Monday, May 4, 2009

Moogs

I forget what we really named them, but we invented pets in 5th Grade, Eddie and I. We took the brown paper hand towels in the Boy's Room and soaked them in water and folded them up a certain way to have the appearance of something like a salamander without legs. We called them something like moogs and kept them in a pail and played with them at home and kept them in our desks at school.

Fifth Grade was an awkward age for me; Eddie and I used to walk around the classroom on our haunches, talking some kind of baby talk; Annette exclaimed one day in disgust, "I think Scott's a BABY!" Meanwhile, it was time to start thinking about Important things like getting onto a Little League baseball team.

Spring was exciting in the 5th and 6th Grade; it was when some guys tried out for the Bonneville Little League teams and if they made it, they got to walk to school wearing their team caps - all bright and brand new. My dad didn't let me try out in 5th Grade because it was always held at dinner time and he didn't want me drinking all the pop and eating the candy. But he relented in 6th Grade and I wound up on the minor league Yankees. Wearing that uniform was a lot of fun but playing in the games was sometimes scary. One day, my neighbor, my buddy's dad, had to substitute for our coach during a game. So suddenly, I was pulled from Right Field onto the pitcher's mound for the entire game. I did okay! I found I was a lot less nervous and a little more skilled on the pitcher's mound. I went back to Right Field when Coach returned.

Speaking of uniforms, we got to wear our cub scout uniforms to school on occasion when we became cub scouts. We loved our uniforms. It was a good way to brainwash us to go to war when we were older. We loved to pretend such, but we never actually wanted to go, not me anyway. I had a set of army fatigues (pants and shirt) when I was about 6 or 8. That was almost too cool.

In the neighborhood, we were usually playing army, hide and seek or baseball. We often wrestled as well.

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