![](\"https:\/\/cdn.prod.dailykos.com\/images\/1316431\/large\/BurnsParkIceRink.jpeg?1719780410\")
\u201cAre you feeling better Coolie?\u201d mom asked as I sat at the kitchen table eating Campbell\u2019s chicken noodle soup out of a bowl. I nodded. I had opened the can and heated it up myself on the stove.<\/p>\n\u201cAre you feeling better Coolie?\u201d mom asked as I sat at the kitchen table eating Campbell\u2019s chicken noodle soup out of a bowl. I nodded. I had opened the can and heated it up myself on the stove.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh good\u201d, she said as she turned back to a big metal tray full of little paper cups with dirt and small shiny green plants in them that she called \u201ccuttings\u201d. She had her garden clippers and was cutting off parts of some of the bigger plants and putting those new \u201ccuttings\u201d in a bowl that looked like it had a white paste in it. It was Friday, and I had been home from school all week.<\/p>\n
I had thrown up Sunday night after I had gone to bed, which was one of the things I HATED the most to do, because it was so uncomfortable and yucky. It was just like the other times, I would try so hard not to do it, mom or dad would give me some Pepto Bismol, but I would feel it getting worse and worse in my stomach. And then I would think that it would be even worse if I threw up in my bedroom, because it would make a mess and mom or dad would be mad at me and have to clean it up and I\u2019d feel like a stupid little kid who didn\u2019t know enough to go in the bathroom. So then I\u2019d finally go into the bathroom and sit by the toilet, but still try to make a deal with my stomach not to do it. But that would never work, and finally I just couldn\u2019t keep it in any longer. And after I did it I would feel so much better, I\u2019d wonder why I waited so long.<\/p>\n
Then the next morning when I woke up my whole body felt really bad, like something had sucked all the energy out of me. Mom took my temperature and it was 102, so she gave me some aspirin and said I should stay home from school. She called the doctor guy and he said it was probably the \u201cflu\u201d, and I might be better tomorrow or it might take longer. The next morning it wasn\u2019t better, so I ended up staying home all week. At least today, Thursday, I was finally feeling better.<\/p>\n
Mom was \u201cbaking dirt\u201d in the oven and it smelled really strange. Not bad exactly, just strange. She had taken a couple plants that had been in big pots in the house but had died and dumped out all the dirt into that big shiny black metal baking pan that she used to cook a turkey or a ham. Then she put it in the oven to bake it. She said she had read in a gardening magazine that it got rid of all the bad \u201cbacteria\u201d from the old plant and made the dirt better for growing other plants.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce it\u2019s done baking\u201d, she said, \u201cI\u2019ll use it to plant this new batch of Pachysandra cuttings in more little dixie cups. Then maybe by the end of next month, I\u2019ll be able to plant all these new plants in the beds in the front yard.\u201d She looked at me, smiled and winked. \u201cYou\u2019ll see\u201d, she said, \u201cWith all these new plants the beds will be thicker, more like groundcover.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you know when the dirt is done baking?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u201d, she said, \u201cI figure it\u2019s like cooking a ham or a turkey. So I filled one of my metal baking dishes with all the old dirt and stuck the meat thermometer in the middle of it. When it gets to about 150 degrees, I figure it\u2019ll be done.\u201d She bent down and looked in that little window on the front of the oven door. \u201c145\u201d, she said, \u201cIt\u2019s almost there!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course I\u2019ll let it cool down before I use it to plant all these new cuttings\u201d, she said smiling.<\/p>\n
We heard the front door open. It sounded like David, home from school for lunch, coming in and taking his jacket off inside the front door.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey Mister D\u201d, mom called out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s that\u2026 smell?\u201d he asked, as he came around the corner into the sitting room and peeked into the kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m baking dirt, sweetie\u201d, mom said to him, \u201cHow was your morning?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sang the pledge of allegiance song\u201d, David said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did?\u201d mom asked.<\/p>\n
David started to sing it. He wasn\u2019t shy about singing in front of other people like I was\u2026<\/p>\n
I pledge allegiance to the flag
\nOf the United States of America
\nAnd to the republic for which it stands
\nAnd to the republic for which it stands
\nOne nation, under god
\nOne nation, indivisible
\nWith liberty, with liberty
\nAnd justice, and justice for all<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI could tell David really liked that he remembered all the words.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s very good, sweetie\u201d, mom said, \u201cBut you know you don\u2019t have to sing the \u2018under god\u2019 part if you don\u2019t want to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know\u201d, he said, like she didn\u2019t have to tell him that, \u201cBut the other kids in my class said I should, just in case.\u201d Mom laughed a little bit through her nose.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u201d, she said, \u201cYou can believe in god without thinking that our country has to answer to him, or some religious person\u2019s idea of what he thinks is right or wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know\u201d, he said, sounding a little mad now, \u201cCoop doesn\u2019t even BELIEVE in god.\u201d<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t BELIEVE David said that, and I got worried that mom would think that I was bad because I didn\u2019t. I had never told her or dad whether I believed in god or not. I guess I must have told David sometime, though I couldn\u2019t remember doing it, and I figured I better watch it from now on when I told him ANYTHING that I didn\u2019t want mom or dad to know about.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid\u201d, she said fiercely, \u201cThat\u2019s your brother\u2019s business. Not YOURS or MINE!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell you and dad believe in god, right?\u201d he asked her.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s MY business\u201d, she said, still kind of fiercely, \u201cAnd you\u2019ll have to ask your dad about his thoughts on the subject. But yes\u2026 I do. But I also think that organized religion is not a good thing, and is responsible for most of the wars and a lot of the other bad things that have happened in history. But please don\u2019t tell anyone I said that. As I said, that\u2019s MY business. I\u2019ll share my thoughts on that topic with others when it feels like the right time and place. Got it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGeez mom\u201d, David said, wrinkling his nose, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to get all mad about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not mad\u201d, mom said, making a big smile, \u201cI just feel very strongly about this and I\u2019m letting you know my feelings.\u201d She did one of her big smiles.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay okay\u201d, David said, shaking his head like he didn\u2019t want to talk about it anymore, \u201cIs there still ham and cheese?\u201d Both mom and I nodded. David opened the refrigerator.<\/p>\n
Mom looked at me and she made her eyes really big like she was saying, \u201cThat was a very interesting discussion\u201d. Mom liked interesting discussions, arguments, and even \u201cfights\u201d, as long as they were just talking ones and not hitting ones, but I didn\u2019t want to discuss, argue or fight about this god thing anymore.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo were the older kids at school playing soccer this morning?\u201d I asked him, as he got the ham and cheese out of the refrigerator. He nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYep\u201d, he said, \u201cThey\u2019ve played every morning. That really tall guy told me to tell you to get better because they need you back.\u201d I was glad to hear that at least one of my friends was thinking about me.<\/p>\n
Mom made a clicking sound with her mouth. \u201cWell that\u2019s thoughtful\u201d, she said, \u201cI\u2019m glad you two are making nice new friends. And David, you have your old friend Eddie just around the corner on Baldwin, Arnold next door, and what\u2019s his name, Al? In the next house.\u201d David nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the boy next door to him\u201d, mom said, \u201cSteinhauser\u2019s son.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGus\u201d, David said, but like he didn\u2019t want to talk about his friends with mom.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh\u201d, mom said, now looking at me again and wagging her finger in the air, \u201cSpeaking of kids on the street. I talked to your teacher yesterday afternoon on the phone about the work you missed this week. She said I could stop by the office today and pick up the assignments you missed in math and history, but she\u2019s not worried you\u2019ll have any problem getting caught up. And she said you\u2019re so far ahead in the \u2018reading program\u2019 that you can just pick up where you left off when you’re back.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe did say that there were a couple science experiments done in class last week that you missed that will be on the test on Monday. She said you should try to borrow and copy the notes from another student to get caught up, and thought Abby or Beth took good notes and we could ask one of them. Abby just lives across the street. Maybe you could walk over there after dinner and ask her?\u201d<\/p>\n
That got me worried again. I hadn\u2019t really talked to any of the girls after school or in the park where the other boys might see me and tease me about having a \u201cgirlfriend\u201d. So Abby might think it was weird for me to come to her house after being sick all week, when I\u2019d never really talked to her before. I looked at mom and I knew she could tell what I was thinking. She could always tell. I didn\u2019t like that she could.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019d rather\u201d, she said, \u201cI could call Abby\u2019s mom and see if you can borrow Abby\u2019s notes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded, but didn\u2019t want to say anything else about it. I didn\u2019t want to talk about girls with mom. I was afraid she would ask me something about if there was a girl that I liked or something. And if I didn\u2019t want to say then she\u2019d think I was still such a little kid because I didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
So I just said, \u201cThanks mom!\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
So being sick and staying home all week, I had spent a lot of time up in my bedroom. It didn\u2019t have a table yet, but mom said she and dad were looking for a used one. So I would set up one of my Avalon Hill wargames on the floor under my bed. Even when we got a table in our room, it was probably better to set one of those games up down there, because I usually wanted to set them up for a long time, maybe even a week or two. They took a long time to figure out the rules, and then to set up the units on the board at the beginning, specially the side that had to defend. I could look at one of the game board maps for an HOUR just figuring out where to put one unit. But that figuring out was fun, and I pretended I was a real general trying to decide on the best places to have my soldiers go in a real place with all its cities, rivers, mountains and forests.<\/p>\n
I now had five Avalon Hill games. That first D-Day game I had bought a year ago when we still lived at our old house. Then for my ninth birthday last year my friend James had gotten me the Bismarck game. Then over the summer I had made money mowing the lawn and babysitting David and bought the Stalingrad game. This fall I also used money I got to buy the Waterloo game, which was different than the others, because it wasn\u2019t a World War Two game but about Napoleon, which was like 250 years ago. And for Christmas mom and dad got me the Le Mans game, which wasn\u2019t a war game at all, but a car racing one.<\/p>\n
The Bismarck game was different than the other four because you really couldn\u2019t play it by yourself. The thing that made it fun was that your ships were hidden from the person playing the other team, and their ships were hidden from you. The person playing the British team had to search for the German ships by calling out an area on the map where the British had ships. If the German ships were in that area too, you\u2019d have to tell him and then you\u2019d fight a sea battle. If you played both sides by yourself, you knew where all the ships were, so all that wouldn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n
The Germans tried to sail the Bismarck through the Atlantic Ocean around England and Scotland and get to one of their \u201cfriendly\u201d ports in France without getting found and sunk. Even though the British ships weren\u2019t as good as the Bismarck, they had a lot of them, so they could divide them up to do a lot of searching. But if they divided them up too much, their ships that found the Bismarck might not be good enough to sink it, and it would sink some of theirs instead. I had played it with Paul last summer before we moved, and a couple times since when mom called his mom and had him come over to our new house.<\/p>\n
But the other games I could play by myself, and when I did, I would spend a lot of time just setting them up. I spent a long time trying to figure out the absolute perfect way for the Germans to defend France against the Allied invasion in D-Day. And then when I\u2019d finally figured that out, I\u2019d spend more hours trying to figure out the best area for the Allies to invade. For me, setting up a game was more fun sometimes than even playing it. It was the same kind of thing in Stalingrad or Waterloo. I could spend a WHOLE HOUR just trying to figure out the best place to put one unit. And after staring at the gameboard maps for hours and hours, I knew where all the cities, rivers and mountains were in France, Russia and Belgium.<\/p>\n
My racing game, Le Mans, was really easy to set up and play, because all the cars started in one place. I could actually play a whole race in a couple hours, where the other games could take days and days to play, and I might just get bored and not finish them at all, and instead, start thinking about setting up another one, because that was the best part.<\/p>\n
And while I played the games I would listen to our five big \u201calbum\u201d records, which were all by the Beatles. My old friend Gabe had gotten me the first one, \u201cMeet the Beatles\u201d, for my birthday last April. \u201cThe Beatles Second Album\u201d was the first record I bought with my own money at that Discount Records place where my new school friend Arthur\u2019s older brother worked. Then after dad took David and I to see the Beatles\u2019 movie, \u201cA Hard Day\u2019s Night\u201d, mom and dad got David that record because he liked it so much and he said he wanted records that were his own and not all mine. Then I got \u201cSomething New\u201d with my own money and mom and dad got us their newest album, \u201cBeatles 65\u201d for Christmas.<\/p>\n
I had heard all the songs on the Beatles records so many times that I didn\u2019t really need to listen to the words anymore but still heard them and knew them, even though some of those words didn\u2019t make sense. And when one song finished I knew what the next one was. I figured the Beatle guys weren\u2019t grownups but older kids like Margie or those college student guys, so I better listen to what they were saying, because they were part of my team instead of the grownup team. They seemed to mostly be singing about the same thing, \u201clove\u201d, and all the different problems an older boy could have with his girlfriend.<\/p>\n
Like he wasn\u2019t sure if she was really bad or good\u2026<\/p>\n
She’s got the devil in her heart
\nNo, she’s an angel sent to me<\/p><\/blockquote>\nYou had to give her stuff so she\u2019d like you\u2026<\/p>\n
That her baby buys her things, you know
\nHe buys her diamond rings, you know<\/p><\/blockquote>\nBut even if you did, it might not work and she might still not like you\u2026<\/p>\n
Well, I gave you everything I had
\nBut you left me sitting on my own
\nDid you have to treat me, oh, so bad?
\nAll I do is hang my head and moan
\nTell me why you cried
\nAnd why you lied to me?<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAnd he\u2019s so mad that he lost his girlfriend that now he\u2019s going to get revenge by being bad and \u201cbreaking the hearts\u201d of all the other girls\u2026<\/p>\n
I’ve got every reason on earth to be mad
\n‘Cause I just lost the only girl I had
\n\u2026
\nBut I’ll come back again someday
\nAnd when I do you’d better hide all the girls
\nI’m gonna break their hearts all round the world
\nYes, I’m gonna break them in two
\nAnd show you what your lovin’ man can do<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAnd girls would \u201cbreak his heart\u201d too\u2026<\/p>\n
You know, if you break my heart, I’ll go
\nBut I’ll be back again<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAnd your girlfriend could even lie about being in love with you\u2026<\/p>\n
Well, how can you say you will, when you won’t
\nYou tell me you do, baby, when you don’t?
\nLet me know, honey, how you feel
\nTell the truth now is love real
\nAh-hah, oh honey don’t<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAnd trying to have a girlfriend was like playing a game where either you won or she won\u2026<\/p>\n
Of all the love I have won, and have lost
\nThere is one love I should never have crossed
\nShe was a girl in a million my friend
\nI should have known she would win in the end<\/p><\/blockquote>\nYour girlfriend\u2019s parents lie to you but you still find out she is \u201ccheating\u201d on you with another guy\u2026<\/p>\n
I tried to telephone
\nThey said you were not home
\nThat’s a lie
\n‘Cause I know where you’ve been
\nAnd I saw you walk in your door
\nI nearly died, I nearly died
\n‘Cause you walked hand in hand
\nWith another man in my place<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThat whole \u201cgetting you\u201d thing again, like even if your girlfriend doesn\u2019t really want you, you still have to go out and \u201cget\u201d her, like capture her\u2026<\/p>\n
So I’m telling you, my friend
\nThat I’ll get you, I’ll get you in the end
\nYes, I will, I’ll get you in the end<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIt just all seemed so complicated and not nice or fun \u201cgetting\u201d and keeping a girlfriend, but older boys just had to do it anyway, or maybe they were just a sissy. But then there were a few songs with words I liked better, about being nice to your girlfriend and liking being \u201cin love\u201d with her\u2026<\/p>\n
A love like ours could never die
\nAs long as I have you near me
\nBright are the stars that shine
\nDark is the sky
\nI know this love of mine will never die<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOr like being good friends and helping each other\u2026<\/p>\n
If you need somebody to love, just look into my eyes
\nI’ll be there to make you feel right
\nIf you’re feeling sorry and sad, I’d really sympathize
\nDon’t you be sad, just call me tonight
\nAny time at all, all you gotta do is call, and I’ll be there<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOr like the way it used to be with Molly and me, we just knew what each other was thinking\u2026<\/p>\n
Someday, when we’re dreaming
\nDeep in love, not a lot to say
\nThen we will remember
\nThings we said today<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAnd then that one about how the moon helped you get a girlfriend, though it was kind of silly\u2026<\/p>\n
Mr. Moonlight
\nYou came to me one summer night
\nAnd from your beam, you made my dream
\nAnd from the whirl, you sent my girl
\nAnd from above, you sent us love
\nAnd now she is mine I think you’re fine
\n‘Cause we love you Mr. Moonlight<\/p><\/blockquote>\nBut there were at least a few of their songs that weren\u2019t about love at all, and those were my favorites\u2026<\/p>\n
That’s why I go for that rock and roll music
\nAny old way you choose it
\nIt’s got a backbeat, you can’t lose it
\nAny old time you use it
\nIt’s gotta be rock and roll music
\nIf you want to dance with me
\nIf you want to dance with me<\/p><\/blockquote>\n***<\/p>\n
The next morning was Friday and I was feeling a lot better. Mom had gone to the school office yesterday afternoon and gotten my \u201cassignments\u201d, and gone over to Abby\u2019s house and borrowed her science notes and talked to Abby\u2019s mom. Mom liked talking to all the moms and dads and other grownups on the street whenever she got the chance. She said most of the dads worked at \u201cthe University\u201d and she was working hard to get to know all of them plus their wives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are my kind of people\u201d, she said, \u201cEducated, progressive, political, and care about what\u2019s going on in the broader world. I\u2019m much happier here than when we lived on Prescott. And we have a living room with nice looking furniture now, so I feel more comfortable inviting people over or maybe even having a party!\u201d She opened her eyes wide and made a big smile.<\/p>\n
I was really glad she was happier, because I could still remember when she had that \u201cpanic attack\u201d last spring in our old house, when she said she couldn\u2019t breathe and I was the only one home and I thought she might die. That was REALLY BAD and I didn\u2019t want that to ever happen again. And dad seemed happy that mom was happy, and that he got to be a real \u201cprofessor\u201d now at that \u201cEastern\u201d place.<\/p>\n
Mom said I needed to hurry up and copy Abby\u2019s notes, so both Abby and I could use them to study for that science test on Monday. I wanted to too, because I always wanted to get really good grades on my tests so my teacher would keep thinking I was really smart. So I sat at dad\u2019s old desk, in his wood chair that spun around that mom had now painted green. I felt smart like dad when I sat at the desk, but I also liked looking out the window where I could see some of the park and my school.<\/p>\n
I had my science notebook and Abby\u2019s. Mine just had the word \u201cScience\u201d written on the cover in cursive. Hers said \u201cAbby\u2019s Notes\u201d on the cover, written in big regular letters, and then she\u2019d drawn neat little pictures around the words, of the Earth, a test tube, the head of a guy that looked like George Washington, a cannon, a ship, a triangle inside a circle inside a square, some kind of plant in a pot, a lightning bolt, and a cat. It looked pretty neat.<\/p>\n
Inside the cover she had written notes from all the science experiments plus notes about what our teacher had said about history and even math. She wrote in neat printed letters instead of cursive. Each new thing she took notes on started at the top of a new page, and it looked like she tried to get the whole thing on one page, though sometimes two if there was a lot of stuff to write down. At the top of each page was the name of the experiment or the thing the teacher was talking about, in bigger printed letters than the words on the rest of the page.<\/p>\n
I flipped through the pages and saw names of all our class experiments since the beginning of the year, like \u201cBoiling Water\u201d, \u201cBalloon Powered Car\u201d, \u201cMelting Ice\u201d, \u201cGrowing a Bean Plant\u201d, \u201cMagnets and Iron Filings\u201d, \u201cThe Angle of the Sun\u201d. But also math stuff like \u201cTypes of Triangles\u201d, \u201cMultiplying Decimals\u201d, \u201cConverting Fractions to Decimals\u201d and \u201cMeasuring Circles with Pi\u201d. And history stuff like \u201cParts of the New World\u201d, \u201cProblems with Britain\u201d, \u201cBattle of Saratoga\u201d, \u201cWestward Expansion\u201d and \u201cNative Americans\u201d. I remembered all those science experiments, and our teacher talking about those things about math and history, but I didn\u2019t remember all the things Abby had written down about each one.<\/p>\n
And instead of writing whole long sentences, with all the words and a period at the end, she just wrote down a few words, like \u201cWater boils at 212o Alcohol at 173o\u201c, “Green plants need soil, water and sun\u201d, with the word \u201cGreen\u201d underlined, I guess because other kinds of plants that weren\u2019t green didn\u2019t need all those things. In her history notes she kept things shorter by using just the \u201cinitials\u201d of people\u2019s names, like \u201cGW\u201d for George Washington and \u201cBF\u201d for Benjamin Franklin.<\/p>\n
The notes I had written in my notebook were longer and in cursive, so when I looked at them later it was hard to figure out what I was writing about. And I didn\u2019t have big words at the top of each page to tell you what the other notes below it were about. When you just looked at a page of notes it was harder to pick out the words written in cursive. The words written in print were much easier to see and find. And her pages of notes, all nicely printed and arranged on the page, were just more NICE and FUN to look at and read than mine. It was like she had fun making her notes, like she was making a picture with words that was nice to look at.<\/p>\n
So when I started copying her notes for the science experiments I\u2019d missed, I decided to copy them in printed words her way, and try to make my pages look nice too like hers. It took longer to print the letters instead of writing them in cursive, but since her way used less words, it wasn\u2019t so bad that it took longer. And it just felt good when you were done too. So I decided that when I went back to class, whenever I took notes I would try to do them her way instead of my old way.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
I worked for a long time, because the end of morning class bell rang at eleven thirty over at the school and I looked out the window and saw all the kids coming out of the doors. I could see Mike, because he was so tall, talking to two other kids who I figured were Andy and Arthur. It was interesting how the kids in my grade divided up into small groups that they were more friendly with than kids in the other groups, even making fun sometimes of the kids in the other groups. Not like they didn\u2019t like them, but that they were different and even silly sometimes, and didn\u2019t want to play with them as much.<\/p>\n
So Mike, Andy and Arthur were one group. They were all really smart and knew a lot about what was going on in the world. Mike was like a giant kid and really good at sports, like soccer and football. And in gym class he could run faster than anyone else, both the fifty yard dash and that really long six hundred yard one, and do the most pushups or situps. Andy was also good at sports, like I was, but he and I weren’t super good like Mike. Arthur didn\u2019t like sports at all, but he was also really smart and knew a lot too, especially about music, like all the music from England, like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and his favorite band, the Kinks, so I guess that\u2019s why he was part of their group. I guess they were the most like my old school friends at Bach – Gabe, Herbie, Jake and Amanda.<\/p>\n
Then there were Frankie and Stuart. They were like super \u201ccool\u201d. They weren\u2019t that good at school, not because they weren\u2019t smart, but they just didn\u2019t care about school. They were both \u201cinto music\u201d, that\u2019s what they said, and they said they both played guitar and had their own \u201cband\u201d, and were always singing parts of songs to each other. They both REALLY LIKED Motown music, and their favorite group was Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, who they said were better than the Supremes because they were \u201cway more hip\u201d. They also liked the \u201clocal bands\u201d, from Ann Arbor I guess, like the \u201cIguanas\u201d and the \u201cMC5\u201d.<\/p>\n
Then another group was Billy, Gil and Teddy. They all lived next to each other across the park on Granger, and I think they\u2019d known each other since they were little kids even before they went to regular school. Billy always seemed like he was in charge of that group, at least he liked to think he was. He talked like he knew everything about everything, but I don\u2019t think he knew much at all, and he wasn\u2019t really smart at school or very good at sports. He was a really bad goalie when we played soccer against the sixth-graders before school, but he thought he was good. Whenever he saw me he would say silly stuff like, \u201cHey Coop my man, how\u2019s it going?\u201d, like he wanted me to be part of their group.<\/p>\n
And Gil thought Billy was really neat, and was like his helper all the time. Mike said that Gil was Billy’s \u201csidekick\u201d. He wasn\u2019t very smart in school or good at sports either. Stuart said that Billy and Gil were \u201ctwerps\u201d, whatever that was.<\/p>\n
Teddy was more like a regular kid. He was taller, smarter, better at sports, and knew more about the world, but I guess he had always played with Billy and Gil so he still did, and they really wanted him in their group. Stuart didn\u2019t think Teddy was a \u201ctwerp\u201d.<\/p>\n
The girls I didn\u2019t know so much about, because girls and boys here at Burns Park didn\u2019t seem to play with each other at all. We didn\u2019t do recess anymore at school, where you could at least see what the girls were doing and maybe listen from far away to what they were saying. And our gym classes that we had instead of recess were just girls or just boys. There weren\u2019t any girls like back at Allmendinger or Bach School like Molly or Amanda or even Mary, who liked doing stuff with, or would at least sometimes talk to, boys.<\/p>\n
There were three girls I kind of knew about who were friends with each other. Beth and Abby who sat on either side of me at school and their other friend Myrna, who seemed like she was in charge of their group. All three of them were really smart and tried to do really good in school, kind of like Amanda and Mary did at Bach, but they weren\u2019t enemies like Amanda and Mary were. Beth was also super pretty, like Mary had been in my class at Bach, or at least all the boys thought so, though none of them would ever talk to her. I only talked to her sometimes at school because we sat next to each other and we both tried hard to be really good at the SRA reading program. Talking about school stuff with somebody, even if they WERE a girl, wasn\u2019t the same thing as talking to a girl about regular stuff.<\/p>\n
Abby lived across the street from me and had made all those really neat notes that I was copying. But even though she sat next to me in school on the other side from Beth, I hadn\u2019t talked to her very much. Because we lived across the street we would see each other sometimes going to school or coming home and she would always wave at me and I would usually wave back, at least a little bit, unless I was walking with other boys, because I didn\u2019t want them to think I was talking to her or she was like my girlfriend or something.<\/p>\n
Looking out the window, as all the kids walking home from school got farther away from the school and more spread out, I saw David walking with Al and Gus from our street, and his best friend Eddie. I decided I better go downstairs right now and make my sandwich for lunch, in case there was only one piece of ham left, since I was liking that now better than baloney, and I didn\u2019t want David to get the last piece.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
After dinner that night, David wanted to play our new hockey game. He really liked it, even though I was better at playing it than he was.<\/p>\n
\u201cSanta\u201d, who was really mom and dad, had gotten David and me a tabletop hockey game for Christmas and we played it a lot together. Since I was better at it than he was, I could usually win if I wanted to, but he was good enough that it was fun playing it with him and it didn\u2019t get boring. Since I had never been good at skating, I never played hockey for real on the big ice rink over in the park. But playing it on the tabletop game, David and I learned what the different positions were and kind of how you played the game by passing the puck up to your \u201cwings\u201d, or to your \u201ccenter\u201d, so they could get good shots on the other team\u2019s goal, while the other team\u2019s \u201cdefensemen\u201d tried to get the puck away and pass it up to THEIR wings and center.<\/p>\n
So when we found out that real hockey games were on TV every Saturday night on Channel 9, David and I started watching them, and I at least started to figure out how the real game was played. The show was called \u201cHockey Night in Canada\u201d and it was on just about every Saturday Night over the winter. Canada was a different country than America, but it didn\u2019t seem that different, because the Canada announcer guys on the show pretty much talked like we did. It wasn\u2019t like France or Germany, where they spoke different languages I couldn\u2019t understand, or even England, where they spoke the same language as us but it sounded really different, because they had one of those \u201caccents\u201d.<\/p>\n
Our little TV was now up in the office upstairs instead of the living room. Mom and dad had gotten furniture for that part of the living room and mom said having the TV there \u201cruined the aesthetic\u201d. She now called that part the \u201csitting room\u201d, I guess because there were now lots of places to sit down. She and dad had bought a used couch from some friends who were getting rid of their old couch because they got a new one. She said it was \u201ckind of an ugly duckling\u201d, but she bought some blankets with patterns on them to put on top of it so she thought it looked better. That part of the living room also had that wood \u201cdeacon\u2019s bench\u201d, so there were now a lot of places to sit. She was inviting her and dad\u2019s friends to come over now, like Eddie\u2019s mom and dad, and they would all sit in the sitting room and talk while Eddie played with David in the basement or outside.<\/p>\n
But wherever the TV was, it was hard watching hockey on our little black and white TV because there were so many guys skating around and they looked pretty small. It was really hard for David, because he was only six, and I remember when I was six trying to watch football games on our little TV, and even when dad tried to explain it to me, it didn\u2019t make much sense. There were just too many guys running around crashing into each other on the tiny screen. I\u2019d seen some of a football game on Molly\u2019s big color TV at her house across the street on Prescott before Molly\u2019s mom and dad got divorced, and it was MUCH easier to figure out what was going on.<\/p>\n
But even though the screen was small and the guys weren\u2019t in color, I was figuring it out, and I could tell for each team who the \u201ccenter\u201d, the \u201cwings\u201d, and the \u201cdefensemen\u201d were. But hockey wasn\u2019t like baseball or football. In those games everybody was always stopping, getting ready in their positions and then starting again. Hockey was more like basketball where you just kept going back and forth without stopping when a guy on the other team got the ball, or the puck in hockey. And I don\u2019t think hockey had timeouts like football or basketball, but they did have \u201cfaceoffs\u201d where things stopped, which were pretty neat.<\/p>\n
And the names of the positions in hockey were kind of like in basketball. Both had a \u201ccenter\u201d guy, who was usually super tall in basketball but just regular sized in hockey, and was usually close to the basket or goal whether his team was playing defense or offense. And the \u201cwings\u201d in hockey were like the \u201cforwards\u201d in basketball, usually on either side of the basket or goal. And the \u201cdefensemen\u201d in hockey were like the \u201cguards\u201d in basketball, they would usually bring the ball or puck from their side over to the other team\u2019s side and stay the farthest away from the basket or goal.<\/p>\n
So I was trying to explain all that to David as we watched hockey games on our little TV, but I could tell he had a hard time figuring it out. Our tabletop hockey game was a lot slower and made more sense, even though it was really different than real hockey. But it was still fun.<\/p>\n
Real hockey on TV was also different because of the \u201cpenalties\u201d. Football had penalties too, and basketball had \u201cfouls\u201d, but in hockey if a guy got a penalty, he\u2019d have to sit in the \u201cpenalty box\u201d and no other guy on his team could play instead of him. In the other sports you alway had the same number of guys playing, but in hockey, if a guy got a penalty, his team would have to play with one less player, or even TWO less players if a second guy on that team also got a penalty. When one team had more guys playing because of the other team\u2019s penalties that was called a \u201cpowerplay\u201d, which was a pretty neat name.<\/p>\n
Fights almost never happened in the other sports. But in hockey they happened all the time, and they\u2019d let players fight with each other, at least for a while, before the referee guys stopped them and gave them penalties. Though if two guys on one team both wanted to fight with one guy on the other team, that wasn\u2019t a \u201cfair fight\u201d, so THAT wasn\u2019t okay. Another guy from the team with only one guy fighting would grab that second guy and try to keep him from fighting the first guy, though sometimes those two second guys would start fighting each other. But I guess that was okay because one guy on one team fighting one guy on the other team was a \u201cfair fight\u201d.<\/p>\n
And the people on the TV watching the game for real seemed to really like it when guys got in fights, and would cheer the guy on their team fighting when he got a good punch on the guy from the other team. Dad said that that was why the referees would let the guys fight for a while, because the people watching liked it.<\/p>\n
That \u201cfair fight\u201d stuff between two men happened on other TV shows, specially the Western ones. If two guys had a real big argument with words and got really mad at each other, it was okay if they then had a fight with their fists as long as it was just those two guys fighting, which made it a \u201cfair fight\u201d. Once one guy hit the other guy really hard to make him fall down, then the fight would usually be over, though the guy that got knocked down and lost the fight might try to start a new fight with the other guy later. And in the Western shows, if one guy was a goodguy and the other was a badguy then they could have a fight with guns and that was a \u201cfair fight\u201d and okay too, even if one or both of the guys got shot or even killed!<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
It was Saturday morning and I was feeling much better. I was over in the park playing basketball with the \u201cBilly Boyds\u201d – Billy, Gil and Teddy. It was cold, and some kids and grownups were skating on the big ice rink. But there wasn\u2019t a lot of snow left, and the court was clear. It wasn\u2019t perfect weather for playing basketball, but we still played. Since they were showing basketball games on TV, pro and college, it felt like WE should be playing too, and pretending we were star players too, even though we weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Billy and Gil weren\u2019t very good at basketball, but Teddy and I were pretty good. But Billy made it fun because he was really into the pretending part that we were the \u201callstar\u201d pro players. Billy said that since Teddy was the tallest of the four of us he was the Center, Bill Russell. I was the next tallest so I was the Forward, Eljin Baylor. Billy and Gil were shorter so they were the Guards, Oscar Robertson and Jerry West.<\/p>\n
We were playing four other kids in the park who were younger than us, so maybe they thought we were better than we really were, so that made it more fun. While we played, Billy also pretended he was that announcer guy talking on the radio or TV telling you the \u201cplay by play\u201d, which made it even more fun.<\/p>\n
Billy had the ball and was dribbling down the court. \u201cRobertson brings the ball down the court\u201d, he said, \u201cThe Big O looks for an open man.\u201d Then he passed the ball to Gil and said really excited, \u201cHe finds West open on the right side.\u201d Gil took a shot and Billy said, even more excited, \u201cHe shoots!\u201d. But Gil wasn\u2019t a very good shooter, and as usual his shot didn\u2019t go in, and Billy said, \u201cOhhh\u2026 just off the rim\u201d.<\/p>\n
Teddy got the rebound and two of the kids on the other team crowded around him with their hands up in the air, while Billy said, \u201cRussell\u2019s got the rebound ladies and gentlemen.\u201d And when Teddy passed it out to me, since no one was guarding me, Billy said, \u201cRussell dishes it to Baylor open on the left side.\u201d I was able to dribble in and do a layup and Billy said, \u201cBaylor drives the basket for an easy score!\u201d<\/p>\n
It was fun for everybody playing, even the kids on the other team. They were younger so they expected us to be better and win, but Billy made it all more pretend real.<\/p>\n
I heard a bell ringing. It was the one mom rang when she wanted David and I to come home from the park, because it was time for dinner or we had to go somewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gotta go\u201d, I said to Billy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u201d, he said, \u201cIs that your mom or something?\u201d He said it in a way that didn\u2019t sound good if it was, so I didn\u2019t want to tell him that. So I made something up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to a restaurant for lunch\u201d, I said, \u201cAnd I don\u2019t want to get left behind and miss the good food.\u201d That sounded like a pretty good reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich restaurant?\u201d asked Gil. I figured I had to come up with a good answer. A place they might like too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Frontier Beef Buffet\u201d, I said, thinking that one sounded good, because everybody liked roast beef.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t that a place you go for dinner?\u201d Gil asked. He was right, it usually was. We heard the bell ring again. I thought about what to say next.<\/p>\n
Then Teddy said, \u201cHey Gil, that\u2019s really none of our business I think. That IS my family\u2019s favorite place and I think they do have those french dip sandwiches for lunch.\u201d Gil didn\u2019t say anything more like he didn\u2019t want to get in trouble with his friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah GIL\u201d, said Billy, teasing him.<\/p>\n
\u201cShut up, Billy\u201d, GIL said, looking worried and mad, \u201cI was JUST WONDERING!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, okay\u201d, said Billy, like he was in charge of figuring things out. He looked at the four younger kids we were playing against. \u201cHey, we can still beat you with just three of us!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He looked at me nodding and said, \u201cGo get yourself some lunch my good man\u201d, like he was in charge and had decided it was okay for me to go.<\/p>\n
Playing along with his whole thing I said, \u201cThanks! See you guys later\u201d, and ran towards my house.<\/p>\n
When I crossed the street by our front yard mom was standing on the porch with the bell. I looked toward the basketball court and I figured my friends couldn\u2019t see the porch with mom standing on it. Even though I\u2019d made up a good reason I still didn\u2019t want them to see it was my mom ringing it, like she was in charge of me.<\/p>\n
\u201cCooper\u201d, she said to me, she was holding Abby\u2019s notebook, \u201cWe really should be getting Abby\u2019s notes back to her sooner rather than later. When a person is really nice and lets you borrow something like notes that she needs too, you should honor that by not making her wonder and even worry about when she might get them back. Don\u2019t you think?\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded, but asked, \u201cCouldn\u2019t you just take them back?\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at me like she wasn\u2019t happy with that question. \u201cI COULD\u201d, she said, \u201cBut she did a big favor for you and I think you need to acknowledge that by personally telling her thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay\u201d, I said, sounding like she won and I lost, as usual.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know you\u2019re shy about talking to girls these days\u201d, she said, \u201cBut I think it\u2019s important.\u201d I couldn\u2019t believe she just said that.<\/p>\n
\u201cMOM\u201d, I said, before I could even think about what I wanted to say.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook\u201d, she said, \u201cYou can tell her that your mom made you do it!\u201d She laughed through her nose.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be even WORSE\u201d, I said. Mom shook her head and looked just a little mad.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, whatever\u201d, she said, \u201cI\u2019m giving you her notes and you decide what\u2019s best.\u201d She came down the steps from the porch and handed them to me. \u201cLet me know if you need my assistance any more at this point.\u201d I took the notes. It made me mad what she said, more so because she was right, AS ALWAYS, and always seemed to know things better than I did.<\/p>\n
So now I HAD to take these notes back to Abby at her house across the street RIGHT NOW, or mom would think I was a bad kid, which I really didn\u2019t want. Why couldn\u2019t she just stop trying to help me all the time!<\/p>\n
But I didn\u2019t want my friends to see me knocking on Abby\u2019s door or maybe even talking to her if she opened it. I looked out across the street into the park where they were still playing basketball with those four younger kids. They could still kind of see me if they looked. But when I walked a little bit down my street away from the park right across from Abby\u2019s front door, they couldn\u2019t see me anymore, so I figured it was safe.<\/p>\n
The only problem now, was if Abby talked to me and liked it, she might try to talk with me or say things to me when we were both walking home from school or playing in the park. Then my friends would see and tease me about her being my girlfriend. I actually LIKED talking to girls. They were interesting and sometimes had different ideas that weren\u2019t as stupid as some of the boys’ ideas. But I DIDN\u2019T LIKE talking to other boys ABOUT girls, because it was like girls still kind of had cooties, even though nobody used that word. Girls were like aliens from outer space that you had to keep your eye on but might be dangerous to talk to because they could change you somehow.<\/p>\n
So I walked across my street to Abby\u2019s front door, looking over towards the park to make sure my friends still couldn\u2019t see me. I rang her doorbell and felt kind of worried about what was going to happen while I waited for someone to open the door. Finally Abby\u2019s younger brother Steve opened the door and just looked at me.<\/p>\n
I heard the voice of a grownup woman who I figured must be Abby\u2019s mom. \u201cSweetie, who\u2019s at the door\u201d, she asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s David\u2019s brother\u201d, he said to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh\u2026 okay\u201d, she said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you invite him in. Where\u2019s your sister?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUpstairs with her friends\u201d, he said, \u201cI\u2019ll go tell her!\u201d Then he ran up the stairs.<\/p>\n
Their mom peeked her head out of the kitchen, and said, \u201cSteven! You don\u2019t have to bother your\u2026\u201d, but it was too late, he was already up the stairs.<\/p>\n
She looked at me, rolled her eyes and said, \u201cI assume you’re just returning Abby\u2019s notes.\u201d I nodded my head and she said, \u201cJust put them on the table there. I\u2019ll make sure she gets them. Are you feeling better? Your mom said you\u2019ve been out sick all week. I\u2019m really enjoying getting to know her.\u201d I nodded again. Every grownup I talked to that knew mom said stuff like that about her.<\/p>\n
Abby\u2019s brother came down the stairs with Abby right behind him and Beth and Myrna from our fifth grade class behind her. I wasn\u2019t sure what was going to happen now but I was a little worried. I hadn\u2019t really talked to girls since I came to Burns Park, not like I used to with Molly, Amanda, Marybeth and sometimes even Mary back at Bach and Allmendinger. I had barely ever talked to any of the three of them outside of class. In class I had just talked to Beth about how far we each were in that SRA reading program. She and I were at a higher level than anyone else in class.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour classmate Cooper was just bringing your notes back dear\u201d, her mom said, looking at me, \u201cSounds like they were a big help.\u201d I knew mom would ask me if I said thank you to Abby and get mad at me if I didn\u2019t. I didn\u2019t want to have to lie to her that I did, because she might talk to Abby\u2019s mom again and find out that I really didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks Abby\u201d, I said, looking at her, \u201cYour notes are really good and they helped me out a lot.\u201d Abby looked back at me from the stairs behind her brother and nodded her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
Myrna made that clicking noise with her mouth that some of the girls made when they didn\u2019t like or were surprised by something. \u201cYou gave him your NOTES?\u201d she asked, like she couldn\u2019t believe it, \u201cYou said you\u2019ve never even talked to him.\u201d Abby was still looking at me and suddenly looked scared and then embarrassed.<\/p>\n
I wanted to help her, so I said to Myrna, \u201cWell my mom talked to Abby\u2019s mom and asked to borrow her notes. So I just came over to bring them back and say thank you because they were really good.\u201d Abby looked less embarrassed after I said that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHmm\u201d, said Myrna.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyway\u201d, I said, \u201cI gotta go home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good to finally meet you Cooper\u201d, Abby\u2019s mom said. I nodded as I opened the front door, went outside, and closed it behind me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cAre you feeling better Coolie?\u201d mom asked as I sat at the kitchen table eating Campbell\u2019s chicken noodle soup out of a bowl. I nodded. I had opened the can and heated it up myself on the stove. \u201cOh good\u201d, she said as she turned back to a big metal tray full of little paper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[1777,13,1774,1773,1799,1800,1775],"class_list":["post-7808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","tag-1960s","tag-ann-arbor","tag-autobiography","tag-childhood","tag-free-range-kid","tag-growing-up","tag-memoir"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t