Tuning Spork answers his cellphone:
TS: Hello?
Freedom's Slave: Yo, Spork.
TS: Yo, Slave. 'Sup?
FS: I'm up at the Trumbull Mall right now, but heading to the rock concert in a little while. Wanna come with?
TS: Groovy! I'm not home right now, though...
FS: Well, just tell me where you are and I'll come pick you up.
TS: 'Kay. Leave the mall over by where Circuit City is. Turn right and go until you get to Warehouse Liquors, turn right and then bear left so's you come out over at Super Stop & Shop. Turn left and go all the way 'til you get to the Splash Express Carwash -- across from M&R Convience Mart -- and turn right. Go all the way past A&P until you get to Pizza Post and then turn right. I'll meet out in front of Kohl's.
FS: Spork, I have no farkin' idea where any of those places are. Remember, I've been out of town for a few years.
TS: Oh, right. Okay. Leave the mall over where the UA Trumbull Theater used to be and take a right. Go past where Crazy Eddie used to be until you get to where Pathmark used to be. Turn right then bear left so's you come out where Dewhurst Dairy used to be. Turn left and go past where the Three Door Restaurant used to be until you come to where the Shamrock Pub used to be -- across from where Tom Thumb Variety used to be -- and turn right. Drive all the way past where King Cole Supermarket used to be until you come to where Fitzwilly's and the Community Theater used to be - over by where Bradlee's used to be. Turn right and I'll meet you out in front of where Caldor used to be.
FS: Got it. See ya in a bit.
TS: If I'm still here...
Posted by Tuning Spork at January 2, 2005 04:59 PMLOL
Posted by: Ted at January 3, 2005 06:07 AMCool, be there in a bit! I'm bringin' the McNuggets!
Posted by: Tuning Spork at January 3, 2005 10:12 PMHey, wait up!
The one that makes me the saddest: where Dewhirst Dairy used to be. To think -- kids used to actually catch fish and tadpoles in the pond there, Spork. And now it's a supermarket. (They paved paradise . . . .) We grew up in fargin' Bridgeport and yet the area was still, in the '70s and '80s, sufficiently undeveloped that we could feel like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. I had no idea how drastically the landscape of our youth would change. Do you remember the woods and field near my parents' condo at the old Notre Dame? It was like a small-scale wilderness. There were hills and streams all over the place; huge fallen trees to climb on. Like some primeval forest. Places where kids could really have adventures. We used to wander all over town -- the whole city had these little pockets of woods, with rivulets and such. (God, I would NEVER let my children wander the way that we used to -- at the ripe old age of eight, we'd leave the house in the morning and wouldn't reappear until lunch time. After lunch, same thing until dinner time. Our mothers never had a clue where we were! They must have been nuts. You remember the great story of Sid and Nicky walking down Woodmont, crossing Main Street, going into Captain's Pizza, ordering lunch, eating it and then having no money to pay? And why didn't they have money? They had no idea they even needed money. Because they were like five years old!!! What kind of insanity is that? When I was nine or ten, I'd ride my bike all over the city, or I'd wander all over the place with a BB gun in hand!)
Anyway, sorry for dragging the rest of your friends and readers along for that reverie. Anyone else have great childhood memories of having adventures that you'd NEVER allow your own children to replicate?
What was the first concert you ever saw, Spork? Mine was Jethro Tull, 1976.
Posted by: Freedom's Slave at January 7, 2005 11:04 PM