Places We Lived . . . the "best of" the Message Center
From: Joe Barkowitz
Date: 2/25/2001
Time: 5:23:13 PM
Joel, Paul, and others. Do ya'll remember Williamson Place Valley on Croton
Place? We used to play tackle football in the mud along with "Smear The
Queer". Frank Robinson used to have a swing in his yard that swung out into
the valley, it was cool!, he fell off once and broke his arm! Gregg Lawerence
was also part of this group. Any WAY back memories?
From: BILL WINFORD
Date: 3/5/2001
Time: 8:15:23 AM
IT RAINED LAST NITE HERE IN KISSIMMEE, FLORIDA AND I WAS SITTING IN MY STUDIO
WITH MY SON, AJ. I REMEMBERED WHEN I WAS GROWING UP ON GAVILAN ROAD, THE SOUND
OF THE RAIN ON THE TIN ROOF OF OUR HOUSE. DOES ANY BODY ELSE FLASH BACK WHEN YOU
HEAR THAT SOUND? I CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE, BUT LAYING ON THE PATIO,
KNOCKING BACK SOME PANAMAS, SMOKING SOME RED, AND HANGING OUT.
From: Mouse (Paul Fiori)
Date: 2/26/2001
Time: 3:07:11 AM
Yes Joe-I rembr.Thats the valley we'd ride our dirt bikes in until the cops
showed and then we'd take off along the fence to laboca gas station to get away.
The house kitty corner there lived a girl named Tasha Mitts I think a wood house
on stilts and there was a swing but I don't remember a robinson family. Gene
Avery the mechanic lived next door to me on croton. Greg lived around the corner
in a concrete one story with his brother Mark and sister Moira. My house had the
playground and the access ramp to the bridge. Remember Miss Reeves from curundu
jh and her red spitfire?
From: Joe
Date: 2/26/2001
Time: 1:36:27 PM
Paul, Who could forget Miss Reeves. I can remember delivering messages to Mr.
Buisere (sp.?) the shop teacher, for her! Didn't she have a pretty decent
body?!!! :) I remember your house, I was in the one directly across from the
Crofts( Debbie and Kenny)
From: mouse (Paul Fiori)
Date: 2/26/2001
Time: 7:48:41 PM
Yep she was every boy reaching puberty fantasy. I would volunteer to open her
car door for her. I did get suspended for unscrewing the privacy shield off the
front of her desk one day! bad bad boy!!! My house on croton had the palm tree
in front and I would plant guando beans along the road that grew 12 feet high!!!
From: Mouse (Paul Fiori)
Date: 4/1/2001
Time: 4:54:06 PM
Remember catching doodle bugs under the wood houses on stilts in the gavilan
area? Skimboarding after a good rain? Stepping on sleeping beauty plants to make
the leaves close up and chasing lightening bugs in the evening . Or jungle
adventures going after black palm fruit dang were they tart yet sweet. What I
would give for a dirt clod war like we had ft Clayton against Cardenas boys
along the creek that separated us. Ya'll have any stories ?
From: Dave Jones
Date: 4/4/2001
Time: 11:38:29 PM
Paul, some great musings on your part. I was in particular thinking of those
"tribal wars" that the zonian towns had with the military bases. I
remember in sixth grade when we had to give the perennial "what I did on
summer vacation" report to the class. Mike Young had a great story of the
Annual Los Rios/Albrook wars on the hill that separated them both. He mapped out
how they prepped the jungle with with traps and in the decisive moment of the
battle, they unleashed the Geoghagen Brothers!! Steve and Danny. The way Mikey
told it, it made Braveheart seem anticlimactic. What can I say, Los Rios always
kicked a---butt. Young Brothers, whites, geoghagen, darwin barnes, I loved
growing up with you guys. If you could ever get together with Paul Fiori, we
could author a book similar to Lake Wobegon Stories. Joel, you wanna touch this?
:-)
