There was a kid who lived around the corner named Stevie Martin. (No relation to THE Steve Martin. He lived in the next town over.) I called him "Mean Stevie Martin" and he was a twisted kid. I'm pretty sure he's probably in prison right now. He used to scare the junk out of me on a regular basis. I lived in perpetual fear of him turning the corner and heading down the street and kept an eye peeled for him at all times. I'm not too sure what he would have done to me if he'd caught me, but one time after chasing me home, Ming met him on the front walk and chased him back around the corner. "Something" took place at the end of that run and Stevie never bothered me again. Ming didn't often play the knight in shining armor, but he filled the role nicely that day. I thanked him for it when I was about 40, and he didn't even remember the incident, but I'm pretty sure he saved my life.
Melvin lived a couple of doors down from us and he was kinda different too. He didn't come out much, so none of the neighborhood kids knew him very well. Darren lived across the street and he was really high strung. What I remember the most about him was that the cords in his neck were always standing out. He didn't talk, he TALKED, you know? The Kingsbury's lived a couple of doors down from Darren, and they had pomegranate and olive trees in their back yard. So Brian provided all the fuel we needed for good seed spitting contests, and we'd end the day completely stained by the pomegranates. The olives weren't good for eating right off the tree, so we just made a mess with those.
Mark lived down the street and he was a day younger than me. I took great pride in reminding him of that. Probably because that was the only thing I "had" on him. He lived in a really nice house and spoke French. Sheesh!! He was often a part of the pick up baseball games in the street in front of our house, and one day, hit a line drive right through our front window. His dad and my dad were friends and they worked together to replace the glass. When we were in junior high, I missed several weeks of school because of mononucleosis. I was looking out that window one day when Mark passed by and asked where I'd been. I told him I had the clap, and had to stay home. Honestly, I didn't even know what "the clap" was at the time, but it sounded cool. Yeah. My mom's reaction told me different.
The Enrights, who had 3 daughters, lived down toward Mark's house. Nancy was BEAUTIFUL, Kathy was Ming's age, and Colleen, who was a year older than me. They moved away when we were still pretty dweeby looking, but I'm sure Colleen turned out beautiful just like her sisters. Ming lied about his age and went on American Bandstand with Kathy. He also carved her name in his headboard.When they were on ABS, Dick Clark actually asked my brother what he thought of The Beatles. In his infinite 14 year old wisdom, he made some statement like "they won't last". I'm not sure how Dick Clark kept from bursting out laughing.
When we were growing up, my dad worked for an orthodontist named Dr. English who had lots of cool toys. He owned a condo in Mammoth that we used every summer when we were kids for vacation. He had a Jaguar XKE and dad drove it fairly often because Dr. E would sometimes imbibe a bit too much. On those nights, he'd call dad to pick it up for him. One time I remember dad going for a drive with Dr. E, and he didn't get home for hours. He might have been "dad" but there was still a little boy inside, and when given the opportunity to drive a really cool car, he drove it until it was nearly out of gas!
Sometimes Dr. English would pass his toys along when he no longer had any use for them. And as a result of his generosity, our family became the proud owners of a reel to reel tape recorder. Remember the one that the secret service used to record the infamous Watergate tapes by Richard Nixon? Yeah. It was exactly like that! It was cutting edge, and we thought we were so cool. It became our favorite toy.
Ming broke in the reel to reel with his friends, Steve and Frank from down the street, by making a specialized tape of assorted belches. They managed to turn out some impressive works of art! They actually let me remain in the room when they did it, and I laughed as hard as they did when they continued to play it back. They were adolescent boys, so, of COURSE it didn't stop with assorted belches. They eventually turned the mike to the "other end" for an assortment of a different kind, but since they didn't have nearly the amount of "breath control" there, it was a much shorter tape!
Little brother, Bunns, also enjoyed some play time making a sound effects tape with his friend Kerry on the reel to reel. By the time he got to it, it was fairly well used, but still working quite well. After Ming finished with the mike though, I don't think I would have wanted to get my face too close to it!
For the sake of my brothers and my friends,
I will now say,
"May peace be with you."
For the sake of the house
of the Lord our God,
I will seek your good.
Ps. 122:8-9
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