As soon as they could get out of their houses, the three boys took off on their bikes to go exploring for the day. Their parents wouldn’t see them again until dinner. They each packed up a bag lunch; sandwich, chips, juice box, an apple, and a bottle of water. They would mix and match their lunches when it came time to eat sharing and halving favorite items. The boys themselves were a mixed bag, but they were a unit.
Blondie came from parents who were college educated intellectuals, but that didn’t prevent him from his interest in country music, heavy metal, rap, motor cycles, fast cars, guns, and big dogs. He walked down the beach asking every girl he saw, “Would you go out with me?” By the time he got a job and a car, dating was no problem.
Red was the son of professional artisans who actually made enough money to live on with their craft. He was a late starter, but because he was sweet and had talent, he soon hooked up with a little cutie.
The dark haired Suave’, was the best looking of the group, but he had a sour temperament. He had no trouble attracting girls’ attentions, but they moved on as soon as they met his personality.
They weren’t bad boys, but they did shoot birds, throw rocks at snakes, and try to chop down a couple of redwood trees with a hand axe. They snuck cigarettes from whoever they could snag one from. They stole marijuana from one of the dads and had a toke fest up at the encampment.
“Are you high?” his mother asked Blondie when he got home.
“No, I just ate too much candy,” he replied. Which wasn’t really a lie. He had eaten too much candy after smoking some weed and then got the munchies.
They ended up back at Red’s place on the hill in the woods. There the boys had constructed their own little Pleasure Faire campsite. They put up a cabin tent, had three cots, a wooden crate for a table, and sleeping bags. They had a card table for playing games, a gas lantern, and stove for making simple fare.
They built a fire circle safely lined with rocks and brush cleared. Several discarded aluminum chairs were placed around the circle to facilitate fire stirring and conversation. They even had a privy set up away from the camp which they doused with ashes from the fire.
Their bicycles were not the best, but they had been rigged with high handle bars and sissy seats that allowed them to do tricks and make jumps. They ran the creeks jumping logs, sloshing through puddles terrifying any fish waiting for the rains to begin. They finally did get home smelling like a passel of wet pups asking, “Hey Ma, what’s for dinner?”
They carried on like this for three summers until they began to see the necessity of getting a job, getting a car, and getting a girlfriend, although not necessarily in that order.
(First published 11/21/11)
