Rock Island, July 1968
When I was 7 1/2 years old, we moved from a nice house in Wisconsin, a block from the beach, to a gross house in Ill-An-Noise, in back of the grade school. Yuck!
This new world was stupid and boring, but I was determined to make the best of it. The first thing I needed was a boyfriend. Somebody to show me around, introduce me to other kids, point out the places to get necessities (like cookies and comic books), and the places to avoid (with mean dogs, mean boys, crazy ladies, and escaped killers).
He should be a boy, of course, around my age, and preferably both nice and cute.
In August, when school started, there would be a whole roomful of boys choose from, but that was over a month away, an eternity for a 7 1/2 year old! I needed somebody now!
Fortunately, 1968 was the heart of the Baby Boom, the biggest generation in history. There were 77 million kids growing up in the U.S., some in nearly every house on every street in the country. It didn't take long to compile a list of prospects who lived within a couple of blocks.
Bill, who became my boyfriend in February, wasn't on the list -- I think he was away on vacation at the time. Joel and Greg, who would become close friends later on, lived three blocks away, too far.
But there were a lot of boys left. You have to figure out who I chose:
1. The Little Kid, aka Mike (top photo), who lived next door. He was a year younger than me, but he had muscles and a brown smiling face. We ran under the sprinkler in his front yard, clothes and all, which soaked my shirt and pants and got me in trouble.
2. The Cereal Boy, a cute redhead with freckles, a year older than me (left). He invited me to watch Saturday morning cartoons and eat cereal -- but it was Froot Loops! I hate Froot Loops!
3. The Football Player, aka Mean Dave, who punched me in the stomach and called me a "girl," then helped me to my feet and said "I was just kidding. You want to go to the high school and watch the football players practicing?" They didn't have football at Denkmann, but he was playing on a summer enrichment team, and he wanted to be a football player when he grew up.
4. The Parakeet Boy, aka Nice Dave (left), a curly-haired blond boy who had two dogs, a rabbit, a parakeet, and a hamster. He talked to the parakeet, and made it eat a cracker out of his mouth, which I found gross. But I liked petting the dogs and the rabbit.
5. The Old Guy, much taller than me, with all kinds of muscles. But he was eleven -- almost a teenager! Way too old for me, sort of like a West Hollywood twink dating someone in his 70s. And he said crazy things, like he already knew how to drive a car and he could stay up until midnight if he wanted. He had tons of toys in his room, plus a sticker labeled "panic button"; he said if he pushed that, sirens would go off and the whole house would shake.
I tried. Nothing happened. He said "It only works for me."
6. The Sick Kid (left), pale, kind of ugly, always looked like he was pain, but he had a round plastic pool in his back yard, and his Mom brought us lemonade in plastic glasses with little palm tree straws.
7. The Angel, aka David Angel (there were a lot of Davids in the neighborhood): puppy-dog cute, but painfully shy. When I try to talk to him, he ran to the back of the house. When I went to the back of the house, he ran to the front.
8. The Rock Star, aka Craig (left), who wanted to be a rock musician. He had weird hippie hair that turned me off, but he never wore a shirt, which was nice. We went into his basement and played rock stars with his drums and guitar.
9. The Indian, aka Bobby, a year younger than me, short and slim with black hair and a bright smile. He wasn't really from India, but he looked like Raji, the boy on
Maya. But it was hard to get close to him, since he lived on the other side of the house where the Killer lived, a crazy-evil blond boy who attacked anyone who came nearby.
Ok, which of these 9 hot guys did I choose to become my summertime boyfriend?
Answer after the break.
