The Neighbor Kids (1980)
I don’t remember ever meeting the neighborhood kids, but I have so many memories of them it almost hurts my brain. On the one side was Jennifer, who was my senior by one year and she had a younger brother, Alec. Jennifer had short dark hair, small eyes and always seemed to have the sniffles causing her to never go anywhere without a tissue stuffed in her sleeve. Alec was 2 or 3 years younger then us with sandy hair and an unmatchable perseverance to be part of everything we did, no matter how girly it was. On the other side of our new home lived; Nick, Lisa and Mike. Nick was older and we never hung out, but Lisa was only slightly older then me and became a good friend. Mike was her younger brother closer to Alec‘s age. Together we, as are most children, were very self inventive. We could take any ordinary situation and let it manifest into an all day or even week long adventure.
At some point during our transition to Westmoreland, I became the epitome of a Tomboy. I was much like little Jean-Louise Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Like Scout, I had short little-boy cut hair and only wore a dress when it was forced upon me. Easter mostly. Much to my duress I would put on a frilly dress complete with white stocking, a little hat and little lace gloves. My mother would have to remind me endlessly to sit like a lady. Other then that though, I was in nothing but blue jeans. Grass stained jeans and tee shirts that undoubtedly had wholes in them from getting caught on the barbed wire fence and pricker bushes out back. I was indifferent to the notion that boys do this and girls do that. I loved to do everything little boys could do; climbed trees, helped my dad in the garage and learned everything I could about football. I played with the snowmobiles and four wheelers, and bugs and was always covered in dirt. Honestly, things really haven’t changed all that much.
The first thing I recall with my new neighbor friends would be the fort. Jennifer and Alec had created a fort out of cardboard in the woods behind their house. It was good sized and served it’s purpose. Behind the main fort (which was only a few feet inside the fence line) there was a fallen tree that we would bounce up and down on that we called The Horse. Later we would carpet the fort with the carpeting my parents tore out of our house. It was a nasty puke green color and it was wall to wall through out. The fort of course would not last long, being made of flimsy cardboard and shag rug that would absorb every drop of rain that leaked down from the heavens. But for the duration that it stood, we used it faithfully as our little club house.
Little monkey’s at heart, we had many trees we climbed on a regular basis. The plan was always this; send me up any tree that looked do-able. If I made it up and found a good place to sit we would start using it for as long as it would hold. If the branches were weak and broke off on my way up, then we would not use that tree. I would be forced to shimmy down as far as I could and then jump to the ground. How I never broke anything is beyond me. The pine trees were the worse. When you finally descended from the pines you had sap all over your body. You didn’t climb them very often if you were smart. Let me not forget to mention the Witches’ Tree. That was a gnarly old apple tree out behind Sutter’s house. We were all terrified of that tree. It was a big deal to go there after dark and scare the pants off each other.
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