The excision of training wheels to deadly dunking tanks and losing Sandy...
As promised...here is a continuation of my life. However, last night I had realized that I had merged in some previously entered posts from LiveJournal so there is much more of my history contained within my little piece of the blog world than I thought. Blah, blah, blah....as though any of you care...lol
Well when I last left you in such great suspense I was rambling on about scuffed knees, impatient drivers, and dead-end street...exciting I know! LOL
Soon afterward I was allowed to ride to school which was a very "cool" thing to do. It was the most expeditious way to get to school with exception of my parents taking me. I lived too close (just inside the five mile radius) to have a bus stop near my house. Whereas I truly enjoyed this new found independence it came at a price. It did not take long before some high school kids realized that I would be riding along one of the major streets everyday around the same time. They found it amusing to harass me by speeding by as close to the sidewalk as possible, shout obscenities, and throw things at me. I am now looking back and just take it that they were trying to inculcate me of the existence of bullies...LOL. It was from these hoodlums that I first learned of the common gesture commonly know as "the bird". Unbeknownst to me I decided to salute my mother with this newly found gesture which quickly led to a good ol' Texas woopin'! Needless to say it scared me to death (both the woopin' and the actions of these "bullies"). Soon afterward I found an alternative route home from school; due to my lack of temerity. It was probably less safe being that I traveled a good distance down alleyways rather than a high traveled street. But I got to travel along the BIG drainage ditch was the big "river" to me and friends. Ahhh the memories...we had good times down in there...sound boring? Well then you should try growing up in west Texas! HA!
Other favorite areas of play for me and the other members of our newly founded bicycle gang was the local college campus and of course the more simple one of my cul-de-sac. My best friend at the time was James Reginald Franklin, his father was the basketball coach at the college and was previously a member of the great team we know as the Harlem Globetrotters. Pretty cool huh? I used to always ask him which Globetrotter he was in the Scooby Doo episode...lol. Moving on...
Somewhere around here my parents felt that their little Christian boy was being influenced in a negative way. (Maybe the finger thing? Or using the f-word?). I do not know but this quickly led them to enroll me in a private Christian School. Boy was that a mistake. Rather than the children there being enrolled for the reason I was; I believe they were actual trouble makers being sent there for reform. Needless to say that I learned more bad things from my new dissolute friends in my first year; than I had in all the years leading up to that point. But I also joined the soccer team, football team, and track team. Good times! I was always the fastest kid around (if you do not count that speedy, agile James Franklin...lol). I also joined the band...yes I was band nerd. I played Cornet (VERY similar to a trumpet for those that do not know) and have to say I was as talented musically as I was athletically...good genes I suppose. Oh! Before that my parents had me playing piano which I also excelled at rapidly.
OK a bit more about my family...I was raised Methodist which is only a step or two below Catholicism. Very structured, always on schedule, and disciplined. I enjoyed church growing up...so much that I once was on the television show the Bible Bowl and won! I also played Jesus in the Easter production. That was fun too. I got to where a robe and sandals and carry around a huge cross! And it was a BIG cross...good thing I spent every summer at my grandparents house working the farm to make me strong enough to do so. In fact that was probably the only reason I got the leading role because I was the only one that could drag the cross the entire distance necessary for the play! LOL I also remember one of my favorite nights out with the family was when we would take a road trip to Odessa to eat at Rosa's Cafe & Tortilla Factory! (Again you try growing up in west Texas! LOL) It was a fun little family drive, excellent food, and I gfot to watch them make tortillas through the plexiglass wall! The best part is that now they have grown and the have a Rosa's cafe just miles from where I am currently residing YAY! Evidentially, they even have one Temecula, CA...sure wish I would have know that a couple of years ago.
Another event that can not be left out is my near death experience. Whereas I was an above average athlete and musician I was severely lacking in one activity. The art of swimming. One day while at my friend Craig's house I almost drowned. It was truly a miracle that we both survived this day! I was easily twice the size of Craig (in height and weight)...I am getting ahead of myself. We were out back in the pool playing as children do. I always stayed in the shallow end or near the wall clinging on for dear life...lol. He decided he wanted to race me from one end of the pool to the other and back again. You ask, "How would that be possible Jeremy?" Well, I would be on a pool float. To make it more fair he had to swim under water and could only come up for breath at the halfway point when he touched the wall. Skipping ahead...we were off! He goes under I begin flailing my arms as paddles to attempt to beat him. It was tight race as I approached the other side I began to turn "my little raft" while allowing the momentum I had produced to carry me to the wall before I would begin paddling for the finish line. As Craig came up to get much needed oxygen he clipped the side of the air mattress! Off I went right into the deep end. I was instantly filled with panic! I was exerting every ounce of energy in me yet continuing to sink. I could hear the muffled sound of Craig screaming for help...he then instinctively (BAD IDEA) to try to pull me out. Just as they say I began to selfishly try to use him as a ladder...my size/weight overpowered poor little Craig and I began to take us both to our eternal resting place. I am not sure how long this went on but it seemed to be eternity! Somehow he would manage to get me near the surface and were both screaming in fear. Eventually he got me to the wall where i was able to grab a hold and we were safe and alive! We both had swallowed plenty of water and were exhausted from the battle. Lying there speechless (on the baking hot concrete) we both spat out water and attempted to regain a regular breathing pattern, heart rate, and oxygen level. It was at this time that his drunken parent (I can not remember if it was his mother or father) stumbled out yelling at us that we should keep it down. I wish I knew where Craig was today...I think I owe him a beer or something...lol. Well that is it...my first near death experience. at a later time I can tie in my poor swimming skills to my most embarrassing moment. (You like how I attempt to create suspense to keep you coming back? LMAO)
Well, I have been rambling on so it is time to wrap this post up...
You may be asking (but probably not...lol) what do you mean by "losing Holly". Well, my very first pet (that I could honestly call my own and not the family pet) was a Cocker Spaniel that I names 'Sandy'! I think because of the sandy color of her coat. Although I am fast forwarding a lot here I find it necessary or I would be rambling on for hours about nothing special. When I was twelve years old we were up and moving to Broken Arrow, OK. My father had found a new job there and moved a few months ahead of us. This would account for the first time I truly became very angry with my parents. What kid wants to leave all that they have known their whole life? Leave all their friends? I know I sure didn't. There was also the fact that I was experiencing xenophobia. In fact it lead to severe issues that I carried with me throughout my life up until just a few years ago when I finally began to mature; and address those issues...lol. Well, with all that in mind I was also asked to leave Sandy :0( To this day I do not know why it would have been so difficult to leave her. Now do not think we just drove away looking the rear view mirror as she she became a stray dog in the middle of the street...no no. My other found a family so she went to a good home. Being that my father was already up in OK my mother and I (my sister got to stay she was older and had a job) drove up in the Ryder truck. Her rationalization of it was that we could not bring Sandy in the cab of the truck for such a long haul. It would have "not been fair" to the dog. I still disagree but what say did I have? Obviously none!
OK OK I am done for now. I hope you were buckled in because I know the horrific G-force of this crazy life had to jolt you to the point of a concussion if you were not...LMAO
I know this is probably not an easy read. I have never really attempted writing before I created this blog. I am sure that five years from now I will have honed my writing skills and look back at this amateur work and literally LMAO. But if anything it has allowed anyone that reads it to know a little more about me!
Until next time...
Well when I last left you in such great suspense I was rambling on about scuffed knees, impatient drivers, and dead-end street...exciting I know! LOL
Soon afterward I was allowed to ride to school which was a very "cool" thing to do. It was the most expeditious way to get to school with exception of my parents taking me. I lived too close (just inside the five mile radius) to have a bus stop near my house. Whereas I truly enjoyed this new found independence it came at a price. It did not take long before some high school kids realized that I would be riding along one of the major streets everyday around the same time. They found it amusing to harass me by speeding by as close to the sidewalk as possible, shout obscenities, and throw things at me. I am now looking back and just take it that they were trying to inculcate me of the existence of bullies...LOL. It was from these hoodlums that I first learned of the common gesture commonly know as "the bird". Unbeknownst to me I decided to salute my mother with this newly found gesture which quickly led to a good ol' Texas woopin'! Needless to say it scared me to death (both the woopin' and the actions of these "bullies"). Soon afterward I found an alternative route home from school; due to my lack of temerity. It was probably less safe being that I traveled a good distance down alleyways rather than a high traveled street. But I got to travel along the BIG drainage ditch was the big "river" to me and friends. Ahhh the memories...we had good times down in there...sound boring? Well then you should try growing up in west Texas! HA!
Other favorite areas of play for me and the other members of our newly founded bicycle gang was the local college campus and of course the more simple one of my cul-de-sac. My best friend at the time was James Reginald Franklin, his father was the basketball coach at the college and was previously a member of the great team we know as the Harlem Globetrotters. Pretty cool huh? I used to always ask him which Globetrotter he was in the Scooby Doo episode...lol. Moving on...
Somewhere around here my parents felt that their little Christian boy was being influenced in a negative way. (Maybe the finger thing? Or using the f-word?). I do not know but this quickly led them to enroll me in a private Christian School. Boy was that a mistake. Rather than the children there being enrolled for the reason I was; I believe they were actual trouble makers being sent there for reform. Needless to say that I learned more bad things from my new dissolute friends in my first year; than I had in all the years leading up to that point. But I also joined the soccer team, football team, and track team. Good times! I was always the fastest kid around (if you do not count that speedy, agile James Franklin...lol). I also joined the band...yes I was band nerd. I played Cornet (VERY similar to a trumpet for those that do not know) and have to say I was as talented musically as I was athletically...good genes I suppose. Oh! Before that my parents had me playing piano which I also excelled at rapidly.
OK a bit more about my family...I was raised Methodist which is only a step or two below Catholicism. Very structured, always on schedule, and disciplined. I enjoyed church growing up...so much that I once was on the television show the Bible Bowl and won! I also played Jesus in the Easter production. That was fun too. I got to where a robe and sandals and carry around a huge cross! And it was a BIG cross...good thing I spent every summer at my grandparents house working the farm to make me strong enough to do so. In fact that was probably the only reason I got the leading role because I was the only one that could drag the cross the entire distance necessary for the play! LOL I also remember one of my favorite nights out with the family was when we would take a road trip to Odessa to eat at Rosa's Cafe & Tortilla Factory! (Again you try growing up in west Texas! LOL) It was a fun little family drive, excellent food, and I gfot to watch them make tortillas through the plexiglass wall! The best part is that now they have grown and the have a Rosa's cafe just miles from where I am currently residing YAY! Evidentially, they even have one Temecula, CA...sure wish I would have know that a couple of years ago.
Another event that can not be left out is my near death experience. Whereas I was an above average athlete and musician I was severely lacking in one activity. The art of swimming. One day while at my friend Craig's house I almost drowned. It was truly a miracle that we both survived this day! I was easily twice the size of Craig (in height and weight)...I am getting ahead of myself. We were out back in the pool playing as children do. I always stayed in the shallow end or near the wall clinging on for dear life...lol. He decided he wanted to race me from one end of the pool to the other and back again. You ask, "How would that be possible Jeremy?" Well, I would be on a pool float. To make it more fair he had to swim under water and could only come up for breath at the halfway point when he touched the wall. Skipping ahead...we were off! He goes under I begin flailing my arms as paddles to attempt to beat him. It was tight race as I approached the other side I began to turn "my little raft" while allowing the momentum I had produced to carry me to the wall before I would begin paddling for the finish line. As Craig came up to get much needed oxygen he clipped the side of the air mattress! Off I went right into the deep end. I was instantly filled with panic! I was exerting every ounce of energy in me yet continuing to sink. I could hear the muffled sound of Craig screaming for help...he then instinctively (BAD IDEA) to try to pull me out. Just as they say I began to selfishly try to use him as a ladder...my size/weight overpowered poor little Craig and I began to take us both to our eternal resting place. I am not sure how long this went on but it seemed to be eternity! Somehow he would manage to get me near the surface and were both screaming in fear. Eventually he got me to the wall where i was able to grab a hold and we were safe and alive! We both had swallowed plenty of water and were exhausted from the battle. Lying there speechless (on the baking hot concrete) we both spat out water and attempted to regain a regular breathing pattern, heart rate, and oxygen level. It was at this time that his drunken parent (I can not remember if it was his mother or father) stumbled out yelling at us that we should keep it down. I wish I knew where Craig was today...I think I owe him a beer or something...lol. Well that is it...my first near death experience. at a later time I can tie in my poor swimming skills to my most embarrassing moment. (You like how I attempt to create suspense to keep you coming back? LMAO)
Well, I have been rambling on so it is time to wrap this post up...
You may be asking (but probably not...lol) what do you mean by "losing Holly". Well, my very first pet (that I could honestly call my own and not the family pet) was a Cocker Spaniel that I names 'Sandy'! I think because of the sandy color of her coat. Although I am fast forwarding a lot here I find it necessary or I would be rambling on for hours about nothing special. When I was twelve years old we were up and moving to Broken Arrow, OK. My father had found a new job there and moved a few months ahead of us. This would account for the first time I truly became very angry with my parents. What kid wants to leave all that they have known their whole life? Leave all their friends? I know I sure didn't. There was also the fact that I was experiencing xenophobia. In fact it lead to severe issues that I carried with me throughout my life up until just a few years ago when I finally began to mature; and address those issues...lol. Well, with all that in mind I was also asked to leave Sandy :0( To this day I do not know why it would have been so difficult to leave her. Now do not think we just drove away looking the rear view mirror as she she became a stray dog in the middle of the street...no no. My other found a family so she went to a good home. Being that my father was already up in OK my mother and I (my sister got to stay she was older and had a job) drove up in the Ryder truck. Her rationalization of it was that we could not bring Sandy in the cab of the truck for such a long haul. It would have "not been fair" to the dog. I still disagree but what say did I have? Obviously none!
OK OK I am done for now. I hope you were buckled in because I know the horrific G-force of this crazy life had to jolt you to the point of a concussion if you were not...LMAO
I know this is probably not an easy read. I have never really attempted writing before I created this blog. I am sure that five years from now I will have honed my writing skills and look back at this amateur work and literally LMAO. But if anything it has allowed anyone that reads it to know a little more about me!
Until next time...
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