Small Town Memories

I grew up in a small town of about 4500 people and the memories of those 16 years remain some of my best of all time. We were a family of 5.....2 parents and 3 kids (4th came near the end of my time in the "burg") and although I can't remember much during the 1st 7 or 8 years there are some things that stand out. I remember JF as my very first friend and we did everything together from watching TV (his family had the first one in the neighborhood) to hunting German soldiers in the bush out back of our houses'. His dad and mom were like my second set of parents and we spent our formative years discovering life's secrets as our imaginations guided our activities during those fun times. As time passed our hobbies changed and our friendship network expanded to take in other characters such as LR, one of the next door neighbors who would end up a household of 12 with 4 girls and 6 boys. The oldest 2 were a little older than us so we didn't associate with them much pre-teen because it wasn't cool to hang out with younger kids at that age. Down the street there were a lot of kids that I remember, the family from the Ukraine (K's), the Dutch twins (I & H), the brother and sister (J&W) from the east coast and R & R the milkman's sons.. There was a black haired girl (MF) who I believe was in my class at school that came regularly to visit her aunt and uncle across the way. I had a crush on her but somehow I don't remember too much about it but my guess is that she dumped me for an older man in grade 2. Sports started to take over my life in late public school and I spent my summers playing baseball and winters on the ice with my other good friends the M's....C&G. When puberty hit I started to think less about sports and more about girls (like every 5 seconds) and I started to hang around with JJ, JH and JF. I had some crushes in early high school (SH) but I always felt these girls were on a higher level than I was so I never made my thoughts known. LJ and DB were two real heartthrobs in those early days and life was reasonable. Things changed rapidly over the next year and I found myself leaving the small town for the big city and an entire new world but the years spent in that small town will live with me forever.