Childhood

I just got back from helping my friend Stan move out of his condo in central New York. It was a long drive up and an even longer drive back down. But the conversations were pretty fun and certainly dredged more than a few childhood memories. Since I'm in a state of semi-exhaustion, I'll boil my conclusive thoughts:

a.) I got in alot of fights when I was a kid, right through high school...more than I had realized previously.

b.) I was treated pretty cruelly at times by some of my schoolmates. Conversely, I was pretty cruel to alot of my schoolmates, too.

c.) Being a smaller guy and having a sharp tongue has a tendency of pissing off more than a few people, particularly some of the rougher kids. (And there were quite a few.) I once said to some tough-guy classmate that he "had a face that could stop a clock". He spent the rest of the semester trying to change his lunch period so he could catch me outside and beat the shit out of me. Fortunately he never did. (Fortunately for him.)

d.) I had a really fun time in high school; not so much junior high school.

e.) I'm glad I stayed away from the kids who's fathers were in the mob....and there were more than a few of 'em.

f.) I wish I could fight better. I was good at throwing haymakers using tried and true hockey techniques (grab shirt with left hand, wildly throw punches at head with right, try to pull opponent's shirt over his head using "lights out" manoeuvre). Fortunately, even in the fights I that I lost, no one actually ever hit me square in the face. (That didn't happen 'til after college in Manhattan...and a few times during that era.)

g.) Little League was great. Two of my best friends from home I met when we were eight or nine in Little League. I still talk to those friends. How great is that?