Curb Sitting

I am going to be posting some random childhood memories of mine, randomly. I hope to get Sam to do the same. I think that our kids would like to know about little bits of our childhood memories.

 

     It was in the summer before my 4th grade year that my parents were actively looking for a place to live in New York City. We had been living in Babylon, Long Island (N.Y) and it was not our kind of place.  The song with the lyrics "I gotta get out of this place, if it's the last thing I ever do" (song title and artist? I have no idea, maybe someone can help me out here- 80's) played over the radio and I recall my parents singing those lyrics extra loud when they came on. Possibly a theme song? The place was a tad bit funny- I remember the total confusion when someone asked me when I was getting new sneakers. I looked at my shoes and they were only about a month old. Sneakers had to be perfectly white and clean.(honestly, shoes are for playing in, not for style). I thought the kids were making a joke when they got all excited because "hamboogers" were on the lunch menu for the day. "Ha, Ha! Ham- Boogers!" Then I realized that they were not joking, that is really how they pronounced hamburgers. I knew it was time to move when a clown was visiting for an assembly and kept saying he "had an idear".I could not tell if it was part of his clown act or if that was how the word "idea" was really pronounced.  In my third grade brain I kept mulling over the words "idear" and "idea" and just could not get to a conclusion as to what was the correct pronunciation. 

But to do Babylon some justice, it was great because we had lots of friends on the street and we all rode our bikes all over the streets and played games like hide and seek. 

Ok, now back to the actual memory. My parents were looking for a place in the city. We were out waiting on the corner of Queens Boulevard and 77th Ave with the realtor. My legs were getting tired and so I decide to take a brake and sit on the curb. The realtor looks over in a panic. And my mom and dad tell me to get up. At the time I was confused. Now I look back and laugh! For those of you who don't know Queens Blvd it is a very busy street- 4 lanes each direction, with buses etc. Suburbanite? I think so, well up until that point in my childhood.