Growing up my Mom was very close to my Aunt Terry. Terry was married to my Mom’s brother, Eddie, who died of a brain tumor when I was very young. I vaguely remember his brief stay with us on Earth. That’s not what I want to talk about though. My Mom and Terry became close through the difficulties of losing a loved one. It was a relationship that I enjoyed because I got to see my cousins quite often. We were best friends, all of us.
Josh, Dustin, Brandon and I would build forts at each others houses and throw “grenades” at each other’s forts and try to knock them down. The “grenades” where either dirt clods or rocks, you know, the safe things to be throwing at each other, especially at each others heads.
Josh and Brandon were always a team, and Dustin and I were always a team. Reyanne would usually get left out, play by herself or we would make Josh take her since Brandon and her only counted as one person together. Seems fair right? I usually envied Brandon, because Josh didn’t make you give him his shoes or some other random ass piece of clothing. At any rate, we would build a “house of cards” out of whatever we could. We somehow manage to always “find” wood planks/boards from the new sub-division. Thank you random construction company by the way, we appreciated your donations … we would then whip these rocks and dirt clods as hard as we could at each other’s forts. Sometimes we would hit each other, sometimes we would hit our marks and the fort would collapse.
It was proper fun that you don’t have these days. Sure we could have hit each other in say the eye (it happened to one of the neighbor kids if I remember correctly), but it made us into the sort of people that you don’t find today. We got dirty, we played outside all day in the cornfields, and we didn’t sit in front of the TV/Xbox etc all day like kids do today.
We were also very close with each other. It was a bond that I miss these days. A bond that I wish my kids had the chance to experience. My brother and I are working on that, we see each other when we can and we make sure our kids play together, preferably outside. Family is important.
Dear Dustin, I’m bigger now and fought in Afghanistan; come try to take my shoes now. Love you.
Nick
Nick,it blesses my heart that you have fond memories of days together with Josh, Dustin snd Reyanne.The one thing I often was concerned with was that they had good memories of their childhood. Oftentimes I felt they didn't, however, As I look back now as they are raising their own children.I don't think it was so bad afterall, less the fact that their Daddy was taken early on in their lives.Thank you so much for sharing! Love you Nick !!
ReplyDeleteI remember it just as you say, Nick. I miss those days more than any, such a worry free era of my life. I to this day do not sit in front of any game system, as my 5 Children head any time I used to have. I would like for our children to know each other as well. I need your number, I'll give you a call sometime soon.
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