Growing up, I actually had two neighborhood's that I can remember. The first was in Temple Terrace, Florida, a suburb of Tampa Florida. I was 8-11 years old when we lived in Tampa. My parents hated living there and we were very poor. I always thought we had a pretty big house back then, but my parents have corrected my on that --> we had 5 kids in a 2 bedroom house. Although times were tough for my family and we were poor, I loved our little neighborhood, which was right off the Hilsborough River. I biked to school, I had a million little friends, we got our first dog (Katie), I learned to mow the yard and do chores to earn toys and other things. There are a couple of very memorable stories about this neighborhood. But, before sharing them, I should share a little about the neighborhood.
There were definitely different social classes in our neighborhood, although I don't remember being concerned about it as a kid. There was part of the neighborhood that was very well off, with very large homes and lots. There was another part that featured more modest homes, but they were all adjacent to a golf course. These were the areas that I would target when selling tickets to the Boy Scout Air Show as a fundraiser. I would also sell many other things, like Wrapping Paper and Snail Shells, to earn prizes. I was motivated by simple things back then, but I enjoyed knocking on doors and talking to people. Kind of odd for such a young boy, now that I think about it! Then, there was the "middle-class" homes that were more modest, but still pretty nice homes. Finally, you got to my part of the neighborhood --> the poor section. We may have been poor, but my friends and I knew no boundaries and we had a great time.
Memory #1 --> the bike track. Back in the marshes near the river on the outskirts of the neighborhood, someone had built a BMX bike track. We found it on accident when exploring the neighborhood. It was a blast! You had to carry your bike to get there, but once you were there, you could do tricks, hit jumps and get hurt! It was really fun! Bikes were a major part of growing up in this neighborhood. I rode my bike everywhere and once, my bike was even stolen! I also got a cool "Nash" skateboard in this neighborhood and we loved riding them on the newly paved roads in the neighborhood. We never really did tricks on our skateboards. We just like to ride them. I remember playing "Robo-Tech" on our bikes as well. We would jump off the bikes and run behind them, with the front wheels off the ground. We would pretend that they were large robots and we were the humans controlling them. I can remember that up to 10 of us would be riding bikes together down the streets of our neighborhood. I think I may have been the "gang-leader" at the time! Good times!
Memory #2 --> National Guard Event. Each summer, there was always some sort of fair or something in the neighborhood. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but there was always several booths full of National Guard stuff. This was my favorite part of the year. I would go to the event and just dream of being an "Army Guy" as I looked at the tanks, the helicopters, and the bazooka's. I always enjoyed playing "war" with my friends and pretending to be in the army. Who knows, if it wasn't for my asthma and allergies, I may have gone into the Army. A prominent feature of these events was also the Gazebo in the park. We used to play around that all the time. I remember killing copper-head snakes and water moccasins (yep, they are poisonous) for sport right by that Gazebo. We also used to pull off the tails of all of the lizards around our home! Crazy! Fishing was also one of my favorite activities, with the River nearby. I remember cleaning the kitchen every day for a week so that I could earn a new fishing pole!
Memory #3 --> Being a "PE" helper at school. I loved this job! I rode my bike early to school each day and set up the grounds for PE. Because I was a helper, I got to get a free milk and peanut-butter brownie before school. What a privilege! One morning, I remember setting up the field for some games and I looked across the river and saw a huge alligator sun-bathing, waiting for some unassuming bird to get too close. Very cool!
Memory #4 --> My first run-in with the law! My friend and I used to love to "dumpster-dive" at the park and collect glass bottles. I'm not sure why we did this, but maybe we thought we could make some money by selling the bottles. (I used to think I could sell anything back then!) We stored our collection in paper grocery bags underneath the kindergarten mobile extensions, which were right by the play ground and basketball goals. One summer day, we were bored and we decided to set the bottles up on the playground and break them with rocks (real smart!) We were having a great time until we noticed a car driving through the field towards us. I shouted, "Police", and my friend started to run! I yelled, "No, we must face the consequences!" I'm still not sure why I was so willing to stick around. The police asked for our addresses and told us to start picking up the mess. They said they would be back in an hour and if it wasn't cleaned up, they would tell our parents. So, we started cleaning up really fast. 20 minutes later, my parents showed up with shovels, rakes and garbage bags. I remember being so MAD that they police lied to us! But, we never would have been able to clean it all up with just our bare hands!
Right before I started the 5th grade, we moved the Hendersonville, NC, where I spent all of my adolescent years. This is my second neighborhood growing up and it wasn't really a neighborhood. Our neighbors to the east was "Shaw's Creek Baptist Church", to the west was "The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-Day Saints" (my church), to the south, Highway 64 and to the north, an old German lady and a hermit man (they lived in two different houses and were really our only neighbors). Here's a couple of memories of this neighborhood:
Memory #1 --> Building model airplanes. I used to love building model airplanes. It was so much fun! When we first moved there, I was building a model and I ran out of airplane glue. In our old neighborhood in Florida, I used to walk to the local department store to buy my models and glue and I decided that I should be able to do the same thing in the new neighborhood. So, I grabbed my little brother, who was 6 or 7 at the time, and we started walking. It turns out that we walked about 5 miles before we made it to the mall to get the glue. When we got their, we borrowed their phone and called home to get a ride home. I'm still amazed that I walked so far for some glue!
Memory #2 --> The dirt road to Ingles. We lived on Pisgah Drive, which was a dirt road for about a mile. We lived on one end and the local grocery store, Ingles, was on the other end. I walked that road countless times to buy stuff at Ingles or the drug store, Eckerd's. I have some very fond memories of that walk and I used to love to take the dog with me. Eventually, they built some retirement homes along the road and part of the road was paved. It was fun to ride bikes and explore along this road. There was also a creek that ran along side the road. I used to play army and belly-crawl through the river with fake machine guns. Army was one of my favorite games growing up.
Okay, enough about neigborhoods. I have tons of memories from North Carolina that I will need to write down at a later time!
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