| Author | Date Entered/Modified | Views |
| Daniel A. Stafford | 8/21/2000 3:53:39 AM 9/30/2022 10:35:19 AM | 897 |
Summer Pool, Doc Cruise, & The Football Dog
There was a place, where I was a child of summer,
Hair down past my shoulders, middle of my back.
Eight years old and free of school.
Room to breathe, time to grow.
Air Force brat in a tiny Nebraska town.
"The Site". Mysterious place out in nowhere.
Don't wear belt buckles, metal watches,
and ride your mini bike 'round the tower.
There's nothing but corn past the hill, sand, bluffs.
Empty open country and huge skies.
Step dad's Corvette Stingray in silver & chrome,
The trail behind the house along the tracks.
Train sparks the grass and the whole field smolders,
Days of embers and firefighters with shovels.
Ride my Schwinn down to the pool.
Learning how to swim forever, radio tunes and hot wet concrete.
Sixties music and sunshine, the high dive dare.
Across the street, the Tasty Freeze calls.
Frozen bananas, cherry dipped on a stick.
Danny & Impala Carr with the Afghan Hounds.
Doc Cruise's fields and corrals, local vet.
Seven year old fearless sister climbs a split rail.
She's getting on a horse's back to ride it bare.
Mom rides a Bridgestone cycle in a poncho.
The mechanic at the Conoco teaching me to patch a tube.
Giant Ford Country Squire wagon, gray & chrome.
Gravel highways bleached in sunlight to nowhere.
Black Labrador retriever, one Cindy by name.
Plays football so well, she puts the Corn Huskers to shame.
The Rittenbury kids, all six and Arlas's five.
Add them to us three and our moms look alive.
Head count, phone calls in the evenings.
How many do you have tonight?
Jack's devilish blue mini bike, fast!
The baddest hotwheel set in town, fifty cars.
Childhood heaven.
AquarianM
By: Daniel A. Stafford
(C)2000
Author's Comments
This is where I read "Daniel Boone", "Davy Crocket", "Wild Bill Hickock", "Buffalo Bill" in school.
This Is where I watched the moon landings in class. This is where the Bubble Mountain came to pass.
This is where I was the Tattooed Man. This is where I had the hotwheel track to forever. My best car was a '68 Charger. A mini bike for my birthday. The biggest channel cat I ever saw. I first swam, and swam a mile before the end of summer. My brother became "The Red Tornado". We had a football playing Black Lab. I was a cub scout. We had the coolest fireworks, Roman Candles. We went camping at Fort Yankton South Dakota, and dang near blew the doors off the station wagon heading for the lake. I learned to write in cursive. I got my minibike stuck in a sand pit. I ran over my best friend with my bike by accident, and still regret it to this day. (He survived with scrapes and bruises.)
The Cattle Roll set the whole town running. And I probably forgot to mention half of it.
| Author | Date Entered/Modified | Views |
| Daniel A. Stafford | 8/21/2000 3:53:39 AM 9/30/2022 10:35:19 AM | 897 |
Total Comments: 1
Comments | |||
| Janine Daniel | spinnys@hotmail.com | www.spinnys.com | 8/21/2000 11:11:50 PM |
| I love it when you tell us about your childhood. Have I said this before? I think you had a wonderful childhood. Such precious memories you have. | |||