When I was a kid....

This week I was watching October Road. It is a good show. It is written by the same guy who wrote the movie Beautiful Girls. I really like that movie. The show really has the same feel to it. I don't believe it gets very good ratings so it will probably go off the air soon. In fact, the first season wasn't that many episodes and this season was equally as short. It probably only came back as a filler during the writers strike. Either way, I like it because it is a fairly wholesome show and it makes you think! Basically there is this group of guys who hung out their whole lives. They grow up and go their separate ways and eventually meet up again. So, in this weeks show the guys read in the paper that this girl they were best friends with, when they were 10, died in a car crash. There were many flashback scenes. At first I thought...this isn't very realistic because ten year old girls don't hang out with boys. So, it made me think about my own life. Just this past weekend my Dad asked me if I ever heard anything from this boy who grew up a couple of houses down from us. He joined the Marines shortly after graduating and left for California. I've talked to his brother and I knew he got married and had a child but that was it. Crazy enough...the day after my Dad asked me I got a message on MySpace from that guy. What are the chances??? It made me reminisce about the old days. Strange how these two events happened in the same week.

When I was a kid I hung out with the kids in my neighborhood. I grew up in a more rural area. We didn't have sidewalks or city parks. We also didn't have summer kids craft programs or and as much as I played with the other kids most of my memories are from outside. What we did have was a neighbor with an in ground pool, acres and acres of woods behind our house and huge yards. Here is who I grew up with: Of course, my sister, Heather, next door neighbors - Ray & Christie (and much younger sister Jessica), Noel & Billy (they lived three houses down) and Chuck (he lived way down the street but always came around!). Noel & Billy have two sisters that I used to play with until they moved away to live with their Mom. I can not begin to explain to you what a Motley Crew this is. I was the oldest of the group. Chuck was my age but he was held back in kindergarten. He was a giant of a kid. I was mean to him, unfortunately most kids were. The thing is, I think after so many years I started sticking up for him because I felt bad. He was the type of kid that everyone picked on and he cried. This one time I remember this tiny girl (Anita C.) was saying something to him and he picked her up by her shoulders - the whole time she was giving him the old one two, punching him with both fists right in the nose. He started crying. I remember telling him to stop crying all the time and people will leave him alone. I really have some great Chuck stories I will share sometime. He was one of the only boys that was allowed in my room. Funny. We all rode the bus together and everyone waited at our house. It all made for a good childhood. Most of those people I haven't seen for years. I think I saw Christie once since Jude was born and the rest of them, well...Ray was at my wedding. I haven't seen Chuck, Noel, Billy, Jessica...in years.

Since I am introducing people from my old hood...I used to ride to school with this girl, who lived four houses down. She would pick me up and drive me to school in her Jeep.

Does anyone know what a back rack is????