I had the same type of childhood that highfigh had except that I was a military kid moving every 18 months or so. Thank God I could play ball. I would get picked last at every new school I went to until they saw that I could hit the ball farther than their dad. After that kids are knocking at the door to invite you to play ball.

What great times those were.

All of us knew how to fix things. We knew how to use tools. Whenever your bike broke you would figure it out and make it work well enough to get to a house and ask to borrow their tools. You never thought twice about doing that. Or you would go to the corner service station and they would help while you drank an ice cold Coca Cola out of a 6 oz bottle.

Lots of bruises, scrapes, stitches, racked nuts on bicycle goosenecks. Great memories without helmets or pads and we all lived to laugh about it.