Fun things I remember from childhood.

Not all of my life was horrific. I do have a few good memories but not to many. OTOH I seldom think of good things that happened to me so when I list them there might be way more than I think.

The best times I had were at my grandmothers house. She was and still is the definition of unconditional love, to me. It's to bad I had to let her die. That's a story for another day tho.

I can remember her teaching me to play cards and to think while I did it. She also taught me Yahtzee, Flinch, Monopoly and Scrabble. I had a lot of fun playing games with her and just being with her. She's the only person I can remember caring about me.

I loved being at the lake fishing, exploring or just getting away from everyone else. I still like being by the water and am most comfortable there. My father, grandmother and grandfather taught me how to fish and to enjoy the outdoors.

I also remember having a lot of fun roller skating with my cousin and all of our friends. Same with ice skating. I was and still am very good at both. I also loved swimming and got quite good at it too. Gave up swimming when I started having breathing problems from my COPD.

Now there's a good reason to be depressed. COPD is going to eventually kill me. My own damn fault too. Not any regrets there tho and worse yet, I still smoke. Started when I was 8 and altho I hate it I also like it a lot. I've tried to quit many times and haven't managed it yet. 52 years of smoking and as bad as I know it is I still can't quit.

One thing I do know is that smoking ain't cool no matter what anyone says.

There were other things I enjoyed like riding my old, 4th hand 26 inch boys bike that I had to ride underneath the bar because my legs weren't long enough to reach the pedals. Damn, I loved that bike. Used to ride it all over and it's the one I rode to the lake.

I used my uncles old red wagon, tied on the back of my bike, to pick up pop bottles with and turn them in for 2 cents apiece. I rode all over the place hunting for them.

Playing and hustling pool is another good memory I have. Lol, it probably shouldn't be but it is. Confessions of an 8 yr old pool hustler. ;) One drunk I knew when I was a kid used to come to the house to get me and take me to the bar with him to hustle pool. My cousin and I were the two absolute best bumper pool players around and that includes adults.

Vernie would play partners for a dollar a game and I'd get a free coke out of it. He made 95 cents and I got a coke. Seemed like a good deal at the time. I still play pool but I'm not that good anymore. Hard to see the length of the table and I shake a little so that makes it even tougher.

I also remember listening to the radio and the radio programs that were on back then. Radio used to have stories and shows on, sorta like just listening to the TV would be now days. The pictures were in your mind. No, the radio was never all music like it is now and some days I miss that.

My favorite thing was reading tho. I'd read the ingredients on a catsup bottle. I read a whole set of encyclopedias once. I've also read the bible from cover to cover but not until I was over 30. When I was a kid I loved comic books and I think I read everyone from the 50's and 60's. I read every book in the school library they would let me read and same with the town library.

My mother had to send a note to both libraries telling them it was okay for me to read anything in the library. The librarians were concerned that some things might be to advanced for me. Heh, I know I wore out at least one dictionary before I decided that getting to advanced wasn't good and to take things in order.

I read as an escape from my own private hell. Funny, the idea of hell doesn't scare me a bit. Visited it twice and survived both times. Twice you say? Yep, I turned 18 in 1965 and you know I got drafted shortly after. I still read today and I still read the ingredients on a ketchup bottle if there isn't anything else.

If it wasn't for all of my reading and my curiosity I'd be digging ditches or some other silly crap that's nothing but hard work. Lol, never much cared for work until I drove truck. That's one job I'd have done for free just because I loved it. I've had two jobs like that. The other was working with computers and I'm still doing that one. I wish I could drive truck but it's beyond my capabilities anymore due to my cervical problems.

No, my life wasn't always hell but the vast majority of it was. Yes, others had it worse than I did. Mine was bad enough and I lived thru it. One of the shrinks I didn't talk to told me I was a survivor and that I always would be. Considering I've made it this far and survived a lot of things where other people died or didn't have the will to fight anymore I guess I'd say that was an accurate assessment.

I have my childhood, such as it was, to thank for that.