Growing up in the late 50′s-early 60′s, we play acted the games and read comic books, mostly war comics like Sgt Rock. I learned German from those comics- ACHTUNG! and iiiiieeeee! that being the sound all Germans made when they got shot or bayoneted!

Earlier in my life, I could be a cowboy or spaceman with a shoe box on my head! In my mind I WAS a cowboy! I SAW the Indians! After awhile I was on Mars, zapping the three headed monsters! All that with a shoe box!

Now, I’m not against modern video games-the graphics are fantastic- but It’s all right there on the screen. You never have to imagine what it looks like when the aliens get hit with your atom blaster! iiiiieeee!

Well, that wasn’t exactly what my dad said when he got home from work but, that’s the era I grew up in! My friends and I kid each other about being the last of the leave it to beaver generation- A wonderful time to be a kid! Endless  days of baseball, fort building, and bike riding!

We could stay out past dark and no one worried that we had been abducted or heisting a 7-11 at gun point

I don’t recall that we ever locked our doors and we NEVER had a gun in the house!

There were drawbacks though, My mom always bought my clothes as if I would wear them for 10 years! God, the jeans were made of fabric and concrete!  They were way too big in the waist with enough room for another kid and a half! And  the cuffs were rolled up -as was the style- but not up to the knee! These things took so long to break-in I was shaving by the time they finally got comfortable! Mom always got me “husky” jeans-  Christ, I was bean pole! Of course I had to wear a belt that made me look like a straw sticking out of a cinched potato sack! But, We ALL looked like that! We made fun of the kids who’s clothes fit- they were sissies and we would hurl dirt clods at them- Dirt clods! are there still dirt clods out there? Are kids still heaving them at one another? Nah, Dirt clods just can’t inflict enough damage!

In my neighborhood we were lucky to have large field behind our house, just about a city block square full of trees and small hills. I think we had a tree house in every tree built out of scrap wood and rusty nails,and once I stepped on one of those rusty nails and drove it right through my high top Converse allstars and into my foot- of course my pals were concerned that I would get “lock jaw” They told me to keep my mouth open just enough to get food in- and I did for a couple of hours- until I got home and I can still hear my mom asking me just what the hell was wrong with me! I tried to explain but it’s hard to make sense with your mouth open barely half an inch!

Well I guess I’ve gone on enough for now- as I said up front, this is all new to me! This is my first computer and It’s old! On top of that- I never took typing in school. Back then the guys who did were kinda…. well odd! I wouldn’t be doing this at if It weren’t for the urging of a very good friend of mine and it’s yet to be seen if we remain friends after I embarrass  myself to death with this! Hopefully more later