Childhood Friends

I was 9 years old when we moved from our town house in Wildwood, (an apartment home complex in Fairfield of Ohio) to our new home in the same town. Fairfield is a suburb outside of Cincinnati. It was the 70's back then. Fairfield was just at the point of changing from a rural town to a full blown suburb. It had an interesting mix of rural, blue collar, and upwardly mobile professionals living there although the city was 99% white. Based on my best recollection, I think that there were more blue collar folks living there than any other group. At least that's what it seemed like back then. We came from the more upwardly mobile group. My Dad was a furniture rep. and was fast becoming a successful one too.

I was just getting used to my new neighborhood when I met a kid that was 10, just a year older than me. He was about my size, had sandy brown hair and a few freckles on his cheeks. He had sort of a mischevious glint in his eye, and was wearing a coon skin cap straight off the Daniel Boone show. "Daniel Boone" and "Davy Crockett" were huge shows back then. I can still sing the theme songs from them if you push me to it. That's been over 30 years.

His name was Kent. When we first met, we eyed each other warily and soon issued each other a challenge to a wrestling match. I think it was he that threw me first and then I got up and threw him. I remember he ripped my winter coat during the struggle. We proceeded to throw each other back and forth several times before we were through. If I had to compare Kent to a famous literary character, I would have to say it would be Tom Sawyer. He was full of cleverness and imagination.

We got along because we had some things in common. We both were the oldest of our siblings. He had two younger brothers and I had a younger brother and sister at the time. We both loved sports. The Dallas Cowboys was my favorite football team at the time and we played many hours in the back yard either tackle football or "Kill the Guy." Some people called that game "Smear the Queer." "Queer" back then didn't quite hold the same exact meaning as it does today. The Cincinnati Reds were our major league baseball team. The Big Red Machine won the world series when we were there with the help of Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Dave Concepcion, Joe Morgan and others.

One of was funnest things about Kent was his love for storytelling. I'd sleep over at his house sometimes with other neighborhood kids and we'd listen long into the night while he spun outlandish tales. We all starred as characters in his stories. There were always a couple of common themes. One was that we could all fly. The other was that we always had the hottest girls with us during our escapades. We were always the heroes and the females always gushed over us. What young boy wouldn't like stories like those?

I remember that Kent and I played army together, explored the woods and the creek that ran through our neighbor's back yard and tried to escape from our tag along little brothers. I also remember that I started a detective club with Kent and we went around searching for clues about childhood crimes that occured in the neighborhood. I don't think we ever managed to solve one, but I think we ended up blaming Kent's little brother, Matt, for all the crimes.

Evil Knievel was big back then and we set up ramps on our street and spent hours jumping our bikes on them. When we weren't jumping ramps, we were having dirt clod fights where foundations for new homes had been dug out. When we weren't having dirt clod fights we were exploring abandoned old farm houses that still existed in the area.

Here are couple of pictures on Kent and me creating the illusion of Superman. Sometimes we went shirtless in the summer. We thought we were studs.

One time time we went exploring an old farm house and ended up removing a support beam holding up an old dilapidated wall. I was the one that was crazy enough to hold it up while Kent and his brothers escaped the collapse. Luckily I was able to move out of the way before it overcame me.

Later that day we spied on a teenage couple making out in the woods nearby. I think we ruined their experience by shouting out secret signals to each other from different sides of the woods. "Cuckoo, Cuckaw!" Serves them right. They weren't supposed to be out in the woods in clear daylight making out in front of young explorers like us.

Kent and I became loyal friends. I remember once that he defended me from a kid from the other side of the neighborhood. Kenny Reeman was his name and his group of kids were our rivals. This kid, Kenny was older than me and had been threatening me on the bus home from school. (Not an uncommon occurance in Fairfield.) After we got off the bus, I remember that Kent started pushing him. "I'm not going to let you hurt my friend!" I remember him shouting. There was a short squirmish that ensued but broke up quickly between my side of Valley Forge Dr. and their side.

He was with me another time when a kid we called "Camper Bob" started punching me in the stomach on the bus one day. He started out just playing but then started hitting me harder and harder. Once I realized what was happening I twice launched my right fist into the side of his face. I remember this well because when I connected it sounded just like a punch sounds on "Gunsmoke." "Pop! Pop!" He quit hitting me. I was proud for defending myself, but Camper Bob had it out for me ever after that experience. Kent just laughed and kept calling the kid and his little brother, "Camper Bob and Little Slob". I don't remember what their real names were.

It wasn't too long before Kent's family decided to move to another town in Ohio. I was very sad to have my best buddy leaving me. We hadn't had enough time being buds. It was only something like a year or so that we lived in the same neighborhood. When I consider all the memories that we packed into such a short time, it's amazing. I could go on and on telling you stories about our childhood experiences and the era and town we lived in. There is more to the story I want to share but this post borders on being too long. Stay tuned for the next edition of Childhood Friends.