WEBmikey: Childhood friends in California

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Childhood friends in California
3.31.2003 7:18 PM \| Link	Everywhere I've lived, I've been lucky enough to have a close group of friends to make my life fun, exciting, and wonderful. When I was very young, I lived in several different states and cities while Dad was transferred around in the Air Force, but my real childhood years that I remember best were during grade school in Sacramento, California (I even remember my street address: 4533 Ladera Way!). It's here that I had my first close friends - we did everything together at school and I spent a lot of time with each of them during afternoons and weekends. We even called ourselves the "Fantastic Four" at times (since all of us were comic book geeks, of course). First there was Tony Favro, who was probably my best friend since he lived in my neighborhood. Tony was an athletic, blond California kid - we used to spend hours playing Frisbee or riding bikes, and he did lots of swimming in their family pool (he even used to dive in from the second story of their house!). Tony's dad was the City Fire Marshall, so he would be on the news sometimes, and he liked to show me their emergency escape route his dad designed. He had two great dogs - a collie named Sally and a Llasa Apso named Maggie. Tony was my best action figures playmate - he had tons of super hero figures like me, and we had some great adventures together. Next was Derek Bowman, who lived a short bike ride away. I liked to visit Derek because he had a huge tree in his front yard with a treehouse. Sometimes we rode to his treehouse quickly after school to watch some of the girls we liked walking below. His dad was a veterinarian, and they had a crazy Doberman with a surgically-removed voice box (what a weird bark!). I spent several nights at Derek's, including my going-away party, which included lots of microwave hot dogs (when a microwave oven was a new amazing thing!) and a long session of toilet-papering houses (completely instigated by Derek's dad!). The last member of the "Fantastic Four" was Russ Nishimoto - he was a wonderful friend, but I remember less about him for some reason. I remember distinctly that he was a great doodle artist and could print in the tiniest, yet legible, letters imaginable. I know I used to visit him at his house - he lived walking distance from a Dairy Queen that we used to visit sometimes. I wish I could remember more about him. I had other non-school friends in my neighborhood, too, but none as close as Mark Kempton. Mark was several years younger than me, so he was kind of like a little brother. His parents were divorced (which seemed like a rarity at the time), so he lived with his dad and had tons of fun toys. He was a huge Star Wars fan - I think his dad took us to see the movie at least ten times! I used to have a wonderful time with Mark when it was just the two of us, sharing that brotherly fun, but when my other pals were around, the gang teased him a lot (I know it's terrible, but it's just what a bunch of kids do - tease the little guy). Once we even convinced him to streak past some girls playing with Barbies in their front yard. When I moved away from California, Mark was the saddest to see me go - I missed him, too. Childhood is amazing, because so many things are overlooked. Believe it or not, Tony was Catholic, Derek was Mormon, Russ was Buddhist, and I was good ol' Protestant - and no one cared. To us, life was playing with action figures, putting rubber bands on our ears to look like Spock, or taking the bus to Sunrise Mall to buy posters. I'll always have wonderful memories of these first friends - I hope they've made happy lives for themselves, and I hope they remember me. Labels: memories


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