Playing Pool for hours on end

You sold your cue stick....you are a jerk.

Going to the Keyhole for Chinese Stars

Have you been to the Keyhole recently? 

Not much left to the imagination...

Cardboard in the bike spokes

Thub thub thub...thub thub thub thub...thubthubthubthubthubthubthubthubthubthubbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Faster and faster.

When you are a kid, your bike is more than transportation, your bike is freedom. It's your horse, your car and your fighter jet. The problem is, bicycle don't make a lot of noise, and being a kid is about sensory overload. At least it is if you're doing it right.

Hence the baseball card, or the library card, or just a plain old piece of cardboard, taped on to the frame of the bike, and stuck into the spokes of the back tire. And presto! Your bike is now a motorcycle. A loud motorcycle. And the best thing about this curious little innovation was the fact that the faster you went, the louder your "motor" revved, and as you slowed down, the "motor" almost sounded like it was idling.

Why do we do this? Why do kids want, so badly, to join the grown up world?

1st scout camp

Playing cricket

Brian Hansen throwing the boxes of 'dud' ammo in the fire, Weston trying to kill him.

Kris Stoddard's dad whittling wood and making cool crap.

Cameron Terry - Camville slugger

Tayah splitting his knee open.

Me shooting black powder rifle and it knocking me right off my feet.

You throwing the hatchet up in the tree to hit a bird.

Shooting Arrows in your backyard

Remember that really small compound bow I borrowed from Chris...(something). We were shooting arrows in your backyard, we strung your Dad's recurve bow with a string WAY too small....neither of us could pull it back very far.
So you nock an arrow, pull back as hard as you can and let go....{SWWWWWWIFT......BANG} stuck in the back door of the Crapo house?

Clean stick.

golfing the heads off Star Wars People in your backyard

How many hundreds of dollars of memorabilia did we destroy?

street hockey

We got those broken sticks from the coach at Albion (what is his name?) and we rebuilt them at home and played all the time....with a real puck.

Playing hours and hours of basketball

I think we played to 20 win by 4 and your hook shot killed me. Every time you would shoot the hook you would yell 'KAREEM'.

Drum room

memories....memories....

How about the time we lit two packages of incense down there at the same time.....I can't smell that stuff anymore with out thinking about that....and gagging.

Putting up all the pictures all over the wall.

Christmas lights strung all over the room and playing Mannheim Steamroller Christmas.

Scout camp

Any and all memories of Scout camp. The 2nd one was my favorite...when we just let everyone do whatever, we showered in the afternoon, we had the Swamp with Matt (who didn't want to be Charles or Ferret Face so he was Spear Chucker Jones....go figure)

We had the 'still', which hung in the basement of my house in the drum room. I think we got one merit badge....Basketweaving.

Raging Waters

It seemed like we went a ton of times...but I think we actually went like 4.

Autobiography and State reports

One was 5th and one was 6th....can't remember which is which.

6th grade dance

Dani Drew

Who was your partner?

Albion Middle

This was a big deal too.

Cody Davis
Jason Lupus
Jason Luke...and gang (sideswipe, flipped his keys to make it look like a butterfly knive)

School dances

Churchill Jr. High

Many - Many - Many

This was a huge turning point in our lives....we met so many people that changed everything...John Morgan - Ellen Jones - Tiffany (something...cheerleader...Anderson maybe?) Greg Zander....etc

First date

Getting our licenses

Riding in the back of your mom's truck to Brigham city

Camping with your tent at Lagoon

Tayah blowing it up with fireworks

Hiking the Courthouse Wash

This is a story about Scouting.

There are two ways to go about Scouting. There's the way the Scouting Handbook tells you to do it, and then there's the way that all red blooded, immature, pyromaniacal, air breathing, earth dwelling American boys do it. The two ways are not the same. Not remotely.

The Scout Law says that scouts are trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. And they are. When their mothers are in the room. Sometimes. But a more apt description, something approaching reality would be: A Scout is hungry, dirty, hungry, wet, hungry, distracted by shiny things, ravenous, way too undisciplined to be handling that sharp object (not to mention the firearm), lurpy, curious, too curious, awkward and hungry. And has the attention span of a gnat. An over-caffinated gnat, with ADHD, and commitment issues.

Now that we've laid the ground work, I'm going to tell you about one scouting experience in particular: Hiking the Courthouse Wash.

The Courthouse Wash is twenty five mile long stretch of riverbed, meandering through Arches National Park. Arches, is the biggest collection of natural arches on Planet Earth, and it's possible to hike the entire Courthouse Wash without seeing a single arch. I know. I did it. I had no idea until a subsequent trip several years later, that we had been inside the park.

The cast of characters include, as near as I can recall -- Aaron will have to fill in the ones I miss -- Aaron and I, Aaron's dad Talmage, Danny Luscher (back when we still called him Danny), Paul Stoddard, Erin Bawden, and more faceless scouts that I can't remember. But these are the ones that figure prominently in the following narrative.

Before you start any scouting trip, it's important that you gather all of your supplies. The Scout Handbook suggests things like a sleeping bag, a mess kit, enough food and water to last for the duration of your trip, rope, poncho etc...Real scouts bring a knife and a lighter. Because they plan to hunt and gather their own sustenance and cook it over a campfire each night?

Nope.

Because they want to destroy everything in their path, and light shit on fire.

Rolling up on the hood of Bro Cases car

Didn't he almost hit you?

Rockin "R" ranch

I am interested to see what you remember about this...I will write more when you do....


- Calf kicked me -

Project Uphoiria

Do you remember that? I still have your write up.

'T' jump

I will take your narrative on this one.

Movies & Shows we watched over and over

Movies:
Summer School (Jelly....I'm touched)

LA Story (Life is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing....meow)

Big Trouble in Little China (Son of a Bitch must pay)

Top Gun (I feel the need......the need for speed.)

The Lost Boys (Vampire movie) (One thing I always hated about living here was all the damn vampires)

Ferris Buehlers Day Off (The question isn't what are we going to do today the question is what aren't we going to do today....)

Ghostbusters (Somebody blows their nose and you want to keep it)

Dirty Dancing (Nobody puts Baby in a corner)

Karate Kid (walk on line here....safe....walk on line here....safe...walk in middle...Squish...like grape)

Footloose (Hey, hey, hey...what's this I see....is this a party or what?! LETS DANCE!!!!!!!)

Goonies (CHUNK!!! No...its Captian Chunk....and Captian Chunk says...lets get the hell out of here!!!!)

Romancing the Stone (Why did you leave that field, it was cover.....I wanted to show you this other field....by brother planted that tree.....)


Shows:
Alice
Different Stokes
Happy Days
M*A*S*H
The Facts of Life
Gilligans Island
Gidget
Days of our Lives
Sears and Marty Kroft adventure hour on Sat morning.
Battle of the Planets
He-Man (Masters of the Universe)
She-Ra (Masters of the Universe)
Transformers
Thundercats

EM & CHA

Yeah, I don't have time to begin this one.....endless possiblities.

KKDS the IMAGINATION STATION

Aaron is a DJ at the Imagination station....I don't know what memories you have of my working there...whatever you can remember.

Van Halen - Music in general

Where do I begin on this one? The concert? The music? The hours and hours we spent listening to this and playing air guitar and giving each other tips on better air guitar etiquette. Maybe this post should be about the music in our lives, the roles it played, what we both liked, what we disagreed on...that kind of stuff.

You liked the Cure....I couldn't stand them.
You liked Depeche Mode...I wanted to vomit.

Dr. Demento stuff....Beach party Vietnam...surfing with the viet cong....cooking hot dogs with napaim...its a beach party vietnam....

You introduced me to the Eagles, Motley Crue, Metallica.

I introduced you to Styx, Bon Jovi and Van Halen.

Duran Duran - Micheal Jackson Thriller (and video)


That kind of thing.....

Car Wreck

The Big car accident in High School with you, me, Andy ?, Jen (Cow?), Andy's girlfriend Sandy Peck? (I think) and Dave Pilkington. His birthday present was a new car, wrecked it first day...... I was wearing my coveted Van Halen T-Shirt I got at the OU812 concert the weekend before and woudln't let the EMT cut if off. -

Passing out

- Making each other pass out....my in the bathroom at Albion Middle...everyone thinks I faked it. -

- Making you pass out on the side of your house...you tell me this long dream you had, takes two hours to tell me the dream, you were out for like 10 seconds, drooled all over my arm. -

- Making Raquel DeHaan pass out, she goes into this trance and makes all of the other girls believe she is being chased and murdered by some freak, everyone freaking out...you and I think it is all crap....John Morgan slaps Raquel to wake her up. -

Raquetball

- Walking over to Alta Canyon Sports Center and playing Raquetball for the first time. -


- Raquetball over the years (we sluffed the last day of 8th grade with Brian Hansen and Jon DuVall, went to Smiths, ate food, played Raquetball, got in trouble because Brian tried to forge a note from Mom to leave, school called his mom, his mom called our moms, Jon was the only "survivor"....we hated on Brian for being dumb.-

- SUU Raquetball with everyone (playing and beating almost everyone and smearing the RA...huge guy, whats his name?)

Brandi Holbrook

This should be a bunch of posts inside a post too.....the 6th grade girl that sent us both over the edge.

- First day at 6th grade "Mind if I call you shorty?" -

- Brandi at her house (we were not allowed inside because her parents were never home) but we played on the trampoline with her and her sisters (Amanda and Barbie...I think) for hours -

- Halloween Ninja's (stalking Lori Latimer and Brandi Holbrook)-

- Chris gets kicked out of scouts by Alvord and heads over to Brandi's house...not the least bit upset about getting kicked out.....best day with Brandi.

- Hairy nipples - (do you want to cover everything?)

- Madonna song crazy for you -

Ami and (whats her name)

Can't remember her name....damn. What was the name of the girl that lived over in the circle that was friends with Calley Allen and Ami Quintero....Brittany? I think it was Brittany Dean.

- Day we got in a fight around her trampoline and tried to whip each other with the necklaces we got from Mr. Aders in 3rd grade for being "good". Neighbor catches us and askes what's up and we say "nothin...." -

- Brittany (I think that is her name) wanted to "ML" me. What the h--? We were like 8 years old? -

- Callie Allen was another one.

The dirt hills

This should be a series of posts but outlined in one title:

- Running the jumps -


- Aaron helps build part of the clubhouse and rips his head open with the claw of the hammer, blood everywhere -



- Aaron and Chris chasing each other on the paths of the dirt hills and Aaron exclaims "I am as sure footed as a mountain goat" as he jumps over Chris into the sage bushes and crashes and gets all cut up. -


- Ami and Aaron kissing in the clubhouse while Chris "keeps watch and guard" -

Clubhouse

Built in Chris's backyard from scraps of construction sites

Chris says:

A clubhouse to last for the ages. We were the first. The pioneers. The trail blazers. After we built The Hut (we didn't call it the clubhouse), everyone else and their dog decided that they needed some kind of clubhouse for themselves. And all theirs turned out better than ours. But there is something to be said for being the first.

We hauled scrap wood from all over the neighborhood (and beyond) and with our very limited understanding of construction, we built the ugliest hut ever. It looked like an outhouse built for two. Thinking back, I wish we would have cut a little moon in to the door -- for the limited time that we had a door. The thing I was most proud of was the fact that it had an upstairs. We had such big plans for The Hut that first summer -- we were going to sleep out there, and hold all of our clandestine meetings inside. Of course, like a lot of the big plans we had (Project Euphoria), it was more fun to plan than to actually carry out.

Sleeping in The Hut was really out of the question. First of all, it was only about six feet square. Secondly, it was so hot inside -- it was like solitary confinement in some Vietnamese POW camp.

The other great innovation was to build a sloping roof, with a little platform on the front -- just right for jumping off of, on to the trampoline (which was really it's primary purpose for most of it's existence). Do you remember when we built it? It stood for several years. In fact it wasn't torn down until I was on my mission (sometime between 1991 and 1993).

Aaron:
We were the first, and everyone else had their Dad's actually build them, we did ours.....no help. Of course ours was so overbuilt I think you could have parked a truck on it.

We jumped off the roof of that hut because your mother was not too keen on our jumping off the house onto the tramp. Since the house was like a 8' drop, jumping off the hut was only like 4'......if that. Speaking of jumping off stuff, do you remember the time we took the screen out of your mom's window in her bedroom and jumped out the window down to the tramp? I get a cold sweat thinking about that stuff. I would kill my child for even THINKING something like that let alone actually DOING it.

{sigh}

The hut was great, way too hot. I remember we somehow got a piano hinge from somewhere and made the door and had it actually swing in. Of course, it rained, and the hinge rusted shut. We had to kick in the door to get back in. I think we were going to sleep in it at one point, in the upstairs loft, but by the time we got our sleeping bags up there, it was way too hot and too small. I think if we had done it, one of us would have fallen down the hole to the bottom floor. We pulled our stuff and slept out on the tramp.

The hut was an accomplishment, we were the first to get one up, and probably the last to take it down. How many people can say they built a 'hut' with their best friend growing up?

"Nothin's gonna stop me this time!!!"

(Chris riding the Huffy over the dirt hill up by Quail Hollow Elementary)

Chris:

Anyway -- Nothing's gonna stop me this time!

Never have words been farther from the truth. This was in the earliest days of Quail Hollow Elementary. Newcastle Drive was not complete, so the school was surrounded by mounds of dirt -- which was really cool for kids with some courage and a cool dirt bike. I had neither.

I had a great fear of hurting myself, so generally I played it safe -- Aaron took enough chances for both of us. But on top of that, I had the stupidest bike in the history of boys bikes: The Huffy Bandit. (My parents assumed that because I wore cowboy boots, and a superman cape, and a space helmet, and guns and a lightsaber -- all at the same time -- that I wanted to be a dork).

The Huffy Bandit was a black monstrosity -- supposedly inspired by the Smokey and the Bandit movies. It bore no resemblance to a Trans Am. It had a long, trapezoidal seat that looked like a black pound cake. But the coup de gras, the piece de resistance, were the handle bars. They were bent and curved in a manner that made it impossible to do the two things that all boys want to do with their bikes -- jump and do wheelies.

It was like riding a drunk moose. On rollerskates. But not as graceful.

Anyway, Aaron and I were riding around in the dirt, through this little washboard area, but there was one hill (which was not very big - but kind of steep). Aaron could go up and down this hill very easily, but I couldn't do it -- mostly because, for whatever reason I chickened out and jumped off of my bike before I got half way up the little mound. After the humiliation of failing seven or eight times, I made the famous declaration "Nothin's gonna stop me this time!!!"

I got way back, to pick up some good speed, and I was off. Closer. Closer. I was going to do it -- and I'd probably get some good air on the other side too -- I'd be a real boy!

I'm not sure what happened, but when my front tire hit the base of the hill, it just stopped. Inertia took over, and I just went right over the handle bars (or more accurately, right INTO the handle bars).

Needless to say, somethin' stopped me that time.

Aaron found great humor in this emasculation.


Aaron:

HAHA! That was a funny retelling although I have to say from my point of view I felt bad that you didn't make it. I did make sure you were able to laugh about it before I broke out in all out laughter. I wondered to myself "I wonder why Chris just won't go up the hill....its not that steep, he just needs to keep pedaling."

For whatever reason when you started up the hill you would always stop pedaling and try to coast up the hill, thus not making it, and jumping off. When you made your "NOTHINGS GONNA STOP ME THIS TIME" exclamation I really hoped you would make it. You were standing up when you went over the handlebars into the dirt and I remember thinking "Crap, he'll never try that again..."

I am pretty sure you eventually made it up the hill, I don't recall when or how that happened, but I do recall the crash vividly. In thinking about that, it was just before 3rd grade. That would have made us about 8 ish?