Trekking Down Memory Lane - Part 2

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Trekking Down Memory Lane - Part 2 Okay now for some good memories - hopefully. I almost forgot the most exciting part of my childhood. It was actually fun. I currently live three houses away from where I did at one time in my very young life, which is right around the block from Channel 5 TV station. I'm not sure how old I was, but I was young. It was the time when Romper Room was just getting started. My mother took me in the wagon to the station and I remember walking across the cable cords and going into the studio where we, the other kids and me, sat in a semi circle. I don't remember much about the show except the stick horse. I'm guessing that was the microphone as it was passed between us. So yes, I'm a TV star. It wasn’t the only time I was on television. I was in choir in school so we went on television at Christmas time for the local choir programs. One of the best times of my life was spent at Bay Beach Amusement Park here in Green Bay. They always had the fireworks there on the Fourth of July. I wish they still did. But on my fifth birthday my grandmother gave me a record player and record - Happy Birthday. I loved that record player. For those of you too young to know what a record player is, they played vinyl records. Mine played 45s. I'm the oldest of four. My brother next to me in age is deceased, Father's Day 2014, so there are just my sister and younger brother left along with my father. I guess the best times of my life were had with my friends. They all lived on farms, and one in particular I spent more time with than the other two. I would sleep over at her house. We played in the barn, washed the family car, and I helped with regular chores. It was a lot of fun doing those things for people who appreciated it. One of the best sleep over's was a party she had and I had pizza for the first time. We made several pizzas with scores of different toppings - it was great! I got together with two of my friends for a beach picnic one summer. I had lots of fun. Before I went into the Navy I went bowling with one of my friends and had a blast. It was also one of the few times I did okay and got more than a hundred for a score. I love bowling, I just don't do very well. Any time I spent away from home was the best. It took years before I even had a good relationship with my siblings, though I love my younger brother immensely, always have. I remember praying for a brother, even though I already had one. We didn't get along too well. So when he was born, he was the love of my life. I would do anything for him. Even today. I used to take him to the school playground, the park, even the river where we put our feet in the water. I got in trouble on every occasion for doing so. Supposedly I was too young to take him to the playground, park, or the river. I'm ten years older than my younger brother. My life was fraught with camping trips - mostly in the rain. I hate camping, especially tent camping. I'll take hotel camping over a tent any day of the week; my mother's temper tantrums because she thought I was too stupid to know or understand anything, and Dad's bullying. Camping trips were more fishing trips or cherry picking trips than they were anything fun. Dad would spend the entire day out in the boat fishing while we occupied ourselves, in the rain, mostly in the tent. There wasn't a whole lot to do all day in the rain. When it wasn't raining, we went swimming, though I really don't remember too many trips where we actually had a chance to swim. There was one camping trip that I did love. The campground had two trails and a logging camp. You can bet I spent as much time on those trails and at the logging camp as I could. We went to this campground several times. On one occasion there was a water ski show when we were there. It was also the time two things happened - the car broke down and Dad had to get a new one, and my brother and sister left for home - hitchhiking. Needless to say the camping trip was cut short as my father went looking for my siblings. I'm not sure if he found them before they got home or they got home first. That is always foggy in my mind. End Part 2