I remember....

...watching a news broadcast on television for the first time on an old black and white model with legs and rabbit ears, and turning to my parents and saying, “Jimmy Carter take a walk!”, a phrase which was repeated to various friends and relations through most of my childhood.

...fearing the Wicked Witch of the West and hiding from the safety of the hallway, peering around the corner, whenever she was on screen.

...getting the other kids in the neighborhood to collect various leaves from my yard which I mashed in a bucket of water, explaining to the my awed younger companions that I was trying to create a protoplasmic life form, inspired by something I'd seen earlier that day on Spider-man and his Amazing Friends.

...trying to build a time machine with those same friends a few years later, using a cut extension cord, a no-parking sign, a magnifying glass, and a small toy car that I somehow thought we could shrink ourselves to fit into. I wasn't even a teenager yet and I thought I was going to achieve mass as well as chronological displacement in the same afternoon. By this point in my life my neighborhood friends were starting to realize I had more imagination than actual intelligence.

...the prominent use on Family Ties of the song ”At this Moment” by Billy Vera and the Beaters, which he performed on tonight's episode of ”Hit Me Baby One More Time.”

...jumping at the climax of the opening library scene in Ghostbusters then instantly feeling at ease as Ray Parker, Jr.'s theme song blasted from the theater speakers, and knowing I was going to love every minute of the film.

...jousting on my bike with my friends, using long branches. We also used pine cones as grenades, and would sometimes play tag using either a tennis ball or a frisbee to nail either bike or rider. We did anything to enhance bike riding, which by itself had grown boring.

...crying when Optimus Prime died. It may well be the only time I cried IN a theater. Afterward, as my parents drove me home, I sat quietly in the backseat genuinely concerned for the future of his warriors, even though they had a new leader.

...crying when my girlfriend and I got back to her car after seeing Titanic. What? The old lady led a full life, did what she promised Jack. What? No, I DON'T think that was the day my ex decided she was going to leave me. Shut up.

...making fun of a kid's last name in 4th grade in our gymnasium/cafeteria, inciting him to slide his plate of spaghetti at me which missed me and landed on the white pants of the kid next to me, which resulted in a food fight that spread from our table clockwise around the room and when the dust settled, I found myself in the principal's office as usual along with a few other kids on her consistent, “I know it was you!” list.

...being put in the back of the classroom so I wouldn't talk to the other kids and disrupt class, noticing an open window with a wide ledge and climbing out. Realizing the pine bushes below wouldn't break my fall from the second story, I was halfway back in the room with none the wiser when I felt my teacher's nails dig in to my arm and yank me in. The next thing I knew, I was sitting in the principal's office as usual.

....wearing sunglasses on the collar of my shirt at all times in 7th grade because I thought THAT would make me cool, along with my corduroy pants and velcro sneakers.

...one of the first drawings I ever did, a spiral etched with crayon on to construction paper, which I proudly explained to an impressed uncle to be a “space warp”. I believe there was even a speck and an arc that was supposed to be a ship flying out of it.

...John Moschitta, Jr.

...the Dance of Joy.

...all the lyrics to Ice, Ice Baby.

...memorizing the words to Will Smith's “A Nightmare on My Street”, long before I saw A Nightmare on Elm Street.

...the first time I heard ”You Give Love a Bad Name” by Bon Jovi. I was walking with my parents through a department store called TSS which has been out of business for 16 years. As soon as I heard the drum solo, followed by vocals sans guitars for one strain of the chorus, I knew I was hooked.

...the time my friend Mike bought a BB gun at a flea market which he smuggled in past his mom. We put a lot of holes in the walls of their upstairs den. I don't know that his folks ever found out or if the new owners noticed when his parents sold the place a few years later.

....the first time I saw Pink Floyd The Wall, also at Mike's. I'd never seen anything like it before, and for months after that all my drawings reflected the twisted sketchy animation that was interspersed between the live action.

Cockroach, Skippy, and Boner but not Six.

...Jay Leno selling Doritos—”Crunch all ya want, we'll make more!”

....”You mean Doctor Galakiewicz?” “Yes I am!”

....the combination for my middle school lock, the first lock I ever bought, which I brought with me to high school, used in college, and now use for gym at work. 19 years....that's a damn good lock, especially considering guys in high school would sometimes take it and hurl it down the hall when I was frantically trying to get my books for the next few classes in the inadequate three minutes they gave us between classes. I also remember when they'd lock it upside down or even more evil, upside down and through the handle of the door. I soon learned to keep the lock in my hand while the door was open and not leave it hanging there.

*****

I remember quite a bit, and these are but a few random highlights. Some people remember more of their childhood than others. What and how much do YOU remember?