I’m sitting at the pool doing my Wednesday evening pool duty. I look through the windows of the adjacent fitness room at the television that is clearly showing the Family Guy adult cartoon. It reminds me of my youth and sharing a room with my older sister. We would lie across the bed and watch the silent movies shown on the TV at the next door neighbor’s house. Sometimes we would crawl up in the window space to get a better look. Our neighbor, who had only one child, was glad to share this time with us. Sometimes she would even come out into the gangway and toss us a Popsicle or ice cream bar so we could enjoy the program as her daughter. This went on for a few weeks unknown to our mom. The neighbor would come into her daughter’s room and make sure the curtains were pulled back far enough so we could see what show her daughter was watching.
We would giggle at the black and white images not knowing what was being said only that the movement of the characters was funny. The next day we would meet up with our friend and talk about the movie. We could imagine what was going on in the film. Once we giggled so loud that it brought our mom up the stairs and into our room to see what we were doing. Ah shucks. There goes our nighttime treat because we knew our mom was going to speak to the neighbor. Its simple things like that that make me appreciate a time in my childhood. Such are the memories of a writer.