Stuff I Miss From My Childhood...

I was thinking about my generally happy childhood today, and here's some thoughts that came to mind:

Playing H-O-R-S-E in my driveway against my dad when he got home from work before he went inside to kiss my mom. His "handicap" was a beer in his right hand. I don't remember ever winning.

Going to Birmingham Bulls hockey games with Hal, Calma, Bishop, Broglio & Baker. I had an authentic jersey that I wish I still had.

Going down to the drug store that was a short bike ride away and buying 10 packs of baseball cards for $1.00. We "dodged" tax by purchasing them one pack at a time, going in and out of the store 9 extra times so we could get one extra pack out of the deal. If we were really loaded with cash, we'd pick up MAD magazine.

Playing street hockey and wiffle ball for hours...which, oddly enough, carried well into our high school years. Calma's house was generally the best for playing hockey even though I had to ride my 10-speed up Savoy Street to get there. My backyard was best for wiffle ball, despite the odd foul lines. Baker's was best for an odd game involving a taped up plastic golf ball and an aluminum bat we called McBride ball which featured a grand-slam home-run if you could hit it in the landscaped island even if you didn't have any ghost men on base.

Snow days in Birmingham were the best. We had great hills--Savoy Street, Bluff Road, and Shenandoah--for sledding...and we even had a sled.

Listening to Kiss albums in my room at full-volume.

Playing "war" in our neighborhood while so many foundations were under construction. It was cool because the design of the homes in that part of the country have basements and such and when they dug the foundation it was loaded with the equivalent of foxholes before they poured concrete.

Jumping trash cans on our bicycles because we'd seen Fonzie jump them on Happy Days. We found some plywood and made the ramp over the picnic table we moved to the front yard and we rounded up the metal trash cans from our neighborhood. Kevin Woods was great at it. Ricky Sanders was the only guy that really wrecked hardcore.

Skateboarding...before helmets and pads. Bactine was a big player.

Back when G.I. Joe had "real" hair, Mike Hines and I got in big trouble one day for setting their hair on fire and hurtling them off our roof. When the plastic parachute opened and the black smoke came off their heads it looked like they'd really bailed out of a plane.

Dinner with my whole family pretty much every night around the table, and trying to hurry up and eat fast so we could go back outside to play Kick the Can or Hide and Seek. We had a good neighborhood for both.

Trying to act like we weren't sneaking peeks at Pam Stokes, the local high school cheerleader who lived two doors down...especially when she had friends over. Later on she became a cheerleader for the Birmimgham Americans, a pro team in a league that tried to compete with the NFL. In retrospect, I don't remember if she was pretty or not, but at that time she was the most gorgeous girl we'd ever seen. So were her friends.

Playing a game called "throw behind." It was basically "Kill The Man" with the ball but you could score touchdowns. When you got tackled--it was every one against everyone--you turned your back to the assembled group of guys and threw it behind you. Whoever caught it tried to escape the other guys and break free to the end zone. We'd play until somebody got to 5 touchdowns. It got dark before we finished most games.

Shooting tin cans off the back fence with a pellet gun. No one lived behind us.

Home run derby with aluminum bats and tennis balls.

And then we turned 13 and it all seemed to change. But I still remember some of that stuff like it was yesterday...

...and I kind of miss Bluff Park.