The early years, cont...

Lets see...I believe I left off with moving in to the new house on Chesterfield. I was talking about my dad being popular with the neighborhood kids. Continuing from that point, there were not many kids my age. There were two girls, one who lived directly across the street and one next to her, who were a few years older then me. I remember hanging out with them, until one of them moved (which I remember crying inconsolably about). After my only good friend in the neighborhood moved, we exchanged letters in the mail for a while and she would mail me the newest Pogs every once in awhile (you know you played too). Eventually we lost touch and I made new friends. (I suppose I will have to change the names to protect the innocent here). I met a girl named Jessie* who had a little brother that was around my brothers age. Jessie* and I used to play all sorts of games in our yards, using our imaginations to stay occupied. I remember one time we made up being abducted by aliens, who then violated us...we were probably 10ish at the time and probably didn't even think twice about it, but now it seems really, REALLY twisted. There were some kids on another cul-de-sac down the street. There was a girl Emily* who I was good friends with, and a boy David* that was her next door neighbor. He was my first real crush. Eventually though, they all moved away and I was left alone again. My second and third crushes (gorgeous identical twins...I remember the gorgeous part pretty well) moved in to Davids* house and we hung out some, but they were military brats and moved after 2 years. Next to the cul-de-sac that all of those kids lived in, there was a huge wooded area that stretched back to Coffee Bluff (which is now a gated community...stupid development) and in those woods was an old cemetery that was attached to a little church on Coffee Bluff. I spent most of my time in that cemetery; reading the headstones, connecting families, stacking back bricks on tombs that had been grave robbed, talking to the spirits, putting dead flowers and fake flowers back on the graves...I have a lot of memories of that cemetery. We also played around in those woods a lot, hiding from each other in these HUGE holes in the ground that we used to tell ourselves were from war times. I have good memories of playing with friends and being a kid when I was outside. Outside was the safest place.