I still have a massive music list to go through from this period. I just decided that I was in the mood to jot down more of my memories of things from the Eugene '70-'72 period.
One of the very first times I ever played basketball among other kids was at St. Paul. I still carry a reminder of one very painful time I was out with a combination of both guys and girls who were shooting a ball around during a recess break when I was in 3rd Grade. Somebody shot a ball at the basket and the person missed the shot. The ball bounced off the back of the backboard and shot out right over me. I decided to jump up to try to get it in case anybody else was going to try to get ot the ball before me. My timing was perfect for placing myself to the ball. However, my positioning wasn't so perfect. When I jumped up, the ball slammed right down on my right ring finger at the same time the height of my jump was meeting the ball. The impact of the ball meeting the point of my finger caused the ligament in the last digit of my finger (before it meets your fingernail) to get slammed down hard. It hurt like hell when it happened. The soreness in my finger took a long time to go away. To this day, I still have a crooked finger at that point. I literally cannot straighten that finger out. You can even see ever so slightly where the ligament tore up and decided to curl up a bit on the topside of my finger.
Though I was never on the recieving end of any pain while taking part in it, I do fondly remember the camel fights us guys loved to get involved in. I was a very popular guy for camel fights because I was as light as a feather. The guy who usually picked me most often was Brian M. At the time, he was one of the strongest people in our class. I don't think Brian and I ever lost a camel fight in all of the times I rode on him. I clearly recall riding on Matt A and Bill M. for certain. I could swear that I took part in a few matches riding on Tony W and Tom F's shoulders. Our camel fights used to get pretty intense. We'd all go out to the grass area beyond where the swings were and pound the shit out of each other to knock the riders off the camels and get them disqualified from finishing the match. It finally got to a point where our reputations began to spread and the school made us stop taking part in the matches. I look at it this way though. I used to feel really sorry for Brian M and any of the other guys I used to ride on. Like I said, there was a great advantage to having me as your rider. I was as light as a feather. However, there was a distinct disadvantage to having me ride on top of your shoulders. Since I was scared shitless of getting knocked off and getting hurt, I used to hold on to my camel really tight. When I mean tight, I mean I'm surprised I didn't make poor Brian's face turn blue and choke him to death. I had a morbid fear of falling from any height and breaking a bone.
The other thing I really got known for was my love of catching garter and gopher snakes. I picked it up from having gotten to know my backyard on Fir Acres Drive so well. In the Summer of '71, I really got into catching snakes and lizards and collecting them. We had extra fish tanks from our having lived in California that were not in use, so I used those. My Dad made lids for them and I was in business.
I had this one great portable small storage box that I used for an alligator lizard that I caught at my neighbor's house after Mom, her friend Peggy and I had come home from the coast. Mrs. Leach came over and told my Mom to please have me come over and grab this lizard that was driving their big Black labrador crazy. Excuse my French, but this alligator lizard was not a baby. He was also a mean fucker. He was hissing at me and threating to bit me. I was impressed enough that I told the Leaches to keep an eye on him while I ran back to the grage to get a pair of gloves. I finally caught him and became a close pet of mine for a good long while before he finally died during a cold wet spell when he should have been hibernating. I even took that lizard with me when I ran away from home one time to go over to the Freitases over on Tabor. The lizard and me arrived safely back home after I cooled down and had a nice meal.
That Fir Acres house was something else for scenery and where it was set off of Bond Lane. We had a bog pond back in the treeline behind our backyard. We used to frequently see Wood ducks fly in there. We also had a pair of Screech owls that used to like to land on the handrails of our upper deck area facing the backyard. They used to look at each other and talk to themselves. It was a very cute thing to see.
Now, back to the snakes. Over at St. Paul, my snake catching got to a point where I would ask any adult who happened to be around if they had a jar (with air holes) i could use when I caught one. It was not an uncommon sight to see me walking around with my latest catch and asking for jars. It really hit its zenith during 4th Grade. Sister Elizabeth got so exasperated with me that she finally got wise and started saving big jars for me in class for when I made a successful snake endeavor. I still recall the time that I didn't twist the jar down as much as I should have one day. It was after lunch and we were being taught when everybody but me suddenly heard a sound emanating from the floor. The lid had come off the jar. My snakes (I caught more than one that day) had decided to make a jailbreak. The lid was light enough for them to pop it off. The next thing I know is that I have girls in my class running the hell away from their desks to the other side of the classroom ans my snakes came slithering out of the jar. Sister just told me to grab them and to make sure I closed the jar tighter. I'm not sure, but I think after that incident, Sister Elizabeth told me that my snake hunting days were over.
My snakes struck at home too. I had a tank or a jar in the house (the same one from the story I just told you?) and the same thing happened. Except, in this case, the sankes made a successful jailbreak without my being there to see it. I found one right off the bat, but I could not find the other two. Mom wasn't too thrilled that there were two loose garter snakes in her house. Time went by and nobody knew where they were until one day, my Mom went walking through the side entrance door which led to our kitchen. When she walked through the door, she heard a strange plopping sound behind her. She turned around and didn't see anything until she looked own on the floor. The snake had somehow miraculously climbed its way completely up to the top of the door overhang and was hanging out there when it accidentally fell down. Mom was very thankful it didn't fall on her head. She called me and and I got it. I also found the other snake in the same little side room. Sadly, I was to lose a lot of my sankes I had accumulated during a rain storm and a visitation on the same night by some stranger dogs who came over and killed some of them. What they didn't kill, the rain did as water filled the tank I had next to a toolshed that was out back.
At the time, my Mom had a family of squirrels that she loved to give peanuts to over the two year period we were there. Over time, we would grow to not be too fond of squirrels from when we would, years later, have the Lorane Highway ranch.
When I used to go to St. Paul, I remember the room that the 7th and 8th Grade sports guys used to hang out in during lunch and recess. This was a room that Vidar Alexander had set up for the guys to be comfortable in. I used to peak in every once in a while and I'd see my brother Mike, Kevin C and Jon G. in there among others. I remember watching my brother playing basketball at games St Paul had. I will still never forget the girls cheerleaders dancing a routine to Carole King's "I Feel The Earth Move" at one game. I also recall the hilkarious time that the cheerleaders were going through the lineup of names on our basketball roster going (for example "Mike Mike/He's our man/ If he can't do it, Jon can and so forth. Well, one time, they went through the whole lineup and one of the girls just kid of muttered "if he can't do it/then nobody can" and I just doubled over.
Because of my having been used to being around older people, I spent a good chunk of 4th Grade having crush on Barbara H. in 8th Grade. Ah God! That was embarrassing. But you know? It proved that once I got something in my head, you weren't going to get me to change my mind. My class mate and her sister, Kelly, must have thought I was completely out of my mind. Don't worry Kelly, I still am. LOL! I remember I used to try to pry information out of Jody R. about Barbara. I knew Jody was a huge fan of the band Bread (so was I), so I tried to take advantage of her in my 4th Grade way in order to get at luck with Barbara.
Speaking of Kelly, she had the hilarious coincidence of once overhearing me complain about my girl problems to my Mother on one of the last days (perhaps the last day I was actually a member of St. Paul School) before I left for Santa Clara. Kelly gave me this look like she caught me in the act and it makes me laugh to this day.
I am running out of time. I will type more later tonight. Perhaps.
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