I find it funny that I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday but I can remember living on Keating Drive in the early 60s. The only place to hang out was a convenience store at the top of the street. For some strange reason, we had a police station at the top of the street with one police officer working there. It’s not like the neighbourhood was a hotbed of teenage gangland. During a hurricane, a big tree fell on the station to the joy of all the local teenagers. I’m not sure if this is an accurate memory, but it swear his name was Bubba and he was a rather large person. I may be channeling the sheriff from Smokey and the Bandit.
Once, my sister had a party while mom was at work and he showed up at the house to break up the party. I was supposed to be spending the night next door, but I snuck over and was partying with the big kids when the cops came. I was dancing to a song called Mash Potato! Mom was not happy, especially when she saw the cool-aid on the ceiling. Can’t remember how long my sister was grounded for that one.
It was a fun place to grow up for a four year old, you could play on the street and run wild because there was nothing else but suburbia. It probably wasn’t as fun for my teenage sister, no stores, everyone knowing your business, and the beach too far away. I used to run around with my neighbour, Cindy Miles. All my life I’ve had friends with the same name as me and they were all blondes…how strange.
There was this girl that lived at the top of the street who was only popular with the teenagers in the summer because she had a pool and absent parents. She was a bit of a sad case, she was home alone a lot because her mom was in a sanitarium and her father was a traveling salesman. I feel a little guilty that we only liked her because of her pool. Once my sister and I snuck out in the middle of the night and jumped in her pool. Apparently we weren’t as quiet as we thought and suddenly the lights came on in the house. We scrambled out of the pool but before running away away, my sister looked in the window and was spotted by the girl. We thought for sure that we were sunk. The next morning, out of curiosity, we walked past her house and the police officer was in her driveway asking her questions. Since no one turned around and yelled “that’s them!” we decided to walk over and ask what happened, and this is the story she told us:
I was soundly sleeping and was suddenly woken up by a loud crash from outside in patio. I looked out the window and this big black n----r was looking in at the same time. He was just on the other side of the glass, I was scared for my life! He was trying to get into the house, rattling the doors and banging on the window and then he suddenly ran away.My sister and I just looked at each other and beat a hasty retreat, laughing all the way home. She doesn't even have dark hair!
I sure did like living on Keating Drive.
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| Me and Cindy Miles |
