The Me I Used To Be

Last night my family and I stretched out on the trampoline in our backyard to watch the Perseids meteor shower. It was a little cloudy and the the moon was so bright that the shooting stars were hard to spot but we did manage to see a few.

While the star gazing wasn't quite as spectacular as we'd hoped the time prone of my did get me thinking to days gone by. As a kid I lived on my trampoline and lying there next to my boys took me back twenty plus years to all the nights I spent stretched out on the canvas in a sleeping bag chatting with my buddies.

Hardly a week went by in the summer when two three or four of my buddies didn't sleep over under the stars. We talked -- about girls, we would never impress but thought we could, about what we would do once we turned 18 or twenty one, where we would live, what job we would have. Sometimes we told scary stories that would get under our skin and drive us inside, though being boys we never admitted fear. We would nonchalantly say it looked like rain or that the wind was coming up, or the moon was too bright to actually sleep, though in reality very little sleep ever took place.

And one time me and my buddies spotted a burglar breaking into the house. that one scared us and we snuck inside to call the cops. They police showed up quickly and the guy was caught in the act but we always feared the burglar would find out we snitched on him and the outside sleepovers were always a bit fearful after that as we speculated the guy would come back to enact his revenge.

And of course me and my buddies played truth or dare. We have mooned passing motorist, streaked down the alley in front of cars, egged and toilet papered the house of those we didn't like. Snuck over to girls houses to tap on their windows only to be chased off. Yep, there are a lot of stories from thsoe days and last night I enjoyed remembering them and my friends as I stared into the heavens.

One of those friends who was nearly always there was this guy. Tomorrow is is his birthday. He doesn't have comments enable on his blog anymore but there is an email address. If you get the chance drop him a well wish and tell him Travis sent you. I remember one of our late night conversations under the stars where Jason said he wanted to name his kids shithead and dumb ass just so the teachers would have to say those words while taking roll and that he would have a chance to go out on the porch and call their name. Well he does have two kids but thankfully they have other names. Probably the truth of the matter that as teenagers he and I should have been called shit head and dumb ass. I'll leave y'all to speculate which moniker better fit me.