Childhood Memories #2

--Age 15. My Dad would pick me up at school and would insist on using his blinker once he was INSIDE the parking lot. It was a big lot, like a shopping mall, so he would use his blinkers going in and out of the parking rows. I was unbelievably mortified by this. When he sensed my mortification, he did it more. Sometimes he'd drive in a circle just for the fun of watching me squirm.

--Age 10. I used to play with my Matchbox cars in my room by myself for hours. I had an NFL Football bedspread and the large squares depicting the team mascots and perpendicular rows with the team names made excellent make-believe city grids. Or in my case, an excellent Southfork Ranch from the TV Show "Dallas." I had the Mercedes 450, Porsche 924, Jeep CJ-5 and a Volvo station wagon. I was SO Bobby Ewing.

--Age 7-8. My parents were away for some reason and my older brother was babysitting me. He had a bunch of friends over and they were hanging out in our game room at the far end of the house. I was supposed to be getting a shower and getting ready for bed, but at the last minute, I decided to sneak into the kitchen for a snack (with just my towel on). My brother caught me in the kitchen and thought it'd be funny to throw me naked into the game room. All his friends laughed at me while he held the door shut. This was unbelievably detrimental to my interpersonal development and self esteem.

--Age 10. A French kid named "Francois" moved down the street from me, and I was "assigned" to him at school so he didn't get lost. He was a year older than me, but we got along really well. He never taught me any French, and his house really stunk. He was cute, though. I didn't know it at the time, but he may have been my first crush,

--Age 6. I sat in my neighbor Keetha's house and played this super cool video game for the very first time. It was called "Pong."

--Age 12. I was riding motorcycles with my friend Heath on a trail near my house. We had switched bikes for some reason and I was riding his much larger Honda 70-80-90 (or something like that). As we were cruising along the trail, he stopped suddenly in front of me and I accidentally grabbed the front brakes instead of hitting the lower rear brakes with my foot. As I came to a sliding stop, the large bike fell over on top of me and the inside of my leg was pinned against the piping hot muffler. I screamed in pain as I watched the flesh on my calf sizzle. I had a scar for almost 10 years after that.