Tuesday, May 27, 2008

That which hath shaped me...

In the spirit of my previous post "A Little Too Personal", I'm going to allow (force?) you to peer into my past to see a small bit of what has shaped me and potentially my art (this story though? Probably not!). Now I can't give you a really good reason as to why I've chosen to write the following tale today other than that it came to my mind earlier and it's moderately funny.

I've had a friend, Phillip, who I've know since I was four. His house was right on the edge of a canyon, and one could see past the great gulf to the city center and the capitol building. Phillip's yard was a kid's dreamland- swings, trees, terraces, and forts. But down below was a dangerous pit of skunks, rattlesnakes and kidnappers hiding in the bushes.

One day a new boy showed up in the neighborhood- we'll call him Pete. He was a little older than the two of us, which to us meant he was very old and large. He liked to come over and play with us (i.e. execute authority over us). One day I found a play gun in a trash pile, which I brought up to Phillip's house. Pete broke it. This was typical of the new order.

I was not happy. My favorite place in the world was now terrorized by this bully. Still, I went there hoping he wouldn't show up. Sometimes he didn't. Here's what happened one time when he DID.

Pete led us down into the forbidden depths of the adjacent canyon, ready to make us do his bidding. At one point he noticed there was a very large ribbed pipe leading far up to the road above, so he made us follow him up it. Along the way he opened a container of Play-Doh and told us to eat it. Granted, every kid knows what Play-Doh tastes like, but being forced to eat it on a treacherous climb up the canyon walls was something different. At long last we came to a point where the pipe traversed a large, round pit. Pete proceeded, but Phillip and I jumped off and made our escape around the perimeter! We ran as fast as we could go- back to quench our green, salty tongues.

This is the last memory I have of Pete. He did soon stop coming around, but there were many more bullies to come in my future- ready to karate chop my neck or flatten me with the dodgeball and make me wish I was just being forced to eat Play-Doh.

5 comments:

PAC said...

Gosh I think I had too much coffee!! I was reading your post and I thought it said 'edge of a crayon'..lol!! Sounds like a great memory!

LeaKarts said...

Haha! I miss being a kid, torture and all :) Great story.

zohner said...

Well, that explains why you never eat Play Doh when you come over. I thought that I was just being a bad host and serving the wrong color.

Rosebud Collection said...

Never liked bullies..glad you got to run away..

RedMarionette said...

Awwww