Steve did OK in primary school, until the state decided to stop teaching phonics. Spelling just wasn’t something that Steve would ever get a handle on. His father made up phonic flash cards, and they would sit in front of the old roll top desk until Steve could go through all the cards. He didn’t always get through them, so he was sent to bed after eating crackers and a glass of milk for dinner as punishment.
Steve was seven before he stopped wetting his bed. His father came into his room early one night and discovered that the bed was already wet. His father lost his temper, picked Steve right up out of bed and hit Steve in the mouth. Steve lost his two upper middle teeth that night. He was lucky. Steve’s new teeth came in OK, but he had a large gap in the middle; this bothered him when he started dating.
Steve enjoyed most adventures like other kids his age. He was a Cub Scout for a short time. He would help during special events and holidays at the local AMVETS club that his father belonged to. A real cutup in school, Steve was used to going to the Principal’s Office to be paddled. Usually for something silly like jumping out of the swings over the safety rail that surrounded them.
One afternoon while on an adventure with Dave Wilson and a group of other friends, Steve actually fell into some quicksand. It was really scary, but after the yelling and running around trying to figure just what to do, with everyone’s help they managed to pull Steve out by the time the quicksand was in up to his chest. Of course, he received a good whipping when he came home that evening for being covered in mud. No matter how much Steve protested, his parents would not believe there was quicksand within miles of the city, let alone within the neighborhood; maybe on the movie lot in Thousand Oaks where Tarzan was filmed.
The next time Steve went to the quicksand, the spot was roped off with yellow warning tape. There was a big motor with a large hose going from the quicksand, to the motor, out the other side and then down the hill. A huge tractor had pushed dirt into the backside of the quicksand. Before the end of the summer, a house stood where the quicksand used to be.
Then there was the time Dave Wilson went with him to visit a friend. When they got there, an ambulance was parked out front of the house and Steve and Dave watched as their friend was brought out of the house on a stretcher to the waiting ambulance. He had a square patch of cotton gauze over his left eye, and blood was running from under the patch into his open mouth. The boy had been playing Cowboys and Indians with another friend in the bedroom with real guns. Steve never did hear weather his friend lived or not; but noticed he was never at school from that day on.
Steve’s Mother didn’t work outside the home. That wasn’t the way families were in those days. His Father would never permit it. So on hot afternoons while their Dad was at work, Steve, Sheryl and Jason would pile into the old war surplus “Willy’s Jeep” and go to the beach; including their dog Kibby. Steve grew-up on the beach. It was great to body surf until you got too cold and then dive into the hot summer sand and roll around until you got too hot, then go back into the water and body surf some more.
One afternoon in the Jeep on the way to the beach, Sheryl hid behind the driver’s seat. When Steve’s mom turned around to take a quick head count, she came up one short. Her face turned white and a feeling of panic and horror took over the moment. She thought Sheryl had fallen out of the Jeep and onto the highway. Of course she hadn’t. Steve thought that was very funny and Kibby started barking because of all the excitement.
Kibby was Steve’s closest friend when Dave Wilson wasn’t around. The dog came from the pound. Kibby liked to go anywhere if it meant a ride in the car or Jeep. Kibby had gas most of the time, and would wait until everyone was in the car before sneaking off a quiet bomb. It got so bad; the only time Kibby was allowed to go with the family was when they were going in the Jeep. All you had to say was the word “Jeep” and within seconds Kibby was sitting in the front passenger seat, looking straight ahead, all ready to go.
One afternoon, after school, Steve came into the kitchen to find his mother on the phone, looking out the kitchen window over the sink, talking to the neighbors across the street. Sheryl had piled some clothes and her favorite doll into the wagon and announced she was leaving home, running away! Steve’s Mom was watching out the window and would call each house Sheryl went to and warn them Sheryl was coming and why. Sheryl was back within the hour, complaining that no one wanted her.
Steve loved to explore. Once, while going through the neighbor’s garbage cans, Steve discovered some watermelon. Steve loved watermelon and he eat it all. Including some of the Rhine. Steve got very sick. Even though Steve still liked watermelon after he got well, he would never be able to eat much more than two slices.
Things got rather exciting the time Steve found some matches and lighted an old can of paint he found in the garbage. It was great to see the fire truck roll-up with siren blaring and lights flashing. The neighbor’s house got a little scorched and came close to catching fire; it didn’t, but the fence was gone; burnt real fast.
Steve’s dad loved to hunt. He would go off early Friday afternoon and come back late Sunday night, usually with a Deer or Birds. One weekend his dad came home with an airplane propeller he had discovered from an airplane wreck and backpacked it out of the forest. His father did some minor damage to his back, but claimed that it was worth it to see the look on Steve’s face. Steve loved to play on the big twisted piece of aluminum. Because his father hunted, Steve learned to eat many different kinds of wild game. He never really went hungry as a child.
After the city had buried the large sewer pipes that Steve and Sue Halsy had played “Olden Days” in a few blocks from the house; one of the workmen was down inside the pipe and had lighted a match to smoke a cigarette and was blown right up the pipe in the street and high into the air. The very same pipe that Steve called the “submarine Tower”. Dave Wilson saw it. There was much excitement over that event. Dave Wilson said the man was blown “Sky high”.
Very early one morning Steve came into the kitchen and found his mom washing the dishes, looking out the south-facing window above the sink. Steve was behind her asking a question and was looking directly at her back. His mom was answering him while looking out the window. Suddenly the sky turned very bright, as if the sun had fallen into the earth. They both saw it. That night the paper said that because of the early time of day and the way the atmosphere reflected it, the bright light was actually an atomic bomb being tested in the desert. It could be seen for hundreds and hundreds of miles. Steve was very impressed. Not everybody gets to really see an atomic bomb, and lived to tell about it, especially a kid.
Steve had a habit of making up stories. He would lie about anything. There was even the time his father asked him how old he was and Steve stood right in front of him and lied. So you couldn’t believe much of anything Steve had to say. It took a very tragic accident to break him of the habit.