Memories of Ten

Superman Rocks!

The Memoir and Backstory Blog Challenge continues...

Memories of Ten
The world gets a little more crazy as I finish my first decade. Iran spins out of control touching off what becomes known as the Iranian Hostage Crisis. It's been over thirty years since then and Iran is still causing problems. I'm worried they always will.

The biggest man of them all, John Wayne dies this year. I have few heroes in my life. Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart, and Anthony Quinn are some of the best. But John Wayne... Well, he was a father figure type. He played tough characters, but in his eyes I could see a sensitive man. Oddly enough, the parts he plays reflect that. The tough S.O.B. with the heart of gold. My favorite quote by him is, "Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." It helps me when I want to hide. Sometimes...

What Do You Want to Be?

In school one day, our class and two others join together to talk about careers. I especially remember the discussions about police officers and firemen. One by one we go around the class and say what we want to be when we grow up. There are an inordinate amount of police and firefighter wanna-be's. I think about just using one of those, but decide against it. I mean... they're cool and all, but I want more.

This years show to watch!

As the teachers turn to me, I matter of factly say, "I want to be rich."

All of the teachers erupt in laughter. Kids say the darnedest things and all that. But then they look to me as if to say, "No, really. What do you want to be?" I can't remember what I said, but it was meaningless. I might even have said, 'policeman.' But being rich didn't seem like such a bad thing to be. Someday I'd still like to try it.

My First Playboy
My dad was often fond of telling one of my more embarrassing stories all over town. It concerned my first contact with Playboy magazine.

One day after school, my friends and I were doing the usual (playing Star Wars or riding bikes). We happened to notice that my friend's brother and his friends were acting kinda sneaky that day, so my friend went to see what was going on. Apparently, one of the older boys had gotten his hands on a Playboy and they were checking it out.

Well, my friends were suddenly interested and a chase ensued to get a peek at the lurid pics. I soon lost interest because I knew that it was something I wasn't suppose to look at, so I went home.

At home my dad realized I was home awfully early and being kinda quiet.
"I thought you were going to Dave's to play."
I shrugged. "Yeah."
"Something wrong?"
Now all I could do was shrug.
"What happened?"
"The other guys were looking at a Playboy."
My dad's eyes went wide. "Did you look at it?"
"No."
I can see the curiosity forming on his face. "Why not?"
I shrug again. "I thought that was only for Catholics."
At that point, my dad turned red with laughter and spent the next few minutes discussing Catholicism and pornography with me.

How I ever associated the two is beyond me, but between wanting to be rich and thinking Catholics were into porn, apparently my tenth year was the time for making adults laugh.