I Had A Dream!

Well, maybe not as a Great man once said but I think we all have one or two throughout our lives.  One of mine was to have (or at least be part of) a family.

When I had turned 9, my parents separated.  I went with my sibs to live with my mom.  (I didn’t even know there were any issues between them).  Not far away.  A few miles I could walk if I needed to.  After all, walking to Beverly Hills JHS became easy to do when I started there in ‘65.  Catching a school bus was fine sometimes but walking seemed more natural, even uphill through the snow!

My folks got back together the next year (started 12/62 and ended about 7/63) and even remarried!  (Didn’t know about that then.)  Life was normal again back on Kent Road.  We lived on the end of about 50 homes (I think they were called row houses – today townhouses?). 

There were many memories living there.  Some highlights: 

1. it snowed (60’s?) almost up to the 2nd floor (probably some of that was drift) and for several days we couldn’t even leave the house.  Days later we could tunnel out to the street and from there, to the store.  As each neighbor dug out to the street, they could now get to that store and buy them out of at least what they had on hand until between plowing and melting, trucks could replenish their supply.
2. I liked to crawl up the sides of buildings.  I used a lot the corner store’s building which housed a bar(?) and several apartments.
3. I met Bill Rugh (and family, who lived in one of those apartments, in eighth grade), who taught me to inhale cigarette smoke.  He also signed any doctor slips I needed if I was out more than three days.  I was probably absent from school that year somewhere between 20 and 40 days.  Never did that before (or since).
4. We had a German Shepard (named Sean) who my dad brought home.  He was with us about 1 year; dad said he took him to a farm where he could get more exercise.
5. My father bought a 10-speed bike one year for both of us (well, I think he really bought it for me) as we have the same birthday.  It was my first bike and I didn’t get another one until I was about 45.  I usually propped it up against the house, about 20 feet from the sidewalk.  A few months later I was inside watching TV with my other sibs when I heard what sounded like my back fender (it was loose and rattled when I went over a bump).  I dismissed it and continued watching TV.  Probably at the next commercial I looked outside and noticed my bike was gone.  I ran down the street towards Cobbs Creek Park (I just figured they went that way).  My father was sleeping upstairs and woke after I was gone.  I returned about 30 mins later.  Unfortunately he couldn’t find his car keys and I seemed to be the only one who knew they were buried under the newspapers on the coffee table.  I was about 9 and I guess getting in the car and driving around is not the first thing I think about.