cobrar

Summer is just around the corner and here lately my mind has been filled with my youth.

All those days spent beating the hell out of my BMX (never was cool enough to own a Mongoose), trying to pull off stupid tricks, yet somehow, I never broke a single bone. Though, I did skin myself alive on more than one occasion.

Let's not forget those evenings spent watching Star Trek: TNG, or the late weekend nights spent with my dad watching horror flicks that we would rent every saturday.

Sundays were fun too. Those days were spent at the arcade with my pops, with its shag type carpet and pedophile friendly low lighting. I remember having to put my money in a token machine, and just how those tokens looked with the name of the joint "Aladdin" splayed across the octagon shaped coins. I think I might have one or two of those still...

I also think back on those saturday morning cartoons that I lived for. He-Man, Justice League, G.I. JOE, GoBots, Transformers, Voltron, Thunder Cats, and the list goes on. I quietly wonder to myself "how did I ever manage to cram all that in on a single morning?", then it dawns on me "Oh yeah, they started at 5 fucking am!".

I also played my NES a lot back then. Most of which was spent with my pops playing Festers Quest. We never did beat that fucking game. Came close, though.

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Early teen years come along, and the game completely changes. No longer do those sacred cartoons or bikes matter, but music and girls have now become the major obsession. The music genre you lean towards helps direct you towards your personal style (for me, it was Metal and Grunge) and ultimately, what type of girl you can attract.

Pot has also entered the picture. A substance that, although illegal, is far easier for kids to get their hands on than alcohol. Go figure.

The local roller rink often held "All Nighters" throughout the summers (probably still do), and that was the best venue for everyone to be able to get together and spend enormous time getting high, and the long make out sessions, away from parental supervision. We all knew how much of a buzz kill our folks were. I still remember the flat sodas and overly expensive, cardboard tasting pizza that the place served. As well as how LOUD the music was played in there. I'm suprised my ears still work.

MTV still played music videos back then.

Cigarettes. All the cool kids smoked them, so it was only natural that I followed suit. A particular brand hadn't been favored yet, as I pretty much had to take whatever I could get (be it menthols or non filters). Still, it was fairly easy to get your hands on a pack, as the stores back then displayed them outside of the cashiers booth. All one had to do was walk by the stands (very closely) and just snag a pack that happened to be the closest to your hand. More often than not, it happened to be "Mavericks".

There was also a seedy little pizza joint that had a cigarette vending machine in its lobby. If you could get the coin together, the owners didn't care if a kid "purchased" a pack there.

Also, VCRs were still around $300-$500, basic cable was cheap enough, but if you added channels, the price went up sharpley. And satellite was just plain rediculous.

Those days were spent hanging out, getting high, making out with girls (occasionlly trying to cop a feel), and listening to music really loud. I miss those days.

Oh yeah, SNES. Starfox, Earthworm Jim, Spiderman: Maximum Carnage and Killer Instinct.
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Jump forward to mid-to-late teens. Not much has changed, except you can now drive (or at least have a friend who can). Sex had also become more available, and popularity was now more crucial than ever.

I wasn't popular. In fact, I was an outcast amongst outcasts. My friends were all cooler than I was, yet they weren't anywhere close to being popular. I don't know what the hell happened, but I took a wrong turn somewhere.

10th grade. I managed to snag a really cute girlfriend (Annie) who was, quite literally, my first love. She was also the first girl who broke my heart. We dated all throughout that school year and through that summer. It was torment for us (at least me) when we had to spend 4 weeks apart from each other that summer. She spent two weeks in Hawaii with her grand parents, and we got only two days to spend together after she got back before I had to split for Florida with my family for two weeks. That was the most miserable time I spent in my life (at the time).

After our time apart came to and end, we spent the rest of that summer doing all the mushy stuff that goes along with puppy love. But, a couple of weeks prior to school starting back up for our 11th grade year, she announced we needed time apart. My heart sank. She never gave me an actual reason, but the outcome kind of made it obvious. The day before school started she called me to say that she thought it best if we broke up. I was devastated. I found out three days later, by her best friend, that she was dating a guy she had known since she was little. So much for love.

I spent the rest of that time just trudging along. Going to the Star Wars movies when Lucas rereleased them (for the first time), banging away on a set of pearl drums and flunking math. Not to mention the marathon sessions on Sonys Playstation (Metal Gear Solid) and Nintendos N64 (Golden Eye).

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After Highschool. I ended up living with my friends (7 of us in a 3 bedroom house). It was a complete bachelors pad. I slept on an air mattress, another slept on a couch IN a closet and the rest alternated between the love seats and floor. The living room was converted into the band room where we practiced, recorded and nearly spent all of our free time. Even though we padded as much of it up as possible, we still had the cops called on us several times until we eventually figured out our neighbors scheduals, and practiced around their time away.

We also had a couch on the front porch, where a whole lot of shenanigans took place. Many a night was spent with some 40 oz beers and acoustic guitars either playing songs we knew, or we would just wing it and make something up on the spot. A whole lot of fuckin' took place on that couch as well. I'm sure the neighbors got a good peek often as one of us was usually still up around sunrise, while they were all heading in to work.

Good times.

The party ended when my best friend commited suicide, July of '00.

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Early 20's. Things slowed down by that time, and most of us moved on. Some got married, others moved away (as I eventually did, only to return). I ended up moving to Lexington for a short while after Patrick took his life, and did upholstry work for car seats. That job sucked all kinds of dick, and the winter didn't help. I swear it snowed at least twice a week, and being only 270 miles from my hometown where we're lucky to get snow fall once every decade, that was a major shock. I ended up hating snow.

After having my car ran off the road and tearing it all to hell, I made my way back to this shitty little town and I've been here since.

After living off what I managed to save up for a few months, I finally took a job as a carpenter building homes and doing remodels. I learned a lot, had a blast working for my boss (Wade) and for the first time in my life, found something that I wanted to do for quite some time. Unfortunately, 9/11 happened and screwed me right out of a job, due to the market closing up.

Since then, I've bounced from job to job. Working in restraunts, sheet metal and millwright construction, carwashes, photo processing plants and a slew of other jobs. the most recent was for Duracell, where I worked a couple of years 'til I got hit with the lay-off this past October.

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My youth was partially normal, though I had to bounce back and forth between my parents (they were divorced). My teen years were spent fist fighting with my step-mom. She was highly abusive to both me and my dad (she ran him over with a car once), but I always fought back. And my early to mid 20's were spent at the bottom of a bottle, where I battled that addiction (I even relapsed).

My life hasn't amounted to much, if anything, but it's been an interesting ride. I've experienced a whole lot more than what I wrote, but I think this puts a good perspective on me. Perhaps sometime down the road I'll dig a little deeper.

For now though, I'll sit here and take in the fact that in 4 months, I'll be turning 30.

I wonder, am I going to be that creepy old man who cruises the mall, trolling for ass...