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!
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