Wilmington...final thoughts before we move on to Baltimore Maryland

                                                                                                                                                                          Well, I've talked about some of the main memories that Wilmington Delaware left me with. I did a lot of growing up in Wilmington....we were there about 6 years so I was between 8 and 14 years old. Yes, I got into some trouble but those days were rapidly coming to an end. My infatuation with matches and setting things on fire was over. I had a bike and strong legs and no fear so Michael and I went everywhere. There was nowhere we wouldn't go. I talked about going to Philadelphia to play with the South side kids, we went to the Delaware River often....we either rode our bikes downtown or we took the bus. One of the cool things about the buses in Wilmington was that each bus had a bike rack kind of contraption so when we rode our bikes downtown, we didn't have to ride our bikes back.....all we did was to put our bikes on the rack, get on the bus and pay our tokens. It sure made coming home easier.

I mentioned that I had my first real girlfriend in Wilmington. We lived right across the street from each other. She was Irish Catholic and went to St. Helena's Catholic School....I went to Mt. Pleasant Junior High School. They were both just off Philadelphia Pike so we always walked home together along with other neighborhood kids. We only did this when the weather was nice. She was fun and I guess you could say we went through puberty together. She came from a pretty good size Catholic family and had lots of brothers and sisters. She knew more about the birds and bees than I did and she was willing to explore. Her parents would let us sit in the basement game room watching television with no lights on. Her mom would keep the other kids from coming down for a certain length of time. I remember her mom, telling us she was about to turn the lights on so "get decent". I think she was kidding. She had an older brother who was made to take us along with him on some of his dates. I remember him having a black convertible but I don't remember what make. He would always take us to the outdoor movies on warm nights. We always sat in the back seat but that never stopped him from making out with his girlfriend in front of us. Anyway, we had that storybook first young love, at least for a couple of years...always wondered what happened to her. I have done a lot of different types of searches but with no luck.

One of the good memories I have was of Brown's Drug store. It was on the way home from school so if we were walking..all of us would stop there for a coke. They were an old time drug store and had a soda fountain behind a counter and tall, green stools to sit on. They had every drink imaginable along with lots of different flavors of ice cream and they even cooked food like hamburgers and hot dogs. One of the not so good things I remembering doing was this. Next to Browns, there was a little convenience store...not like we know of today...it was more a small mom and pop grocery store. They sold all kinds of sodas by the case and they also took deposits on the bottles they sold. Some of you might remember paying a two cent to a nickle deposit on a coke bottle. Well, when I need some extra money for the drug store.....I would ask the drug store for an empty bag, then I would go around back of this little grocery store and grab me a few empty coke bottles....the grocery store stored them out back until the coke truck came by to get them. I would then fill the empty bag up with empty coke bottles and come around front and walk in the grocery store and head up to the counter. I told them that my mom sent me there to get our deposit back....they would give me about .60 to .80 cents and I would head back over to the drug store to spend my ill gotten gains!! I know, it wasn't right but hey...

One thing that I learned early on and kinda liked about the Catholic religion was this whole thing about confession. If you did something wrong, all you had to do on Sunday, was go into this little phone booth looking thing with a door and a small window in the wall. Once you were in there, the little window would open up and this guy would ask you if you had sinned....when you said yes, he would absolve you and make you say a couple hail Mary's and rub some beads and your sin would be erased.....how great was that. Of course, I wasn't Catholic but I did go to an Episcopalian Church on Sunday....I figured that the Episcopalian and Catholic religions were very much the same but without all the kneeling and all that Latin, so I pretended to confess while I was at Church, then I would absolve myself....say a couple hail Mary's...I didn't have any beads to rub...and I would be good to go, till the next Sunday. Hey, this confession thing was pretty cool!!

A quick note about my girlfriend. She really liked me because when we moved from Wilmington to Baltimore her parents would allow her to get on a bus and come and visit me on weekends. This happened a few times but I think the flame burned out because she quit coming. Hey, we were fourteen, what do you expect.

Another good memory I have about my time in Wilmington is that's where I started to like sports. My dad was teaching me and paying for golf lessons and I was pretty good.....I would get better but for a thirteen year old kid....I was doing well. I also was a walk on track team guy in junior high. This story is kinda interesting. The track team always practiced after school and one day I walked on to the field during practice. One of my friends was a short distance runner and he was on the track doing wind sprints. I walked down to him and ask if wanted to race a 100 meter dash. He said yes and off we went. Mind you, he was one of the fastest kids in the state of Delaware. I lost to him but by only a few steps. I guess the track coach saw us running and called me over. He ask if I would like to try out for the team and I said sure. I made it and ended up earning a letter in track and field. I ran 100 and 200 meter sprints plus I did the broad jump. I was pretty good. Good enough to get on the Senior High track team when I went from 9th grade to 10th. The unfortunate thing was that I was at Mt. Pleasant Senior High School only two months before my dad was transferred to Baltimore.

Well, these were the highlights of my time in Wilmington Delaware. I have a lot more memories of Wilmington and might come back to revisit. Ask me sometime about the 1960 election between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy.....I ended up with lots of campaign buttons from both sides. In one of my future blogs, I will mention how I got them....maybe in the blog about antiques.

Now it's on the Baltimore Maryland (actually Lutherville-Timonium Maryland) for the next chapter of my great adventure in growing up!! Coming attractions...getting my drivers license, my first car, our first and only boat, answering an alarm with a loaded shotgun, Lock Raven Reservoir, Brownstones and great fresh fish!!