How well do you remember the Old Concord Goulds?

So when we weren't watching Sledge Hammer, Gymkata, Superfuzz, Karate Kid, or Nadia on TV, we were rocking out to the Back to the Future scene where Michael J. Fox plays "Johnny B. Goode" with the beat up guitar in the toy closet (we fought for it, of course) and the rest of us rocking out with pillows used for air guitars. Dad also rented Charlie and the Chocolate Factory once. That was pretty cool. What was with that toy closet anyway? I think there were creatures living in that red and blue toy chest.

And what was with all of the neighbors that were obsessed with our house? Was it the Mt. Hermon board upstairs? It must have been the spill-friendly gold carpet. Actually, I'm pretty sure it was the consistently filled fridge and cupboards in the kitchen. Every once in a while we allowed Pablo to bum around at our place. Strangely enough tennis rackets, random objects, and mass amounts of gum were missing. Actually a lot of food was missing from the cupboard too. Oh well.

It was always fun carting around in mom's huge blue VW van; mom being behind her huge steering wheel/manual stick- she'd take us to second deck so we could look forward to using Lateef's "mint-condition" machine for Don Mattingly's rookie card because the Beckett listed it for a high dollar amount. That crazy van. I remember after my bike was stolen how we actually did a stakeout in that van. That's an awesome mom. I remember when Jeremy and I were chased out of the house by mom (with a crazy spoon, of course) and we planned on sleeping in that van but instead had Nick flip TV channels through the window and camped ourselves in the backyard. How 'bout when we set up the green tent to play "blind man's bluff". Safe game.

Birthday parties were tubular with the treasure hunts that usually ended in the downstairs shower or dryer. There was always a clue in Dad's pocket for some reason. I loved cruising to the Wooz for some maze-tastic adventures. I think there was a couple of birthdays we did that.

Birthday celebrations at CC Ole's were cool except I always got my burger last (Dad knows). I remember when I took a swing at Jeremy's face in CC Ole's and Dad's reaction: YANKED us outside the building, offering to take us on. I particularly loved family meetings (which mom initiated with her, "hear ye, hear ye"), most of which ended with someone getting chewed out by dad and crying (usually me). The best was when you were BUSTED and Dad would have us pull down our pants and wait for him in the bathroom. That's a prideless moment to stand as a kid with your pants around your ankles, waiting to get the piss spanked out of you. Jeremy definitely got spanked the most though. No question. Nick got lucky- mom and dad were just tired by the time they got to him. It was radical when we got busted and sent to our rooms, which naturally led to joining forces, collaborating, and slipping notes and candy to each other to fend off the common enemy, MOM and her crazy wooden spoon.

We weren't big on sharing though: separate cereal boxes/months for the front seat/15 minutes for nintendo. We were buddies when it came to the 5 foot baketball hoop above the garage though, trampoline slamming for days on end.

The random bike rides over the memorial hill to McDonalds were pretty sweet. How much fun did we have at the community pool? Making bubble gum bubbles in the pool for people to freak out about and flipping people's rafts (while they're in them).

We did our share of violence. Breaking mom's decorations-glass, porcelean, usually some kind of goose figurine and usually broken by a football or ball of some sort. Numchuck candles were awesome though. Karate matches on blankets/boxing with ski gloves was great too, attempting to emulate "Mike Tyson's Punch Out" or an actual Mike Tyson fight we watched on pay-per-view, until bloody lips or noses ended it. Wrestlemania and Royal Rumbles on pay-per-view were flippin' neato. "I knew Ultimate Warrior was a Christian". What ever happened to Jason Watson anyway? How about Andy Meyers, Nick Trapenese, Glen Gizzy, Aaron Sauer?

Backyard ball tag was cool. The coolest was when we made an American Gladiator arena out of our backyard with barriers and Nerf Arrow guns. The occasional mooning of the Castenedas was not to be outdone by the Radsted's dead meat comment. The pinnacle was Jacob Minges "loving being a turtle".

It's certainly worthy of note to include the focus on nutrition in our family: our "sweet for the day" (non stop candy bars), the constant 2 liter cokes, and the classic summer of stop n go cokes. Mom's meat loaf and beef stroganoff were eggcellent.

Irrational fears crept up here and there. I'll never watch "The Blob" again, that's for sure. I remember running back down from taking out the trash/turning off the lghts upstairs and jumping out of the darkness to escape the "monster's" clutches. Nick knows what I'm talking about. Why didn't we just have nightlights?

One classic time was Nick and I simultaneously faking sick to stay home from school and wrestle on mom and dad's bed, but instead breaking their waterbed and never coming clean about it. I think at some point in adulthood we fessed up. Did we? Why was it so cool to drop anchor in mom and Dad's bathroom. It's a mystery.

Man, we had a rediculous amount of energy. I could book up those stairs in no time (when I wasn't sledding down in a laundry basket). Our old videos are hilarious. Man, were we rambunctious. I remember being able to hop the fence in no time at all.

So if you don't remember Dad roughly combing your hair with the blow dryer brush, or ball tag with the nerf ball and the Sauers, surely you remember the commodore 64 computer games. Bruce Lee, come on!

Grandma on thanksgiving, need I say more. Adam wrestles.