My story Part 3--Early childhood friendships

I was a country boy growing up. It was not until I was in school that I lived in town. I remember crawdad hunting with family friends, camping trips, and lots of visits to friends with big yards in towns like Myrtle Creek (pronounced crick).

Growing up in the lumber capital of the world, most of our family friends had something to do with that industry. My dad was a carpenter. His best friend since high school was a mill foreman. That man's wife and my mom worked as real estate agents. The other close family friends had a mother who worked as a hairdresser, and a father who worked in the mill. I referred to these people as my aunts and uncles, even though they were not family. A DJ named Wolfman Jack was in the background on the radio.

It seemed that everyone did everything "big" then. Big river rafting is what the adults did a couple times a year for fun. My dad was well-known for his ability to navigate a driftboat through whitewater.

Drinking lots of booze was the other thing that they were known for a lot of the time. I would wake up and the smell of wild game and bloddy mary's would be in the air. A little bit more meat and booze for lunch. A little goofing around in the yard until the football games came on television. Then, more drinking, this time coke and bourbon. All the old men were usually asleep on the couch or just plain loopy by a little after dinner.

The kids had a great time. At least I did. Most of the other families had all boys, so it was generally my sister with the women, and all us boys outside playing some sort of game. My sister would join in for hide and seek and occasionally basketball, but when we got to some of the rougher games she would often opt out.

And one would think that us kids would be bothered by all the partying around us. To the contrary. It was a blast for us to. We had clear boundaries, and lots of friends to play with. And when all the men had drank a little too much, the women, the sober men, and the kids would usually start some board game or low stakes gambling. It was a little low-brow and unChristian for some of you out in blogworld, but it was wonderful.

Soon after the divorce though, these fun times slowed down. We were less and less in touch with most of those friends. Most of which I have not heard from in years.