The past month has been a busy time in my life. I turned 64 in June and celebrated with another episode on my You Tube channel..... Demos And Dust: Tales From The Underground. My band, has been playing regularly but unfortunately, I've been noticing some symptoms from my ongoing Degenerative Disc Disease that has ended up creating a bone spur that causes a lot of pain. With all this going on, My daughter who is now 33, sent some photos of me last night ( from her mother) when I was in my late 20's. All this reminded me that I'm getting old!!! So, I felt another blog was way overdue.
The nice thing about being 64 is that I grew up in a very interesting time of history. I was lucky enough to experience the sights and sounds of the 1960's as a child and become a teenager in the 1970's. What an amazing time to be alive!!!!! Let's begin with the 1960's in our neighborhood, Mardell Manor.
The manor was built in the late 1950's when families were growing and suburbia was spreading. My family moved to 2611 Tiara Strip in October of 1964 when I was 5 years old. There were many families the same age as my parents and all of them had 2 or 3 kids. In fact, we hadn't been in our house more than a few weeks when I was woken from my afternoon nap and told to go outside on our front porch...there we kids asking my mother if she had children and if they wanted to play. My brother Jamey was too young, but I was gently escorted though the living room to meet my first Mardell Manor friends. They were the Bocampers and they lived two houses down the street. Tom was the oldest. He must have been 7 or 8. Then there was Curt, who was a year or two younger, then lastly Diane who was 5 like me.
We chatted for a few minutes and I think Tom and Curt were a little disappointed that I was no older than their baby sister, but, they soon took me under their wing and began to introduce me the other kids on the street. They had moved to Peoria a few years prior from St Louis Missouri and one thing was made clear right from the start......I had to be a St. Louis Cardinal fan or else!!!!! I replied that was easy since I didn't know anything about baseball and had no allegiance to any particular team. Over the next several months, I began to find myself playing at their house and down in their basement. The natural pecking order shook out and I began to find myself hanging out more with Curt than the other two. I'd see Diane often at their house but she was a girl and Tom was just a little too old to play with me. All three were always very friendly to me.
One by one, I was introduced to some of the other kids on and around our street. One day I tagged along with Curt and Tom and I found myself in the basement of a family called the Furnisses. The Furniss family had three boys. The oldest was my age and Todd was the middle boy a year younger and Jay was younger still. I'm pretty sure I met Ron Chance and possibly his brother Dave. Maybe Steve Zimmerman. I can't be sure because I had never met any of them before and because I was still only 5. I do know that many of the faces in that basement that day were those of the older boys that I eventually looked up to growing up.
I seem to remember there was a purpose that afternoon and Jeff was the ringmaster and organizer. The reason for the meeting? We were going to pretend were were THE BEATLES!!!!! And I shit you not......this was a serious meeting!!!! Toy plastic ukuleles and or ball bats were passed around to the older boys with the most respect. I'm sure their names were changed to John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Jeff said he'd be a guy called Ringo cause he has a big bass drum down there. My neighbor, Diane was given the responsibility of being a fan and finally Jeff came to me. I had no idea who or what we were doing but, I was told that I could be the manager, Brian Epstein. So.... cool!!!! I had a job and I was in the group!!! I was very amazed that even at a young age, Jeff knew all about this singing group. It would take me many more years before I'd become a fan.
Life was so fun and our parents all got together in one of the three driveways and listened to Cardinal games and drink beer or highballs while all the kids including my brothers by this time, would play Ghost in the Graveyard until late in the evening. Then, the boys would get together and FINALLY watch TV!!! We'd watch the ACRE Creature Feature or some other black and white monster movie. Other than that, we rarely watched TV. We played outside!!!! Without air conditioning!!!! A large exhaust fan would suck warm air into our bedrooms through our screens. I know that we never complained. We didn't know any better.
It wasn't until a few years later that the Bloomfields got this thing called CENTRAL AIR!!!! It was amazing!!! Darin and I loved to play outside riding our bikes all afternoon and then come into their house and cool off with AC and a bottle of Royal Crown Cola!!!!
Do kids play outside any more? Do they use their imagination like the kids of Mardell Manor in the 1960's? We never wanted to be inside. There were three TV channels and they were geared for housewives. Hell, if we stayed inside, we would probably go crazy or have to clean our rooms or something. I remember eating breakfast in the mornings and shooting out the front door on my way to Darins house or in that general direction SO OFTEN....that I literally killed the grass in the spot were my first footstep would come off the porch!!! The same porch were I kissed Diane Bocamper one sunny day while playing Doctor. The same porch where Darin and I would sit and contemplate our journeys for the afternoon or eat the candy that we bought on our frequent trips down Smithville Hill to the Bartonville Convenient store.
I'm getting old but I thank God that I grew up in Mardell Manor in the 1960s and 1970s. I made many friends and treasure all their friendships. Tom, Curt And Diane Bocamper. Jeff and Todd Furniss, Darin, Mitch and Diane Bloomfield, Kyle Young, Brett Trunk, Danny Blair, Lance Dieckow and many more!!!!
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