The Other Kids Next Door
Lisa and Mike were different then Jennifer and Alec. They weren’t as adventurous and life threatening but we had a different kind of fun together. Lisa was tall and had long dark hair that was always pulled back with clips that had the feathers or streamers dangling from them. I loved those and had to get some of my own.
Mike was a cutie. He was a cowboy the first year that I met him. He had his hat and his white plastic grips were always holstered low around his waist. He wasn’t a taunter like Alec, always cruisin for a brusin. Mike was quite, easy going and just tagged a long.
Like I said earlier I loved the Dukes, and so did Lisa. We would go down in their basement with our roller skates. Then we would tape pictures of Bo and Luke Duke that we got out of a Seventeen Magazine, to the poles that support the house and dance with them in our roller skates. We would shoot pool and listen to our records. Our favorite songs were Playing with The Queen of Hearts and Elvira.
The other thing Lisa, Mike and I always did was create forts off of Mom’s Clotheslines with her sheets. We would build them (nothing special) and play in them for hours.
I remember learned how to gamble at their house. Because Nick and Tim were older, they would take the butter dish of blue chips from our Bingo Game and play poker. I knew how to play Five-Card Stud and Black Jack by the time I was 7.
We had a small pool in our backyard that we would spend the days in. We would swim as fast as we could around the edges and create a whirlpool. One summer Lisa and I (Mike too, I think) took swimming lessons together at the Westmoreland Pool. Our swimming instructor would later become my High School Gym Teacher. I don’t think either of us needed the lessons. I think it was more an excuse to take us to the big pool for our Mom’s. We liked lessons though. I always thought the kiddy pool was neat.
We also used to get excited for the rain. Once it clouded over we would run in and put on our swimsuits. After we verified that it was not going to thunder and lightening down on us we would sprint out into the yard and proceed to dance in the rain. The tears that fall from the skies are chillingly cold and so refreshing on a hot summers day. They somehow find a way of gently washing away all that is unclean and wilting in the heat. Then magically within just a brief shower they are able to bring the whole world back to a renewed life. There is something so romantic about that. What I find ironic is, that as kids we revel in the event of dancing in the rain, but as adults we are quick to shelter our heads and run for cover? It’s an interesting concept. The idea that innocent children will stand outside in a shower from God, yet the adults that need cleansing the most are reluctant to be touched by a single drop. Maybe it should be the other way around. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with the world today..... not enough dancing in the rain. It doesn‘t have to be just for kids.
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