Been up for a few hours. Can’t say eight hours are for me. Don’t think it ever was. Always been familiar waking up at three. Remember waking up in the middle of the night. Going outside and watering the front yard. Watching some late night TV. This was when there was black and white re-runs on Chanel 5. Would wait for TV stations to sign out, playing the Star Spangled Banner before gong dark. There was the three stooges. There was little rascals. Think there was some Gene Autry, too. After some boob tube, it was time to get to school.
Before heading out the door, I would get a running start. Ice would be formed on the lawn and on the driveway. Got a good head of steam and I just flew. Never really
skated before. Living in Southern California, I never was exposed to skating
rinks. Guess, life has a way of getting
what we need. Tried rollerskating before. It was nice, just didn't take. On the ice it made me feel like flying.
There is a certain freedom in flying. It’s a bit scary.
Having no control. Letting momentum take you. One slip you are on your
ass. A sudden jerky move, flop. Going too
fast and you take a header when your
bootleg skating rink runs out of ice. Concrete face plant, not a pleasant
thing. I know. Too slow and all goes for naught. It’s strange I did
this. It was fun. I will live with the stigma.
Built forts in the desert using leftover supplies from
construction areas. Walked around the
desert getting familiar with what was around my home. Coming from LA it was
different. Not a lot of cars. Not a lot of stores and restaurants. Not a lot of
anything, but dirt and tumbleweed.
Played Ninja at home. Making throwing stars from roof tile.
Made tonfas from PVC pipes. Played hide and go seek with the neighbor kids
using these makeshift weapons to throw at each other. Over the top Kung Fu
movies were the rage of the day.
After a time, these games of Kung Fu turned to Atari and Coleco. Played
intellivision. Video games left less bruises. The I met the neighbor and his dog Edak. Winfield was a discovery in my formative years. He lived live up the hill. He was a Geek guy before there was
Geeks. He collected Easy Riders and had the internet during the embryonic
stage. He had posters of Centipede, Asteroids, and Pong. He had the first
video game in his home. It was huge and reminded me of plexiglas jungle gym at McDonalds. Plus, he must have had five or six pinball games in his
front room. He showed me how to wax the pinball machines. Opened up the machine, replaced the bumpers, and taught me how to get extra games without paying.
Bought my first arcade game from him. Super Breakout. That
was something. Always wanted Pac Man. Not sure what happened.
Lost touch. Played sports. Girls came front and center.
I wondered about him. Even asked my best friend of the time
what happened. Maybe he still lives there. I don’t know. I remember a story he told. He was gone for a couple weeks. My friends and I were worried. He said he had to help his
friend and her child get away from some bad people. Don’t know why that comes
to mind. It is just he was not the most intimidating person. Remember he was a
bit geeky. A Jack Daniels drinking, card playing, internet geek guy that liked heavy metal. He was my first Hesher friend. It was strange to me because one would never mistake him for a Navy Seal time. Wispy hair with no muscle tone. He reminded me of a Mary Jane toting Vietnam Vet that needed to find peace.
Anyways, life was
simpler than. Making ice skating rinks in the front yard and driveways. Playing
Ninja and building forts. Growing up with video games and arcade games was
something. The time seemed bigger than. It was time when it was okay to play outside and to know your neighbors.
Thinking about the little Sunday terror I wrote in my last post. His football
tantrum just made feel a little sad for him and the kids of his age. Cartoons
and TV on demand. Ipads and Iphones are the surrogate playmates. Information
about everything at your fingertips. It makes me a bit sad that some kids don’t
go exploring on their own. It's a different time now.
I am sure there was not so nice things growing up. Just
fortunate that I don’t remember being exposed to certain ugliness that people
face today. Maybe it was always there. Just the information is more accessible
today. Maybe it has recently surfaced as people try to isolate and cocoon themselves.
Maybe it is Samsara and life is coming full circle.
We are vessels. We filter all the stuff life has to offer.
We take the good and bad. We sift and sort all the experiences. Keeping good memories here and there. Imparting a lesson of the past for future generations.
We keep hold of those we loved. . .and times, those we hated. Paying for some
Karmic debt from a previous life. Building on acts of kindness for tomorrow. We move. If lucky, we make our own makeshift
ice skating ring on our front yard and we just Flow.
