Copper Trays and Moon-Monster

A random memory crossed my mind the other day while watching someone walk through a parking lot, pointing their iPad around the lot.  I assume they were videoing their walk to the car, but I'm not really sure why. 

It struck me as funny until the following memory came back. 

I'm not sure how old I was when I started, but I vividly remember recreating the scene when I was an older teenager.  I think I wanted to remember how much fun it was, or maybe to try to remember what it was that made it fun in the first place.

We had a polished copper tray when I was growing up.  My older brother, Stuart, discovered if you carried the tray while walking, you could look into the tray, and it reflected the ceiling.  It gave an illusion of walking on the ceiling; which for a child was quite entertaining.  At least for this child, it was.  We had a cathedral ceiling in the living room, and it was quite funny watching Stuart reach the edge of the dining room, and lift his foot to step over the drop before falling up (down?) to the ceiling above...below.............??  I'm sure I looked even funnier.

Keep in mind, (those of you born after 1980), we didn't have video games at that age.  When I was older, I got Pong for Christmas.  Google it, and laugh at how "sad" our lives were.  If we wanted to play, we had to use our imaginations.  I'm sure at some point, I said, "I'm bored," but I never remember that.  One of the reasons for that is my brother, Stuart. 

He was great at inventing games.  We bowled with tennis balls and empty toilet paper rolls in the bedroom hall; smashed Lego cars to see who could build the most indestructible one (guess who won that one); and he invented a clever, evil game to play at night.

One of us would start in the kitchen, and the other in the bedroom.  All of the lights in the house were turned out, and we would slowly start walking toward each other.  The purpose was to scare the other one.  (Guess who always won that game, too).  Obviously, that one was played when we were alone. 

Then there was Moon-Monster, which was an outside game.  One person has a tennis ball, soccer ball, etc., and they are "it".  They yell freeze, and everyone else has to stop.  They throw it at someone, and if they hit them, that person picks up the ball.  Everyone else can run away from the ball until the person picks it up and yells, "Freeze!".  If the thrower misses, he has to run and get the ball while everyone else runs from it.  We usually played that on the side of the house.  Once, we played in our neighbors back yard, where he had mowed paths in the uncut grass, so you had to stay on the path.

I have said often that I would not go back to those days for anything.  There were so many heavy things going on that I would never want to re-live.  But I also remember the fun times, and the silly things we did to entertain ourselves. 

I don't often thank people enough for the things they have done.  I'm sure I would not have made it without Stuart.  Teaching me how to "cook" Ravioli and SpaghettiOs, inventing games to keep me from getting bored and fat, and just being there for me helped keep me going.  I would say sane, but those who know me know I lost that battle long ago.

So thank you, Stuart.  For finding fun in a copper tray.  For finding interesting things to do when there was nothing available but an empty yard and a ball.  For teaching me things I needed to know to take care of myself.  And for always being there for me when I needed you.

I love you.

Getting Older

Sitting around on Saturday night, we began to celebrate our birthdays. Mine was February 28th, my son, Chase, is March 19th, and my brother, Stuart, is March 20th. Dad was up from Sanderson to help celebrate, and we began to open gifts.

First was my brother's from dad. As he opened it, his smile slowly subsided to the awkward, "I want to look happy, but I'm not quite sure what this is" phase.

"Oh," he said. "This looks...was this on my list? I mean, it looks good...was it on my list?"

I walked over to where he was sitting, and saw it was a book on tape.

Dad made a comment about maybe he saw the wrong list. Stuart is in to a lot of different things, but I don't remember him ever asking for a book on tape. That's my thing. I like listening to books on tape while I'm driving back and forth to and from work. So I looked at the title, and it looked like something I might have put on my list, but I wasn't sure.

So when it was my turn, dad said it was the wrong card. The tape from my envelope had the same color green as my wrapping paper, (which was different from Stuart's). So I told dad it had been on that (my) present. He insisted it was on the wrong package, so I started to hand Stuart my present, knowing it was likely his anyway. Then dad showed me the tape, which was the same color as the paper, therefore proving it belonged on my present, which is what I had tried to convince him of just seconds earlier. So I opened my present, and saw it was a video game that Stuart had put on his list. We swapped presents, and got a light laugh.

Stuart made a comment that the book on tape (mine) looked good, so maybe he would borrow it on his long drive down to Terlingua next time he went.

Dawn suggested that since I already had one from Christmas, he could borrow it. I thought she meant my new one, and told her I was already done with the one from Christmas.

"I know," she said with a strange look on her face. "That's why I said he could borrow it."

We all started laughing out loud at how suddenly we had all turned into people incapable of rational thought, and much less capable of being able to communicate with each other.

Poor Chase. There he sat on the couch, watching the three of us Street men, likely realizing that this was what he has to look forward to. He and I have talked often enough (in a joking manner) about when it comes my time to be put in a home. Unfortunately, I'm afraid after this weekend, the next time might not be quite as lighthearted.

Later that night, because we needed to challenge our mental abilities further, we decided to play Chicken Foot. It is a domino game that I had heard of before. It's not that complicated, once you learn how to actually play correctly. Then again, that evening, I'm guessing Tic Tac Toe would have taxed our abilities.

In my defense, I had already lost all of my chips playing poker before pouring my heart and soul out over a grill to make sure everyone got to enjoy a wonderful meal of chicken and turkey dogs.

I didn't say it was a GOOD excuse.

I have learned, through experiences like this, to quit taking myself so seriously. (No one else does.)

Life is short. And too much time is spent watching the news, and realizing what a horrible world we live in sometimes. I'm convinced that every once in a while, we need to surround ourselves with others who will help us laugh.

In high school, my best friend was a guy named Dewayne. To all of us, he was Bubba. We were inseparable. And we laughed our way through just about every evening, and every weekend. For years, that got lost in me. I spent way too much time trying to prove to everyone that I was someone to be taken seriously.

I've learned better.

Thank you to my family, for being such a joy in my life.

And I'm sorry, Chase. I'm afraid this is what you have to look forward to. At least, I pray you will be blessed with family the way I have.