Weekly Homework Assignment

It's time once again for Mama Kat's weekly homework assignment. This week, I chose the following prompt - 1.) Your childhood neighborhood.


Growing up, there were a number of kids in my neighborhood - "Davers" lived two houses down, the two Bills and Larry lived up the street, B.J. lived a little further down the way, and Ray-Ray across the street. There was always something happening - whether it was a game of Run the Bases, some street hockey, bounce ball or speed pitch, it didn't matter - we were all active and always hanging around together.

The ringleader of this "gang" was Paul. He was probably about 4 years older than us, but he was the coolest. He taught us everything about sports, and how to play fair. He was like an older brother to most of us. He would organize the games, get the fellas together, and best of all, the neighborhood parents all trusted him.

He was kind of like an idol to us all. He was the first "grown-up" kid to give a rats ass about us. He taught most of us how to play all of those games, and he protected us from the neighborhood bullies.

Of course, high school and then college took priority for Paul, and we saw less and less of him over the years. I probably haven't seen him in close to 20 years.

Looking back, I owe a lot to Paul.