The Long Road Home

I have an old friend of mine who says he remembers being born. He describes it as a warm wonderful place, then squeezed through a small hole and slapped on his ass. Which if you think about it, is really hard to argue with. I just wonder if that's a memory or something he's in love with.

Many of my early memories involve me getting in trouble.

I remember:

1. Leaving my tricycle out and being scared to bring it because of the huge storm clouds coming
2. Creating my first game by drawing a bunch of circles and scares on a piece of wood, which I had been told not to draw on, and the neighbor kid winning on the first shot.
3. Hitting my head with a shovel while shoveling snow.
4. Crying because my sister got a bigger present than I did... still don't know WHY we got presents
5. Sleeping in a hole I do in the sandbox... and my father spraying me with water trying to make it seem like rain.
6. Wrapping the cone shaped jungle gym in sheets, my sisters idea, and turning that into a fort.
7. Moving into the house of Sherborn and tripping on the basement stars and rolling down 3 or 4 steps.
8. Told my first joke... age 4. When my sisters hamster died: "Why not give it to the cat, he's always been wantin it".
9. My father eating the Corn Flakes, even after he poured orange juice on it instead of milk... still makes me grossed out,
10. Eating a lot of peas because my father had dished them out
11. Jumping over the bushes near the front door. I still can't figure out what was wrong with that.

I remember a lot of different events from age four to six. At age six my parents divorced and all of the memories changed.  They changed from life lessons, to the kind of stories that make my friends say: "Really?, how strange".

1. I was the only white kid in my class when we changed schools.  THey were a year behind my last school and I was bored.
2. I was chased home from school most days.  One kid beating me up with my grandmother 0 feet away.  She told us me to stop screaming and play "more quietly".
3. My big toe on my left foot was smashed, lots of blood and it's not the same size as the other one.
4. The neighbor boy next door who had never roasted marshmallows.
5. Moving

I actually think that moving so much has really helped me place these memories.  I know exactly which house I was in when all of the above happened. Which, given the number of moves, helps me pinpoint exactly WHEN they happened.

Mac