wanted to do.
Even VIDEO GAMES took a backseat to the pool.
If you know me, you know just how much I must have loved Swimming to give up Video Games for it.
That's where I learned to swim.
That's where I learned how to go under water without holding your nose, and still no get any water up your nose.
That's where I learned how to do a Front Flip.
That's where I learned how to to a Cannon Ball.
I learned the Watermelon too, but even when done properly, you'll get a MASSIVE headache, so I always advise against it!
Then I learned how to do a Jack Knife, and its twin, the Can Opener.
But the splash still wasn't big enough.
Then........I learned it.
The ultimate splash technique.
The one that I still use to this very day.
The splash that NO ONE HAS EVER BEATEN.
It's simply called "The Babysitter".
It's so beautiful.
So elegant.
So devastating.
Speaking of "Babysitters", occasionally Nik & Chris would have a Babysitter, and, well, Babysitters pretty much get treated like substitute teachers. I mean sure, they're the "authority figure" for the time being, but uhhh, that just meant you were going to be convinced that whatever we wanted to do/were going to do no matter what would have been okay with our ACTUAL teacher, so there's no need to question/try to stop it. I mean, they all "tried" I guess, and that was adorable! Sorry for the spoilers there!!
Anyway, as I was saying!
We also used to jump off the top of the water slide.
It was a potential recipe for disaster, but of course, that's why we did it!
We played Marco Polo. We always cheated too. No one wanted to be Marco.
Marco never got to have any fun!
Myself, Chris, and Josh, also played a super awesome game known simply as...."Drop-Pedo".
Think underwater Soccer/Hockey in the shallow end of an inground pool
It was probably the best game ever.
We played hide and seek, both indoors and outdoors.
We literally played IT ALL.
And I loved every second.
Whenever Winter came around, that always meant three things, Snow Forts, Snowball Fights, and Sledding!
Our High School had a decent hill that everyone in town would use.
It was.......adequate.
But Us?
Well, we had something much, MUCH bigger.
We would go up past the woods behind the house, and we would make a path all the way down to "The Brook".
Our path was easily at least 3 times longer in length than the High School hill.
It was also steeper, and you had to avoid trees that were on either side of the path.
It also had a body of water at the bottom, so the added risk of potential hypothermia was the added adrenaline rush that we all craved!
One year me and Chris made a snowman so large, I still can't believe how we actually pulled it off, and we didn't use any "tools" whatsoever, including any help from "the adults".
It's a feat that I still look back on to this day with the utmost pride!
Winter also provided the opportunity to play more video games than the Summer.
To this day, whenever I hear the song from the first stage of "Metroid" for NES, I'm instantly transported to Chris's house, on a cold winter snow day, eating grilled cheese and "star noodle soup".
I could go for that RIGHT NOW!
That's the mark of a great childhood!
I still remember riding my bike to Chris's house, locking my bike to the telephone pole, and waiting for the bus.
I remember having a sleepover pretty much every single weekend.
We drank green Kool Aid, and ate Donut Sticks, and Pecan Spinwheels.
Sometimes I'd sleep over his house, sometimes he'd sleep over mine.
We'd play video games, watch Surf Ninjas, and eat a bunch of junk food, and build forts, all while never actually, well, sleeping.
Also, there were a few times where we'd be able to stay up even later than usual.
And that was all thanks to one name......Adrian.
Don't ask me his last name, because I couldn't tell you.
Even if you told me what it was, I'd be lying if I said "Oh yeah, THAT'S what it was!"
Now why was this name so important?
Good question, let me explain.
Whenever Adrian would sleep over Chris's house, (along with a brother and sister that both have names of course, just not names that I can actually remember at the moment, my front runners are "Randy" and "Adriana", but don't quote me on that) it was always "A Family Affair" of sorts.
Adrian's parents and Chris's parents (and probably other sets of parents) would be talking for hours in their kitchen, playing games, catching up, drinking coffee, perhaps some tea, well into the morning hours, and that meant we got to stay up and run around and do all of the other things kids love to do, like jumping on the mattresses and having pillow fights, you know, things of that nature.
Those sleepovers were the even more better sleepovers.
We would rent the hottest games that Blockbuster Video (RIP) would have at the time.
Street Fighter 2.
Street Fighter 2 Turbo.
What's the difference?
Ummm, how about being able to PLAY as Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison for the first time.
Game. Changer.
Super Mariokart.
Rocky Rodent.
F-Zero.
Final Fight.
Super Dodge Ball, which is still one of my favorite video games of all time.
Stone Protectors, Super Spike V'Ball, Nintendo World Cup Soccer, and Castlevania IV, all courtesy of Josh Gagnon.
Then N64 came out.
Which meant Goldeneye was now a thing.
Along with Mariokart 64, which I still think is the hardest Mariokart ever made to this day.
Waverace.
Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey.
Diddy Kong Racing.
You name it, we played it.
That's where I honed my craft.
That's where I perfected it.
That's where I MASTERED IT.
It's also where Chris and I would play Forgotten Worlds for Sega Genesis, and we wouldn't let Leah play.
Also, there was no "saving your game" back in the day.
I mean a few games had a password system so you could pick up from where you left off.
Other than that, you either had to beat the game in one shot, or you had to pause it, and make sure that NOTHING OR NO ONE TOUCHED THE CONSOLE.
Otherwise the console would freeze, and you'd have to start all over.
That was my first true taste of heartbreak.
We always had a nice core group to do pretty much any activity as kids.
Add in the random "friends of friends" that would come and go, and we always had plenty of people to do whatever we decided that we were going to do that day!
This barely scratches the surface of the awesomeness that was "My Childhood".
I'll make another post at some point that picks up from here, but I'd say this is a good start!
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