The Battlefields of My Youth

I grew up in the greatest neighborhood any child could ask for. One block from my high school, and two blocks from my middle school; it meant gyms, baseball fields, and football fields, but generally we just played in Balks lot or in each other’s yard. My neighborhood was filled with large Catholic families. This was great for an only child, because I could go in any direction and get a brother or sister of my choice in two minutes or less. The 1960-70’s were wonderful in a large Catholic town because you had endless groups of playmates and we did play, this was long before the PC, cable TV or cell phones.

We had the McCarville’s with seven kids, the Sill’s with eight kids, one Murray family with four kids, another Murray family with two kids, the Sirs with seven, the Bruns with four, the Buntrock’s with four, the Larson’s with four, the Skoda’s with three, the Bouska’s with two, the Endicott’s with three, the Hall’s with three, the Galvin’s with three, and the Houdek’s with two. I know am leaving people out but this was my sanctuary. I learned about girls’ here when I would watch an older sister beat up a younger brother it scared me. One day I watched as an older brother put his younger brothers in the streets on their tricycles and run in and tell his mom that they were out in the street and they were spanked. I can still see the grin on the older brother’s face. There were so many times I wished I had a younger brother or sister to blame things on.

My neighborhood had Cheaty Hall she was so cool. I hung around her brother Troy. I was just another annoying little kid like her brother. There was Barb Sill I had such a crush on her. Like Cheaty; she had long strait hair that was in fashion during the time. We had Tracy Hall he always drove cool cars. He drove a jeep into our yard one day and my mom almost killed him. We had Connor Galvin, he drove race cars. We had the intellect Danny Larson who became a lawyer and also climbed Everest.

It seemed as though,I always ended up with the McCarvilles. I was just another mouth to feed when I walked in the door, but their mother Carol always fed this growing sparrow. Their dad Bud gave me my first job, working for his auction company. Their oldest boy Steve allowed me and his younger brothers to milk cows with him when he did chores for a farmer. I doubt if I could have been around better people in my youth then the McCarvilles and the other families in my neighborhood.