Fast Forward

A couple of years and 3 or 4 moves later..............

I find myself in Pasadena California. In the 6th grade.

I lived in a very old two story, 5 bedroom (+ a den) home. Yup. Moving up again.

The best thing about it was the building of the 210 freeway just two blocks away.

Instant playground.

Especially after it would rain. Beneath the over passes, huge puddles would form. I mean huge.
Imagine 8 lanes of freeway covered with water.
There was no pavement yet, so it was all mud. Sometimes the water would get 3 feet deep. We'd use whatever was available and build rafts. Then we would have wars.
Like I said, it was all mud. I can remember my younger brother getting into trouble for losing a new shoe in the muck. He wore an old shoe along with his new one for a long time. I still laugh when I think about it.

This is the same brother that I hung in my back yard.

You heard me right. I hung my little brother in my back yard.

We had a couple of cats. We also had a clothes line. One of our fucking cats had kittens. No one wanted them little fuckers, nor didwe try hard to give them away.

Any ways.......

One day I got an idea to tie one end of the clothes line to a branch on the tree and the other end to them fuckers and let them run until the line got taught. Just to watch them fly up into the air when the line pulled them back. I was truly fucking amused.

What? It didn't hurt. I never heard one complain.

One time my little bro thought it would be a good idea to put the rope around his neck and have me kick the milk crate out from under him.

Did I mention that it was his idea?

I did it. He asked me to. He was being hung before my eyes.

When I realized that he wasn't kicking his feet to be funny, I grabbed his legs and lifted him up enough to free himself from the noose.After he told mom, I got whipped. With a fucking Hot Wheeel track.

Shit! I saved his mother fucking life.
Did anyone see it that way?
Nope! Just me!

Hot Wheel tracks?
When we were fortunate enough to get them for Christmas, we threw them way.
They leave fucked up marks on you when you are whipped with them.

I had a blast in Pasadena. I met some cool people. Most of them were older. They hung around with my older brother. He was known as 'Snake.'' He hung a round with a ''Lizard'', a ''Spider'', a ''Bear'' and a ''Gato''. I hung around with their younger brothers. We were known as 'lil'' all of the above. Except ''Spider.'' He didn't have a little brother. But we did have a ''Mike.''
He was a couple of grades behind me but everyone else was at least one grade behind me. Even though some were older than me.