Torching Castle Greyskull
Being back in Long Beach has triggered a flood of memories that I had believed to be long gone.
Many of them centered around Craig, the neighbor that lived across the street from me.
Craig was probably 6 or 7 years old when I started baby sitting him. His mother liked to play bingo on Thursday nights and I got the regular Thursday night gig to watch Craig for $10.
Unfortunately, ten bucks wasn't enough to spend time in this house. It was always is pretty sad shape. Dishes overflowed out of the sink. Sickly dogs roamed freely while biting off their fur. Cats would jump on my lap and stick their asses in my face.
All in all, it wasn't a very pleasant place to spend any time at...so we would look for things to do outside.
Usually, this involved my friend Nick.
Nick had a sadistic streak and enjoyed tormenting the neighborhood kids - including Craig.
Maybe the worst thing I saw Nick do was attach multiple fireworks to Craig's He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Castle Greyskull play set and light them simultaneously.
Craig liked it at first...until he realized that his toy was now mostly melted plastic.
As I look at Craig today, I really am hoping he's forgotten all of the stuff that I let Nick do to him and his stuff.
He's in his late 20's and he's bought that same house that he lived in from his Mom. I don't really want to ask about his Mom. She was really big back when I used to babysit him.
Like "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" big, if you know what I mean.
She can't still be alive, can she?
Craig stops by as we work on the duplex. There are some awkward silences between us. I don't even know where to start a conversation with him and he just looks at me with the same goofy grin that he had when he was 8.
He tells me that he's an engineer with Metrolink.
I will now probably never ride in one of those trains again.
He's hired Tripper to work on his house. I want to tell him that he should check up on Tripper more because he's spending a buttload of time over here watching us.
Then, Craig does something totally unexpected.
He saves my ass.
We've hired a contractor to come in to refinish the word floors. Unfortunately, this contractor didn't realize that this house didn't have the proper electrical set up to use their equipment.
Craig sees what's happening. Comes over to my dad's place. And offers to run an extension cord across the street to his house to power their machines.
It's probably the most unsafe and illegal activity I've been associated with in almost 20 years but I need to get those floors done.
And without Craig volunteering to provide the electricity, it would have delayed everything that we were trying to do.
Maybe I've been cringing just a little too much about my past. Maybe I'm remembering only the bad things that happened on my watch with Craig.
Whether it was playing kickball in his front yard or Super Mario Brothers in his living room, I know that there were times when he did enjoy the Thursday nights that we would spend together.
If only that house hadn't smelled like cat pee...
VW
Many of them centered around Craig, the neighbor that lived across the street from me.
Craig was probably 6 or 7 years old when I started baby sitting him. His mother liked to play bingo on Thursday nights and I got the regular Thursday night gig to watch Craig for $10.
Unfortunately, ten bucks wasn't enough to spend time in this house. It was always is pretty sad shape. Dishes overflowed out of the sink. Sickly dogs roamed freely while biting off their fur. Cats would jump on my lap and stick their asses in my face.
All in all, it wasn't a very pleasant place to spend any time at...so we would look for things to do outside.
Usually, this involved my friend Nick.
Nick had a sadistic streak and enjoyed tormenting the neighborhood kids - including Craig.
Maybe the worst thing I saw Nick do was attach multiple fireworks to Craig's He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Castle Greyskull play set and light them simultaneously.
Craig liked it at first...until he realized that his toy was now mostly melted plastic.
As I look at Craig today, I really am hoping he's forgotten all of the stuff that I let Nick do to him and his stuff.
He's in his late 20's and he's bought that same house that he lived in from his Mom. I don't really want to ask about his Mom. She was really big back when I used to babysit him.
Like "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" big, if you know what I mean.
She can't still be alive, can she?
Craig stops by as we work on the duplex. There are some awkward silences between us. I don't even know where to start a conversation with him and he just looks at me with the same goofy grin that he had when he was 8.
He tells me that he's an engineer with Metrolink.
I will now probably never ride in one of those trains again.
He's hired Tripper to work on his house. I want to tell him that he should check up on Tripper more because he's spending a buttload of time over here watching us.
Then, Craig does something totally unexpected.
He saves my ass.
We've hired a contractor to come in to refinish the word floors. Unfortunately, this contractor didn't realize that this house didn't have the proper electrical set up to use their equipment.
Craig sees what's happening. Comes over to my dad's place. And offers to run an extension cord across the street to his house to power their machines.
It's probably the most unsafe and illegal activity I've been associated with in almost 20 years but I need to get those floors done.
And without Craig volunteering to provide the electricity, it would have delayed everything that we were trying to do.
Maybe I've been cringing just a little too much about my past. Maybe I'm remembering only the bad things that happened on my watch with Craig.
Whether it was playing kickball in his front yard or Super Mario Brothers in his living room, I know that there were times when he did enjoy the Thursday nights that we would spend together.
If only that house hadn't smelled like cat pee...
VW
posted by JVW at 6:39 PM
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