Oculine, 12.

DIARY

SHAMING THE STAINED TOBOGGAN

Cycle 1.
~4/20/90 - ~5/20/90

Detail Level: II
Interest Level: IIII

Our house on Gold Ave. had finally, sold, or the sale was nearing completion at this time. During the last several months there, the walls were all painted a creamy white (over the rich golds and greens I loved and remembered) and the distinctive Roseville vases were taken off of the shelves and out of the cupboards. I realized that selling a house is just as much making it neutral, a flat canvas, as it is fixing things up.

I was working my paper route.

I was also devastated to be leaving. I was old enough that the big boys with the Spencers and the Teslars had stopped picking on me. I'd made peace with Jeff, across the street. I'd also finally developed a network of close friends through the neighborhood and church: Victor, Bill, Paul, and Eric were the core of these as opposed to my two (Eric and Tim) in Flushing. I'd even developed tenuous friendships with a couple of girls from church. In fact, I'd been steadily nursing an infatuation with a girl, Jill, who I'd met through my paper route. I had only two close friends in Flushing, One day, she'd even walked to my house following the route with her sister, and I showed the Pedlar, our Irish wolfhound, who would place his front paws on the driveway gate and lift his head seven feet off the ground.

In retrospect, I probably didn't stand much of a chance, and since this was the closest thing I'd had to a "real" crush (I was eleven, almost twelve), moving away may have been a more merciful answer. I walked along the route with my papers in a red wagon, and I never threw them on the porch... I walked up and set them down, neatly. My emphasis was on precision, not speed, and I spent two hours on this route each day.

I didn't dread public school... I'd enjoyed much of home schooling, but I felt that I wanted to expand my horizons in a way that wasn't accessible by my bike from Gold Ave. Elms Elementary was starting to sound like a downright exciting place.

I think that this was around when my mom had first taken on the job of RE director at the UU church... she had an office in the old wing, and we went to church often to make colorful banners or run around in the half-lit halls of the new wing.

And one sunny evening, we invited Chuck Coggins over for a taco salad dinner, and we all sat and talked for hours on end. This was when the leaves had flowered in the backyard, and I was deeply engrossed in Moraff's Revenge. Later that evening, I beat Ninja Gaiden for the first time.