I thought a good idea for a post would be to venture back into my younger years and write about some things that have stuck in my memory. Some will be personal details that only I can relate to and other some general events that everyone can.

When I was probably in pre-school my mom and some other mom who had a kid my age would go to Murray’s for breakfast. I just looked it up and it’s a Jewish deli in Bala Cynwyd. I had no idea it was so close to where I am now but maybe I’ll venture there for old times sakes. Anyway, I remember my favorite part about going to Murray’s was the chocolate milk and french toast. Me and this other kid would take straws and blow bubbles in the chocolate milk until it reached the top and overflowed. Our parents had to be thinking, how dumb are these idiot kids that they can be entertained an entire meal by chocolate milk. I grew up loving french toast but I would hate syrup on it, only butter. The other kid loved to douse his french toast in as much syrup as he could find until it became a liquid mess. To this day I still prefer butter on my french toast and pancakes but can now stomach syrup. I also used to love when my mom made cinnamon toast which is just a combo of toast, butter, and cinnamon. Tiger’s love pepper, they hate cinnamon.

Another tale of my youth was that one of my best friends growing up was a kid names Ricky Brown. Not shockingly Ricky Brown was black but as a youth, it’s like everyone is the same. He had these badass teenage ninja turtle shoes which had the faces of each one of the turtles on the shoe. JC used to buy me all the hip bball shoes and I had the Jordan’s growing up. Ricky used to dominate me in one on one bball and that was back when I was a skillful little TC. As a kid, skin color doesn’t make a difference but as you get older you realize the adult world perceives things differently. Only funny story I have about him is that we took him to the public pool one day and at such a young age he didn’t know that black people don’t know how to swim. So he leaps into the deep end and sinks like a rock. Fortunately the life guards saved him but it’s a story I don’t forget and a stereotype unless proven otherwise, sticks in my mind. *I just googled black people don’t like the water and I read something that says water makes their hair poof and is a hassle to fix.

I could write a huge paragraph on the next subject but Bud Schmidt and I used to play a lot of Nintendo as kids. Once we decided to split up every team in Tecmo Super Bowl and then play out the entire 16 weeks. I can’t remember exactly how it finished but that was a dedicated effort. Some games that come to my mind that we used to love were the Super Mario’s, Dragon Warrior, Mike Tyson’s Punchout, RC Pro AM, Final Fantasy, Blades of Steel, Arch Rivals, Baseball Stars, Tecmo Super Bowl, Marble Madness, and Battletoads. The particulars of some of these games as I think back are cracking me up. The amount of time we spent on some of these games and not beating them is laughable. We must have wandered around in Ultima for hours on end to never get anywhere. Games back then would always have passwords that were super annoying to use. The hardware would reset at inopportune times like clockwork. When I think back to holding reset and turning the power off I have to chuckle. Lots of my even younger youth was spent playing these games.

Just some really random thoughts that I will throw in to this post. Playing Bud 1v1 in bball on his neighbors court and rarely losing. When we’d play football and Bud would think his dad was purposely throwing picks to me so I would win. CK4 remembers our intramural play Temple when we’d have two scrubs stand on the block and he’d run off of a double pick for a jumper. My mom’s shitty ass station wagon that had a back seat facing the oncoming traffic that was such a joy to sit in. Challenge’s at the mall would have the best birthday parties (sadly arcades are on the decline). Ecto Cooler, Little Hugs, and Sipps at lunch. I had a friendship bracelet fad where I used to wear them all up and down my arm. Snap bracelets were just as fun. I can’t forget how I used to get a buzz cut and then get two lines in the side of my head. Hersey Hawkins used to have 3. In 5th grade Matt Poley and I wondered how the guy didn’t crush the girl when they were having sex. Rob Kluxen told me that you put your thumb and index finger in a circle and move it over your dick and that was jerking off. JC and I used to watch all the Sixers games on Prism (Can anyone confirm this was channel 17? on cable). Our undefeated Travel baseball team where we won the league 3 straight years and had an unbeaten streak of 35 games or so. The amount of time and money I wasted on Red Zone and Magic cards.

Everyone has their own childhood memories and mine have a certain bond to me which you probably don’t find as entertaining as your own. This blog is a good way to document my early years and when I look back at this entry, I can remember these moments at my elder age of 27. Funny to think how long in the future I’m going to maintain this blog and the amount of material I’ve already accumulated in it. I can’t imagine doing this forever. Posts like this almost bring a tear to my eye knowing that you can’t go back to relive anything that has occurred. If I was given another shot at it I probably wouldn’t have done anything differently. I had parents who loved me, loyal friends, and I was given every opportunity and the freedom to do as I please. Hard to imagine that it was already 20 years ago that some of these memories took place. As a kid you have no idea who you are going to grow up to be.

It’s great to remember the past but the present and the future is what you have to work with. These days I like fantasy football and proving to my friends that I’m better than them (2010 only). I like watching movies that are considered good and then finding reasons why I don’t like them. I like the ability to do whatever I want, whenever I want without anyone giving me a hard time. This last sentence came about after watching the season finale of Weeds and thinking how cool it was for Shane, Silas, and Andy to hang together in Europe basically living life. Some other things I know are how to run a profitable business by myself through years of learning from my dad. I’ve kept myself in better physical shape than 90+% of Americans. At 27 you have different ways of amusing yourself then when you were 10. Yes I drink way too much and I’ve paid the price in certain circumstances. I’m not perfect but I can still find joys in life and I’m happy every day above ground (except when I’m hungover). I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe you can reflect on your childhood days and have them bring a smile to your face.