DIARY
SHAMING THE STAINED TOBOGGAN
Cycle 1.
~5/20/90 – ~6/20/90
Detail Level: II
Interest Level: IV
There are only a couple details I clearly remember of this important, frenetic month. As the deal on our house was signed to paper, and I realized that leaving was inevitable, I was incredibly attached to Flint. I now knew the name of my neighborhood, East Village, and while I didn’t know all the street names, I was determined to find them out, and took my bike from Longway and Crapo all the way out to Meade and Dort. I was discovering the cement bridge that hid Gilkey Creek underground, and I was discovering girls in more than a sidelong, superficial way.
Meanwhile, the weather improved. I have a few, very distinct memories of this month.
During the last few weeks of May and the beginning of June, when the sky was clear and it was warm out, my two groups of friends converged at twilight. We’d play hide-and-seek until well after eleven. For whatever reason, our mothers didn’t think it necessary to split us up any sooner. We’d play mainly on the blocks bordered by Tuscola and Glendale, Hastings and Lafayette. At least once, I hid to the north, across Tuscola. We played the extreme version, in which running along lowset garage roofs and dodging dogs was perfectly acceptable. The group consisted myself, my brother, my sister, Victor and Michael, Bill and Elizabeth, Jeff, Charlie and Alan, Brian Teslar, and anyone else we could persuade or strongarm into the game. Once or twice, we tried this with Capture the Flag.
On our last morning before moving, I finished out my paper route, walking the route with the girl who was to take over for me (I don’t remember her name, but was either my age or just yonger, she lived in a kitchen yellow house down on Meade and 2nd), and our moms. It was a Saturday morning, I think. I realized how much I’d come to love that paper route, and how much I’d miss it.
On the first day in Flushing, I was bittersweet about moving, and I missed my friends; especially Victor, who I’d seen nearly every day. On the other hand, I now lived very close to Eric Porn, and he was telling me about the haunted back woods, over across McKinley. He made up some ridiculous stories about paralyzing terror and mass-murder back there which I accepted entirely at face value. We explored back by the river and inside my family’s newly acquired barn. That first night, I stayed up with my mom after Caitlin and Cody had gone to bed, and we watched the season finale of Quantum Leap.
A week later, we celebrated Caitlin’s birthday by erecting a tent in the backyard and having a dinner with the relatives… I wasn’t at home in this place yet, but at least it was getting familiar.