sorry mom, er, i mean... Mrs. Marsh, but Ross V and I used to take the big tricycle (the first one with the white seat) to the top of the Louviers hill which headed down to Haskell St. Ross would jump in the basket and I would be in the seat, facing forward, with the trike pointed uphill. Then, starting at the crest of the hill, we would allow the giant trike to begin rolling backwards, downhill. About halfway down, we would have picked up some significant velocity at which point Ross would jump forward and turn the handlebars as far as they would go either direction, resulting in a catapult effect that would throw both of us over the rear wheels and onto the street.
what the what? was this before or after you made us all jealous with your row of chin stitches attained by hurtling face first on a wheeled stomach-board down the same hill?
what would have happened if that hill, the largest in Dupont was any bigger? I remember when I would finish my newspaper route on the bottom right side of the hill and turning around and having to climb back up to the top to make it home was my biggest challenge in life...its not even that big!
remember Bret? he was in the army, wore glasses and always wore a blue t-shirt that had a picture of a smiling slug and was captioned, "slug rides, 5 cents"
joel will remember when i accidently t-boned him at full speed immediately after a race on our schucks sx125 red&white bikes. i recall road rash, black eyes, blood, concussions, and bent rims.
remember when Susie was riding on the handle bars of my ten-speed and jammed her (bare) foot into the front spokes only to send us both flying over the front? I still feel bad about that, she had a black and blue ankle for weeks!
I remember charity insisting she ride the handlebars of her white 12th birthday suprise Huffy while Nikki Nuelieb filled the seated position. She then decided to ride "no-hands" and in an instant charity went hard to the right and landed on her tailbone. This was infront of the Booth's house on Louviers Ave. The Mrs. came running out after hearing charity's moaning while I tried to assure her that charity would eventually be able to walk it off. She would have nothing of it so she called 911. The next thing i knew, I was walking her white Huffy home while she rode off in the Wambulance...
REMEMBER WHEN..glory wanted to become a professinal cyclist? she practiced for about 3 days on that moss-covered track behind that ol' historic dupont school before she gave up to join the rest of us in picking blackberrys out of the sewer or whatever that creepy culvert was.
also, you can view class pictures of a young, toothy, Fred Foreman and his school in its historic prime at the Dupont museum.
Sundays noon - 3pm, wednesdays noon - 5pm. hosted by Mary (i don't need to bend my knees when i weed my front yard in my gray sweat pants) Marsh.
When I first read stephen king's IT i pictured that creepy culvert in my head, sort of at dusk when the light has changed just enough that your eyes start playing tricks on you when you look at objects about 20 yards away. After that I never went down to that culvert unless it was sunny and there were at least 3 or 4 of us.
I liked the vercammens when I was a kid. I guess I sort of still like them now, just don't know them any more. I remember in my teens that floating out of the darkest recesses of my memory was the fact that they once actually lived in dupont. But I never could remember any details, because their identity (in my head) was as the only people in california that we knew (besides the bike pump thieves) who would show up at random with zero advance notice and buy us new furniture or a months worth of food (which always = one full custom Chevy vercammen-vanload) at costco, etc. That kind of random, cool generosity made a big impression on me, it's something I try to do today for others.
i joined papa vercammen on one said trip to Costco. the total bill was over $700 and he paid cash. just pulled a big ol' wad of 20's out of his gray sweatpants.
When it came to the Vercammens, I never knew who to play with...I usually resulted in hanging upside down from the "rings" at the playground. One of these trips provided enough time to attempt two flip-dismount which resulted in a broken wrist and later an embarassingly bright green cast.
I had a neon green cast to end out the summer months with. Charity told me that it looked like a boys cast so I wore long sleeves to cover it up (this was in August). I went to the "bone dr." and he took off the green one only to find that my wrist was not completely healed. They re-casted me only this time it was bright pink to be sure everyone knew I was a girl.
Once upon a time, Mary Marsh was (probably on her way to the Y to pick up Hop)and backed their way-too-big-of-a-van-for-just-three-kids out of their garage, that was built around the blue van, right over Charity's purple bike. completely bent the wheel so that we had to walk it home while lifting the front wheel. hard thing for two lil girls. and dear Mychal Powell, said, "hi guys, do you wanna go ride bikes?" as we passed by her house on the way home. Mary didn't even offer a ride home. but thats okay. I'm sure the bike wouldnt have fit inside the van anyway.
Remember when we went to Bakersfield in oh, say, '89 or '90? Not sure exactly when. Just know I was old enough to remember riding the white horse, playing with Chrissy's stuffed animals, knowing that Mimi was hiding a Teddy Rumpstin in her closet, AND knowing that all the big kids from Jordan and Ross up, got to go to Disneyland. Charity, Bethany, Ryan and I had to stay back because-go figure-we were too young to go to the happiest place on earth! Oh, but we had adventures of our own. Oh yes. Mom, Mrs. V, and Mimi stayed inside doing who knows what-playing Uno or something, maybe scrabble, while we had to stay outside and play- and that probably wouldn't have been so bad if we weren't terrified of their goat. Yeah, you know, the goat who ATE Charity's shoes! and the one who was tied on a rope too long and too close to the swing set. So there we are, A, B & C, all huddled up on top of the slide that was all of 4 feet tall, trying to stay as far away as possible from that deadly goat. We kept squealing at Ryan to tie it up farther away so we could actually swing or play, but he kept moving it closer, saying, "you want the goat over here?". I'm still not sure if he was doing that on purpose or if he was just a 4-year-old playing with a goat he wasn't afraid of. I still remember the curtains closed because we kept trying to come in. Oh if they could have seen us.
sorry mom, er, i mean... Mrs. Marsh, but Ross V and I used to take the big tricycle (the first one with the white seat) to the top of the Louviers hill which headed down to Haskell St. Ross would jump in the basket and I would be in the seat, facing forward, with the trike pointed uphill. Then, starting at the crest of the hill, we would allow the giant trike to begin rolling backwards, downhill. About halfway down, we would have picked up some significant velocity at which point Ross would jump forward and turn the handlebars as far as they would go either direction, resulting in a catapult effect that would throw both of us over the rear wheels and onto the street.
ReplyDeletewhat the what? was this before or after you made us all jealous with your row of chin stitches attained by hurtling face first on a wheeled stomach-board down the same hill?
ReplyDeletewhat would have happened if that hill, the largest in Dupont was any bigger? I remember when I would finish my newspaper route on the bottom right side of the hill and turning around and having to climb back up to the top to make it home was my biggest challenge in life...its not even that big!
ReplyDeletet'was ben's Nightmare skateboard that i was on when i decided to use my chin as a brake on that hill
ReplyDeleteremember Bret? he was in the army, wore glasses and always wore a blue t-shirt that had a picture of a smiling slug and was captioned, "slug rides, 5 cents"
ReplyDeletejoel will remember when i accidently t-boned him at full speed immediately after a race on our schucks sx125 red&white bikes. i recall road rash, black eyes, blood, concussions, and bent rims.
ReplyDeleteremember when Susie was riding on the handle bars of my ten-speed and jammed her (bare) foot into the front spokes only to send us both flying over the front? I still feel bad about that, she had a black and blue ankle for weeks!
ReplyDeleteI remember charity insisting she ride the handlebars of her white 12th birthday suprise Huffy while Nikki Nuelieb filled the seated position. She then decided to ride "no-hands" and in an instant charity went hard to the right and landed on her tailbone. This was infront of the Booth's house on Louviers Ave. The Mrs. came running out after hearing charity's moaning while I tried to assure her that charity would eventually be able to walk it off. She would have nothing of it so she called 911. The next thing i knew, I was walking her white Huffy home while she rode off in the Wambulance...
ReplyDeletei remember those bikes that joel and ben had. both had red tires. what i learned to ride (training wheel-free) on.
ReplyDeletenone of these comments have to do with the vercammens.
ReplyDeleteREMEMBER WHEN..glory wanted to become a professinal cyclist? she practiced for about 3 days on that moss-covered track behind that ol' historic dupont school before she gave up to join the rest of us in picking blackberrys out of the sewer or whatever that creepy culvert was.
ReplyDeletealso, you can view class pictures of a young, toothy, Fred Foreman and his school in its historic prime at the Dupont museum.
Sundays noon - 3pm, wednesdays noon - 5pm. hosted by Mary (i don't need to bend my knees when i weed my front yard in my gray sweat pants) Marsh.
When I first read stephen king's IT i pictured that creepy culvert in my head, sort of at dusk when the light has changed just enough that your eyes start playing tricks on you when you look at objects about 20 yards away. After that I never went down to that culvert unless it was sunny and there were at least 3 or 4 of us.
ReplyDeleteI liked the vercammens when I was a kid. I guess I sort of still like them now, just don't know them any more. I remember in my teens that floating out of the darkest recesses of my memory was the fact that they once actually lived in dupont. But I never could remember any details, because their identity (in my head) was as the only people in california that we knew (besides the bike pump thieves) who would show up at random with zero advance notice and buy us new furniture or a months worth of food (which always = one full custom Chevy vercammen-vanload) at costco, etc. That kind of random, cool generosity made a big impression on me, it's something I try to do today for others.
ReplyDeletei joined papa vercammen on one said trip to Costco. the total bill was over $700 and he paid cash. just pulled a big ol' wad of 20's out of his gray sweatpants.
ReplyDeleteWhen it came to the Vercammens, I never knew who to play with...I usually resulted in hanging upside down from the "rings" at the playground. One of these trips provided enough time to attempt two flip-dismount which resulted in a broken wrist and later an embarassingly bright green cast.
ReplyDeletethought that cast was hot pink..or was that glory's wrist?
ReplyDeleteI had a neon green cast to end out the summer months with. Charity told me that it looked like a boys cast so I wore long sleeves to cover it up (this was in August). I went to the "bone dr." and he took off the green one only to find that my wrist was not completely healed. They re-casted me only this time it was bright pink to be sure everyone knew I was a girl.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time, Mary Marsh was (probably on her way to the Y to pick up Hop)and backed their way-too-big-of-a-van-for-just-three-kids out of their garage, that was built around the blue van, right over Charity's purple bike. completely bent the wheel so that we had to walk it home while lifting the front wheel. hard thing for two lil girls. and dear Mychal Powell, said, "hi guys, do you wanna go ride bikes?" as we passed by her house on the way home. Mary didn't even offer a ride home. but thats okay. I'm sure the bike wouldnt have fit inside the van anyway.
ReplyDeleteRemember when we went to Bakersfield in oh, say, '89 or '90? Not sure exactly when. Just know I was old enough to remember riding the white horse, playing with Chrissy's stuffed animals, knowing that Mimi was hiding a Teddy Rumpstin in her closet, AND knowing that all the big kids from Jordan and Ross up, got to go to Disneyland. Charity, Bethany, Ryan and I had to stay back because-go figure-we were too young to go to the happiest place on earth! Oh, but we had adventures of our own. Oh yes. Mom, Mrs. V, and Mimi stayed inside doing who knows what-playing Uno or something, maybe scrabble, while we had to stay outside and play- and that probably wouldn't have been so bad if we weren't terrified of their goat. Yeah, you know, the goat who ATE Charity's shoes! and the one who was tied on a rope too long and too close to the swing set. So there we are, A, B & C, all huddled up on top of the slide that was all of 4 feet tall, trying to stay as far away as possible from that deadly goat. We kept squealing at Ryan to tie it up farther away so we could actually swing or play, but he kept moving it closer, saying, "you want the goat over here?". I'm still not sure if he was doing that on purpose or if he was just a 4-year-old playing with a goat he wasn't afraid of. I still remember the curtains closed because we kept trying to come in. Oh if they could have seen us.
ReplyDeleteRyan probably wasn't afraid of the goat because at age 4, Ryan was the size of a small horse.
ReplyDelete