The following are memories of my childhood and the colorful cast of characters who have raised me, lived with me (at one time or another), befriended me and are some how related to me (through DNA or otherwise) whether they care to admit if or not!
I was raised in Cleveland, Ohio...actually the small west side suburb of Bay Village. Life was calm and quiet until the winter of 1975 when my parents divorced. Little did they know that that one event would open the door for me to become the adventurous, risk taking, prank loving adolescent with the tarnished halo that I became!
I somehow was blessed with the God given talent of knowing how to elude the watchful eyes of neighbors and police. With Dad gone and Mom working, my older sister and younger brother and I were on our own! I quickly developed a motto that would take me through those difficult middle school years and into high school - "Evade and elude and when necessary, run like hell"!
I remember alway having a sense of humor. Some people communicate their humorous nature orally. I was never a Jay Leno type. I expressed mine by trying to find the humor in every situation and taking advantage of every opportunity to insert a comical prank. When you think about it, I was the first to "Punk"! I had a tendency to try and make these events bigger than life! And almost always.....I had accomplices!
Bay Village was approximately a mile wide and six miles long (so far as I know it still is). Bay gained a great deal of publicity in the '60's due to an infamous murder. No, I wasn't in any way involved. My pranks didn't involve anything gruesome....well, most didn't. We didn't have a movie theater or McDonald's, and hanging out at Dairy Queen watching rug rats smear Blizzards on their designer bibs wasn't cool. As a result, we had to be creative with how we were going to spend our nights and weekends! We climbed trees, played ghost in the graveyard and kick the can. We hung out on the beaches of Lake Erie around bonfires. Basically, we used the neighborhoods as our playgrounds!
I wasn't a bad kid - as long as you don't ask the neighbor (we'll call them Smith) on the next street over! They might beg to differ. All because one late spring night my cohorts and I had the most ingenious idea. I didn't know the family well. They had three or four kids, the oldest being a girl in my class who I was not fond of for some reason (I truly can't recall why.....probably didn't have a sense of humor or wore braces).
Down in the basement I dug around for some fishing line and a fishing weight. I tied one end to the sinker leaving a little tail. We walked across the street and through the backyards to the Smith's house. When we looked inside the family room window, we saw all the kids sound asleep on the couches and floor....perfect!! I knelt down and taped the end of the fishing line with the weight to the bottom corner of their window. If I gently pulled on the line, the weight knocked against the window....Bingo!! I took the spool of line and held it loosely in my hands allowing it to unwind as I ran back through the yards and across the street to my garage, easily 100 yards. I prayed a car wouldn't come by because it could snap the line or maybe just drag me half way to the next town!
Once in the garage we settled in and gently tugged away! I was so proud of myself as I imagined the scene in the Smith house as they tried to discover the source of the tapping. Somehow it never occurred to me that the Smiths would eventually find the knocking noise and follow the line into my garage where I would be blissfully yanking and laughing. How's that for perfect planning? It wasn't too long before the Smiths walked in and found me in the dark tugging away. Certainly one of those "Oh S...!" moments. I believe all my accomplices at that time bolted out the back door of the garage leaving me alone to face the music with all the evidence in my hands! It's times like these you find out who your real friends are!
Looking back this was the only time I recall getting caught! My mother sent me over to the Smith's house the next day to apologize. I don't know if I was more sorry for what I did or that I got caught!
