Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Happy Birthday to the good doctor.

Most of us have childhood friends that we spent tons of time with, I was lucky enough to have cousins that doubled as friends. Our extended family unit is a close one, and we always do stuff together. My dad's sister has 3 boys and they lived a few minutes on a bike away from our house so, it seems like, every day I would ride to their house.

Brent is the oldest and kind of the voice of reason. He still is, now that I think of it. Jon and I would be dead or in jail if we would have done everything we wanted to back then, he kept us safe. Aaron was the little one that was along for the ride, whatever the day brought.

I'm not sure how old we were, but I pretty sure parents these days don't trust their kids or society enough to let them be home alone like we were back then...but we had Brent as our summer guide!

Our dads worked at the same bank, and our moms at the same clinic so there was enough communication between all parties to understand what the boys were doing that day, or what they thought the boys were doing...and who knows my aunt might have been home all the times I was over there, but the years have clouded the memories.

Jon and I were the closest in age, so we were natural playmates. From climbing on the roof to epic baseball games in the backyard trying not to get caught climbing the fences to retrieve the ball from the neighbor's yards, games of fumble-bumble (a football game we made up), knee hockey in the basement, and street hockey games at all hours of the night. I am pretty sure we always made Aaron be the goalie...sorry about that, AJ! Fishing trips with Uncle Lynn to the river...who could forget the frogs we caught and named them all "Joe Heckburg". I have fond memories of their house on MacDonald Drive. The crawl space, the tree in the back yard that was 3rd base, climbing the trees in the front yard and listening to Michael Jackson's Thriller album on the record player in the living room.

It's been a few years, but those memories are still as fresh as ever.

Rick Springfield of 1980's pop music fame had a song called "Me and Johnny"...every once in a while it finds it's way to my MP3 player's now playing when I hit shuffle. Here are some lyrics...

Lookin' back I'd say we broke a few rules
Left one or two hearts in a ruin
Spent all that precious time doin'
Things we figured that Presley might have done

Stole a few cars, never got caught
Started some fights in the scrimmage
We got caught up in the image
Of playing young rebels by the handbook
Looking back I guess we had some attitude
We were gonna be hard and tough

Me and Johnny
We're gonna play tonight
It's gonna be alright
We're gonna shine

I think of the Doctor when I hear that song...and 1000's of times in between those times.

May 29 is his birthday...out of all my friends and cousins, that's the only person's birthday I have memorized.

Happy Birthday, Dr. S.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If I had the voice of reason, why didn't anyone listen to me?!?

Don't forget, our dad was also the lightening fast pit crew for your dad's sprint car team...didn't we run out of gas on the way home between Madison and Foresburg one time?...I guess the pit crew only has to worry about keeping gas in the race car.

There are alot of memories growing up with the good Dr. And only by the grace of God we are all still here today! Happy birthday brother!!

Brent

Anonymous said...

Tom - I remember all the fun you guys had too. Seems like on occasion I disciplined you just as if you were my own - oh -now I remember - I guess I did think that "toe" belonged to one of my own : ) lots of good memories.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the Birthday wish. It's amazing to me that I think of the same things you wrote when I think of our time growing up together.
I had a good day, got to spend it with my parents and my family. Sydney caught her first fish with a Dora the Explorer fishing pole, while dad and I had the expensive poles and didn't even have a bite. I wanted to go to the river like we used to but we didn't have time for that.
Thanks again.

Jon

Anonymous said...

Mom said... And shine you have! We love you all and are proud of you. Penny