Friday, December 19, 2008

The First Guy in My Life

I suppose the first boys in my life were my three brothers. I've already written about them. I want to write about the guys in my life who were not related to me.

The first guy in my life was my neighbor, Jim. We spent lots of time together from the time I was two until I was about 12. Then he and his family moved to a bigger house in town.

He would wait on the porch until I finished my piano practice. He knew I couldn't come outside until the practicing was done. We climbed a big tree beside our driveway - even got on the roof of his home. Of course, we got in trouble for that!

Daddy almost ruined our friendship when he had a load of rocks put on our driveway. Now, this wasn't gravel - but rocks! When we'd get mad at each other, we would throw rocks across the driveway at each other. I think I hit him more than once! He claims he still has the bumps on his head to prove it!

We also listened to his victrola - we would crank it and then listen to "Hallelujah! I'm a Bum!" It is the song we liked best. We would laugh and laugh about this guy singing he was a bum.

Then there is the story of the two of us "swimming" in the big pickle barrel his Dad brought home from their grocery store. We probably smelled like dill pickles!

We lived at the north edge of town. There was a draw across the street north of us. We always took our sleds there. It was a perfect place to sled. We were told not to go there if it had rained heavily. I remember we went over there once after a heavy rain and got really wet. We also got in plenty of trouble for doing this.

We played together nearly every day - in the summer, we played together from morning to night. We always had a good time together. We liked to look for four leaf clovers in the grass, lay on our backs looking up at the clouds and deciding what they looked like, and play marbles.

We went all the way through school together and have remained friends.

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