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SNEAKING OUT
At night Steve would sneak out of his room, through his window, careful not to wake his sleeping brother, and meet-up with Carl. He lived just three houses away. They didn’t do much. Just sneaking out of the house was the adventure.
One night Steve showed up at Carl’s bedroom window as planned. Carl’s curtain was open and Steve could see Carl in bed. Steve tapped on the window. Carl didn’t move. Steve tapped a couple more times; still no movement. Steve got a coin out of his pocket and tapped it hard on the window. A train was going through town off in the distance. The noise it made masked the tapping, to Steve. So Steve tapped harder and longer. Carl got out of bed, still in his pajamas. Carl was not dressed as in times before. Steve knew something was wrong. Carl was usually ready. His parents must be awake.
Carl came to the window. “You’re too loud. My folks are going to hear you”, Carl was saying to Steve as his bedroom light came on. It was Carl’s Father. Steve could hear Carl’s Dad. “What’s going on here?” Carl answered “Nothing”. “Who’s making all that racket, and why are you out of bed Carl?” Carl’s Dad was not happy. He came to the window and saw Steve standing outside. “Come to the front door”, Carl’s Father directed Steve.
Once inside, Steve answered a lot of questions and gave lengthy discussion on his reason for waking up the family. Carl pleaded innocent, and left Steve to take all the blame. Carl’s father got Steve to agree not to come back at night unless invited and sent Steve home. Steve left, and the front door was closed behind him. Before Steve got to the front yard gate, Steve looked up into the North sky and started to scream very loud.
Carl’s front porch light came on and the front door flew open. “What’s the matter Steve?” Carl’s Father was running to rescue Steve. “Are you hurt?” Steve pointed to the North sky and screamed, “What’s that? Are we in a war?” Carl’s father laughed and brought Steve inside. Steve was very shook up. “Calm down Steve”, Carl’s Mother soothed. Carl’s Father interrupted, “It is only a rocket blasting off at the Missile Base. That is where your Father works. Haven’t you ever seen a rocket blast off before?” Carl’s Mother had gotten up and went to the phone. She was talking to someone, but Steve couldn’t hear her.
Steve was beginning to calm down. Carl’s Mother came back to Steve and said she had just called his Father and that he was expected home right away. Steve left. A little shaken. The missile could still be seen in the dark sky. Fire shooting from the end of the missile as it leaned to the West, climbing higher. It had beautiful shades of reds, blues and white. High it screamed into the sky, until all that could be seen was the white fiery tail; now a small dot of light in the sky. Steve had just witnessed a test rocket blast off. At first Steve remembered that morning he saw the flash from an Atomic Bomb. That’s what scared him. Atomic Bombs were very real to every child that went to school at that time.
All schools were teaching kids how to “Duck and Cover” in case of an attack. That meant, very simply, to put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye. But this wasn’t an Atomic Bomb. Yet in a way, it was the closest thing to it. This missile was designed to carry an Atomic Bomb.
Steve had Cousins that lived just a few houses to the East. Actually, it was about a block and a half. They were Cousins through his Uncle’s marriage, two boys, Tom and his older brother Richard. Tom was a year older than Steve was.
Steve’s Uncle was the oldest of his Father’s family. He had three children the youngest was Randy. He was a year older than Steve. Randy’s Sister, Beverly, would baby-sit Steve and his Brother and Sister on occasion. But after a while Beverly refused to watch Steve, she couldn’t handle him. Randy’s brother, Rufus, was into science fiction and had even had a few of his stories published. Rufus was the oddball of the family, and years later he joined a monastery and became a Buddhist Monk. Randy was the one who introduced Steve to Tom. Randy lived just a few blocks South West of Steve in the same tract home complex, but built a year later than Steve’s home.
Randy, Tom and Steve had many adventures during Steve’s last year of Grammar School. Richard taught the boys how to light farts and play cards.
Weekends found the boys into anything they could invent for entertainment. Including climbing onto the school roof to see what was up there. Of course they got caught. Getting down turned out to be harder than the climb up.
Steve chose to climb onto the top of a chain-link fence between two buildings and on the way down his hand got caught on the top of the fence. There he was, hanging from the top of the fence, not quite touching the ground, with the back of his hand impaled by the sharp wire at the top. Steve was making a lot of noise about how much it hurt. Randy ran home to get help as he lived the closest. Randy’s Mom came to the rescue and helped lift Steve up so he could get the wire out of the back of his hand. Once off the fence the hurting stopped, and a permanent scar marked the event for the rest of Steve’s life.
Progress is something that seems to occur without much help. To Steve, change was not noticed. Large sections of the Walnut Orchard were being replaced with tract houses, and the grove of Avocado trees became a large Discount Warehouse. The old Walnut Packinghouse was empty all year now, and the big bin hanging over the tracks was empty of Walnuts.
Right next to the old Railroad Station House was a small workshop that was now occupied by two men that sat around building little cars that would race around a grooved black track. The men said they invented the cars. They called them “Slot Cars”. Steve would dig through the garbage looking for discarded parts and build his own cars. Steve’s cars were fast. He even entered a race at the local hobby shop and was in first place over all. He never got to finish though. Steve got a call from his father demanding he return home for dinner. It was too late for Steve to be out. To bad. Steve was qualified in the citywide championship meet the following week, and only had one more race to secure the position. Steve lost interest in the hobby after that night. There wasn’t much point in racing cars when he wouldn’t be allowed out of town to compete. Steve didn’t own a track anyway. But he still enjoyed stopping by the little shack and talking to the men about the cars and watching the changes that were made to make the cars run even faster. Fast was something that Steve enjoyed. Life was just that for Steve, fast.
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