1966

7 years old.

First - second grade.

We move back in with my Dad on McDonald, on South Grand.

My dad reads the Hobbit to me. He bought a color Polaroid camera around this time. My sister JoAnn developed the cute little habit of elbowing my brother and I in the ribs to show her displeasure.

I finish first grade at Rose Fanning school, which is under the sadistic thumb of Miss Schlutoe, the principal, who beats kids with a big paddle in the echoing hallways.

I start second grade at Fanning and meet Richard Hudson. He's a smart kid with freckles and willing to pretend he's a superhero playing with me in the schoolyard at Fanning. He has many sisters, and we spent one afternoon squatting in the gangway peering into the basement gloom trying to see his older sister taking a shower. I never really got a good look at her myself.

I start reading Dr. Doolittle books. Our local Library, Carpenter Branch on South Grand, has a great selection of British children's books and a charismatic and lovable Librarian, Mrs. Duncan, who is English. I take books with me everywhere, counting chapters to see how far I have to go. Janie is disgusted with me because I never go anywhere without a book.

Meet Gary Picarillo, who lives a block over in a big house on Utah.

There is a gym in the basement with hanging rings and weights, and a big collage of all the cool superhero drawings of Gary's older brothers. Gary and his brothers sleep in a maze of rooms on the second floor. I'm enchanted by the ivy-covered garage behind the house that leads to the alley.

Mike Schnieder, Janie Jenkerson,
me and Larry Jenkerson