This image reminds me of a forty second video clip I took on my first cell phone. S. and I were in New Orleans. it was early July, 2005. We were on our way to Houston to see her dying grandfather. We received news that he died the day of our departure. What was to be a hasty drive across the country turned into a slow, reflective trip across the deep south in the middle of Summer.  We spent a few days in New Orleans, walking the streets of the Garden District, riding the streetcars (it was the only way to get a slight breeze on our faces). The air was heavy, along with our thoughts. I pulled out my newfangled talky camera machine and snapped a short clip of S, looking out the window of the streetcar. Her hair was in a humid clump with a few wisps blowing in the breeze. She didn’t make a sound as we rode down Canal Street towards the river and away from the cemetery. The only sound was the clunk and clang of that old streetcar heading down to the flowing waters of the Mississippi. There was lots of talking late in the evenings, cuddling and talking about hopes and dreams. It was a good trip. I think we were both in a transitional time in our lives. I miss walking and talking in New Orleans and riding streetcars in hopes of catching a slight breeze on our faces and a refrain from our thoughts.  

I read a book about Florida’s lighthouses when I was a kid. It was one of a handful of books I found during a week long Florida Panhandle fishing excursion. I read it end to end during the course of the late, near sleepless nights. I would snuggle beneath my sheets; flashlight tucked under my chin so I could hold the book open with both hands. I slept with the window open, listening to the sound of the water on the other side of the wooden ledge decorated with geodes found on my expeditions. A wonderful sound is light, spring rain politely pelting that dark green water through the night.

mappingthemoon:

“Their situation was always precarious. When a month of rain interfered with street vending or a broken foot immobilized Dee, they were unable to pay rent and ended up homeless again. Or rather, ‘houseless.’ Tiny thinks ‘the homeless’ is a dehumanizing phrase that takes all people who don’t rent or own the place where they sleep and lumps them into a single group that is easy to pity, dismiss, or brutalize. She prefers ‘houseless,’ which describes a concrete situation and doesn’t carry the cultural weight of decades of philanthropic and government conversations about, but not with, ‘the homeless.’”

I like this article a lot. When I lived in public housing, I got a bunch of the other kids together to start a “club.” We uh “scavenged” construction sites at night for wood, nails, etc. We built a fort in the woods behind the projects. We were really resourceful kids because we didn’t have much of our own. We called our gang “The Survivors,” and our motto was “Makin’ the Most of What We Got.” I’ll admit, I was heavily influenced by the movies The Warriors and Radio Flyer. A lot of my friends were abused and came from broken homes. The fort was a place to run and hide if things got crazy at home. It was nearby but far enough away to feel safe for a bit.

imremembering:

G.I. Joe’s U.S.S. Flagg Playset

via x-entertainment

I had this when I was a kid. I got it for Christmas one year. We were really poor and renting an old farmhouse out in the country. We had no AC and used an old fashioned wood burning stove to keep warm in the winter. Anyway, the G.I. Joe aircraft carrier was secondhand but I didn’t care one bit. It was SO AWESOME! I set it up in the yard because it was too big for my bedroom. My grandma came to visit and took me into town for Wednesday night church. I returned to find my awesome gift crushed. The farmer who we rented the house from cut through our yard with his tractor to harrow up a field and he crushed it. :(

This was my favorite bicycle ever. I named it “Dyno Rhino.” I don’t know why. Pic 1 is me at Christmas, receiving said favorite bicycle. CHeck out my swell New Balance shoes and that awesome Batman magnetic belt! The following image is me with my Grandma. We took a two week summer vacation to the Little Grand Canyon, Calloway Gardens, Atlanta, Ga, Chattanooga, Tn and Lexington, Ky.

See that second bike. with the white moon wheels? I HAD THAT BIKE! I named it “Dyno Rhino” and I loved that bike. It was stolen when I was 8 :(

This reminds me of a motel that my folks managed for a bit in Panama City Beach, Florida in the mid-eighties. The motel is on the East end of town near that big pirate ship/seafood restaurant on the back side of the strip. It was called the “Treasure Chest Motel.”  It was a real trashy 1980’s motel with bands renting rooms for partying and practice and lots of drugs going in and out. Most tenants paid by the week. My bedroom was literally the laundry room. It featured concrete floors and a sliding glass door to the courtyard where I witnessed many late night parties and hook-ups. I had no curtain to block the glass doors. I remember waking up one night to see a man covered in blood staring through the sliding glass door into my room. I don’t know the whole story behind that as I never asked my mom about it. I do remember cops and my stepdad being involved in some dispute. I was 5 and don’t remember much other than getting shocked by a chorus pedal, watching a cartoon called City of Gold and mom sewing patches onto the knees of my Levi’s. I also remember going to Roses department store to get roach spray and I wanted Black Flag roach spray because I saw the band on MTV and I liked them.

(via ponys)

winterbranch:

Want.

So before Chuck E. Cheese went solo, he was in a robotic pizza band called the Rock-a-Fire Explosion Band at a place called Showbiz Pizza. Showbiz Pizza was a big part of my childhood. My mom got paid on Fridays and she would take me and my cousins to the mall for lunch, Chehaw Park & zoo, followed by Showbiz Pizza for supper. Showbiz Pizza closed when I was 6 or 7 and the property became a mexican restaurant.

Took a Googlemaps trip around my hometown. These are some of my favorite houses/buildings in town.

1. This is my grandparent’s house. It was built in 1888. It was originally on the corner lot of the street. The owner wanted to build his daughter a house and give her the choice corner lot. They jacked up the house and moved it to its current lot by rolling it across logs with mules. It was an apartment house for several decades during the mid 1900’s before my grandparents bought it in the mid 1970’s and renovated over the next thirty years. It used to be surrounded by massive oak and pecan trees and some very ornate Victorian and Craftsman style homes but the local Baptist church bought those houses and tore them down or sold them to create more parking space for their church.

2. This house is across the street from my grandparents. It used to have a neat brick wall, gas street lamp, wraparound porch, and victorian garden with a wrought iron fence but various owners saw these details as out of style and removed them from the home. My best friend H.R. lived in the house and we had many ghost hunting adventures and Penthouse magazines stored in the attic.

3. This house belonged to the parents of H.R’s cousin, Matthew. He was my other childhood best friend. This image really does not do this house justice. It is a towering two story home, built in 1915. It too, was once surrounded by huge magnolia trees. The interior woodwork was very ornate. The bathrooms were all tile with massive tubs and high ceilings. Every doorway had a transom. The basement was no mans land for us kids. I thought vampires lived down there. The upstairs portion was the location for many late night slumber parties with NES battles and Victoria’s Secret catalogs. It will always be my favorite home in town, not just because of the memories but because of the vibe the house gives off. It’s a very special place. Some places just speak to you, you know?

4. This is the church where I grew up and got married. Built in 1910. It’s similarly magical to the MacArthur house. There is an underground maze of tunnels beneath this church that I have intended to explore for years. Thee were many nights of hide & seek in the dark, and my sexually awakening experience to the magic of older teenage girls under a table in the sunday school room during a youth group lock in.

5. Next to the church is this house where many childhood friends lived through the years. Built in 1920, it was once surrounded by a massive 12 foot high ornate wall. The wall is gone. Again, someone thought it was better without the charm. As tweens, we would climb atop the wall at night, smoking stolen cigarettes, gazing into the night sky wishing to be someplace better. And now I can’t think of any place I’d rather be than home, like it used to be, with all those friends, all those spontaneous night time adventures happening all the time.

I used to ride bareback as a kid. I liked to pretend I was Atreyu from The Neverending Story. Anyway, one time I was riding with my friend-crush Sabrina on her family’s plantation in Thomasville*. We got caught in a stampede of Texas Longhorn cattle. It was super terrifying for two 8 year old kids on spooked horses. Anyway, Sabrina’s awesome grandma saw what was happening, headed off the herd of longhorns with her mother effing Cadillac and saved us from sure injury and the cattle from escaping onto the highway and causing greater distress. It was pretty awesome/scary as hell.

*The driveway of this plantation was used in Gone With the Wind as the path that led to Tara.

edit: Just realized these are not Texas Longhorns.

Oh my god! I remember this book from my childhood! It was the scariest book in the local library for a seven year old kid! I would lay in bed at night shaking as I thought about the monsters in this book, specifically these little European people who would steal kids out of their homes at night and cook them in stew.

(via junglerot)

This looks like a glimpse into my childhood.

(via latraditionalfool)

I had this set! I bought it at a yard sale when I was ten or eleven.  Most of the stuff was still in it. I learned so much more about chemistry from this old kit than I did in chemistry class at school. Wow, this image is EXACTLY how I remember my kit. I paid $5 for it because it reminded me of something I would see on Pete and Pete. It was totally KREB. I burned the shit out of my thumbs on the alcohol burner, stained the top of my grandparent’s deep freezer by haphazardly mixing chemicals, and set fire to numerous toy cars with the ingredients in this kit.

5-Lemonade stand

7-Door to door lawn care

8-Olympia Sales Club

10-Car washing

14-Local Newspaper: Line Inserter (thank goodness I survived with my limbs intact)

15-Farm hand

17-Lifeguard

19-Fast food cook

20-Dishwasher at Pizza joint

20-Lifeguard

20-Server/host at Hibachi restaurant

21-Swim instructor

21-Youth Director

21-Lifeguard

22-Guitar teacher

22-After school coach

23-Special needs youth coach

24-Mountain Biking Instructor

24-Teen Fitness coach

25-Bus driver

25-Aquatics Director

27-Adapted Aquatics Coordinator

28-Summer Camp Program Director

The band name changes based on inside jokes. This is the Summer camp band. Depending on the people gathered to perform (5 minutes before go-time) I play drums or guitar. We play all the camp standards: Lean on Me, Pharaoh, Pharaoh, Father Abraham, etc. I like to change them up from time to time. The traditionalists don’t like my raunchy electric surf blues versions of the classics but the kids love it. Members rotate on a weekly basis.