Such a good story of boyhood. My first best friend was Amber Rosen. She was so much cooler than me, had many more TV channels, and easy access to junk food. I was like her little sidekick.
Hal - I also had a friend named George who I met in the 2nd grade, and he was my best friend until college. His family was from Greece and they spoke Greek at home. We spent our youth riding bikes and learning about tropical fish. Thanks for sharing your memories. Great writing as always.
The way you remember childhood memories is so incredible to me. But the way you tell those stories with such detail to make us feel as if we are there, is a gift. Love this substack so much, thank you for sharing your memories of you and Georg. Also, THAT CLUBHOUSE! Still there! I love it.
What a precious thing you’re creating here, telling your stories, recording them. A gift for your family and friends. And yourself!
We had a mr. Castro too. On Brownlee Ave in Columbus, Ohio. We called him mr. perfect because his lawn was an endless project of edges, lines and lawn chemicals that made it an unearthly green. He was not fond of us kids and if anything landed in his yard we could consider it gone forever.
I also had a best friend Debbie Fisher from kindergarten to 5th grade. We went to different schools after that and lost connection. Like you we also made a secret clubhouse. It was in this tiny office space under the basement stairs at my house. Your story evoked a lot of similar memories of growing up in the 70’s in Ohio. Thanks for sharing. And reminding us every week to enjoy living in these bodies. Death comes closer every day. It’s precious these lives and moments. And so easy to forget that sometimes. Love you Hal!
So fun to read your story of adventures! Ah, best friends… I was funny because I always seemed to have at least two into adulthood but they usually didn’t like each other much so I must have had different ones for different characteristics. In early elementary school, I remember walking to school with Julie. She was fun, sweet, and always smiling. At her house she had a life size play house in her basement and I loved playing in that and her back yard. Her mom let us watch the early days of MTV. A few blocks away, I met my “very best friend” Lisa when she was wearing the same store-bought Cinderella costume as me. I became an honorary member of her family because I was there playing at her house so much. She was boy-crazy and we talked about our crushes.
After I moved away, my new best friends at that school were Angie (I recall this as something to do with a shared affinity for a scratch and sniff valentines card that one of us gave the other during the sticker collection, especially scratch and sniff, book craze) and Lola (christened Lolita at birth), who took merciless teasing for the name and the song, who friended newbie me at the vacation Bible school a block from my house. We biked, roller skated, and pretended a local church and parking lot were our mansion and that we had 50 pairs of Jean Michele jeans, and we talked about boys of course.
After a year, I moved again and other best friends came and went but those were the most special first friendships. I caught up with all of them somewhere between college and adulthood but we were all pretty different in a lot of ways by that time. I’m still in sporadic contact with some high school besties. I wish my old friends well. There’s nothing like the people who know where you came from and how you become who you are. Grateful for the memories. :)
Great story Hal, touched on many themes. Reminds me of my best friend Zandy growing up in Baltimore in the early 60's. Can't reconnect at this point, so it almost feels like a dream. I remember his sister got this book for her birthday called, 'what do you say to a neurotic dog?' I was like wtf -at 10 years old. His father had Playboys! And died on a train going to NY to watch the US Open tennis.
Such a wonderful article about friendship. Thanks Hal, I love the way you write and can share your feelings so deeply. Its such a pleasure to know you.
Hi Hal, we just met in the LWS mingle. Thx for sharing about your friendship with Georg so extensively.
Recently, I met some of my old time friends - from different periods of our lifes. At the moment, I am especially grateful for all the support I received from all of them (in regards to my dad's passing) - especially when not seeing some of them for years. (We live a 7 hours train ride apart.)
And still, it's just as if we saw each other yesterday. My oldest friend is from the time when we were 10. It's just as in old times when we meet again - with sometimes years of break in between. Our sport teacher was called "Fräulein Baumann" like your friend's surname (meaning builder) - now calling a lady "miss" is politically highly problematic. As you mentioned in your text, diminutives are sthg typical for German language speakers. There are regional differences. In Vienna where I now live you'd recognise diminutives by "erl" at the end; examples: Häferl (a cuppa), Buberl (a young boy), Mäderl (a young girl), Lackerl (a small amount of water or other fluids), Henderl (chicken)
You'd be surprised how different Viennese German is in comparison to German German or Swiss German. There is a special dictionary for German students studying here, I heard. Even simple things like tomatoes or potatoes are called differently in Vienna (and Eastern Austria).
Curious to read more of your blog and the gratitude alphabet is such a great concept. 👏👏
See you another time during London Writers' hour. Still need to convince myself on starting substack... (with culture/museum/historical content)
Beautiful story, beautifully told. It evoked lots of my own memories of carefree youth. In the "best friend" genre, my best friend in 2nd grade and I used to sing Beatles songs together as we walked home from school about the time Beatlemania was on. I remember us being so happy together. We had a disagreement one day, about what I cannot recall. We had an actual fight, which I'm pretty sure I started, foolishly. I came home bloodied, and chastened (and minus my best friend). I took the lesson "Don't Start Fights," and pretty well followed that except for one time as a bicyclist chasing down a carload of punks, and in city league soccer.
I remember getting into some kind of quarrel with Hal only once. It did come to insults and weapons, and the next thing I knew a broomstick was hurled toward my face, hitting my teeth and puncturing my lower lip. Lots of blood. I still feel the scar to this day. But no love was lost between us.
Wow. I have no memory of that! Thanks so much for helping to fill in the gaps, Georg. I wonder what the argument was… I vaguely remember a fierce competitive edge on the Frisbee golf course. :)
No idea what the argument was either, but we were both upset, and it happened in your main bathroom. We used a lot of TP to stop the bleeding, and were instantly friends again.
Such a good story of boyhood. My first best friend was Amber Rosen. She was so much cooler than me, had many more TV channels, and easy access to junk food. I was like her little sidekick.
Thank you, sister. ❤️
Persnickety approach to lawn maintenance 🤣🤣🤣
remember? :)
Hal - I also had a friend named George who I met in the 2nd grade, and he was my best friend until college. His family was from Greece and they spoke Greek at home. We spent our youth riding bikes and learning about tropical fish. Thanks for sharing your memories. Great writing as always.
Thanks so much, Jeff. I'm glad to see that you're still riding that bike. :). H
I thought we were gonna hear about obstacle course number 2!!
I can imagine that being a part of another "Tell all" episode. :)
The way you remember childhood memories is so incredible to me. But the way you tell those stories with such detail to make us feel as if we are there, is a gift. Love this substack so much, thank you for sharing your memories of you and Georg. Also, THAT CLUBHOUSE! Still there! I love it.
Thank you, Lauren. These kind words mean a lot to me. H
What a precious thing you’re creating here, telling your stories, recording them. A gift for your family and friends. And yourself!
We had a mr. Castro too. On Brownlee Ave in Columbus, Ohio. We called him mr. perfect because his lawn was an endless project of edges, lines and lawn chemicals that made it an unearthly green. He was not fond of us kids and if anything landed in his yard we could consider it gone forever.
I also had a best friend Debbie Fisher from kindergarten to 5th grade. We went to different schools after that and lost connection. Like you we also made a secret clubhouse. It was in this tiny office space under the basement stairs at my house. Your story evoked a lot of similar memories of growing up in the 70’s in Ohio. Thanks for sharing. And reminding us every week to enjoy living in these bodies. Death comes closer every day. It’s precious these lives and moments. And so easy to forget that sometimes. Love you Hal!
Thank you for sharing, Tricia. ❤️
So fun to read your story of adventures! Ah, best friends… I was funny because I always seemed to have at least two into adulthood but they usually didn’t like each other much so I must have had different ones for different characteristics. In early elementary school, I remember walking to school with Julie. She was fun, sweet, and always smiling. At her house she had a life size play house in her basement and I loved playing in that and her back yard. Her mom let us watch the early days of MTV. A few blocks away, I met my “very best friend” Lisa when she was wearing the same store-bought Cinderella costume as me. I became an honorary member of her family because I was there playing at her house so much. She was boy-crazy and we talked about our crushes.
After I moved away, my new best friends at that school were Angie (I recall this as something to do with a shared affinity for a scratch and sniff valentines card that one of us gave the other during the sticker collection, especially scratch and sniff, book craze) and Lola (christened Lolita at birth), who took merciless teasing for the name and the song, who friended newbie me at the vacation Bible school a block from my house. We biked, roller skated, and pretended a local church and parking lot were our mansion and that we had 50 pairs of Jean Michele jeans, and we talked about boys of course.
After a year, I moved again and other best friends came and went but those were the most special first friendships. I caught up with all of them somewhere between college and adulthood but we were all pretty different in a lot of ways by that time. I’m still in sporadic contact with some high school besties. I wish my old friends well. There’s nothing like the people who know where you came from and how you become who you are. Grateful for the memories. :)
Thanks for sharing, Tina. I really appreciate you being here. H
Great story Hal, touched on many themes. Reminds me of my best friend Zandy growing up in Baltimore in the early 60's. Can't reconnect at this point, so it almost feels like a dream. I remember his sister got this book for her birthday called, 'what do you say to a neurotic dog?' I was like wtf -at 10 years old. His father had Playboys! And died on a train going to NY to watch the US Open tennis.
Thanks for sharing, Chris. :) H
Such a wonderful article about friendship. Thanks Hal, I love the way you write and can share your feelings so deeply. Its such a pleasure to know you.
Such a sweet story.
Hi Hal, we just met in the LWS mingle. Thx for sharing about your friendship with Georg so extensively.
Recently, I met some of my old time friends - from different periods of our lifes. At the moment, I am especially grateful for all the support I received from all of them (in regards to my dad's passing) - especially when not seeing some of them for years. (We live a 7 hours train ride apart.)
And still, it's just as if we saw each other yesterday. My oldest friend is from the time when we were 10. It's just as in old times when we meet again - with sometimes years of break in between. Our sport teacher was called "Fräulein Baumann" like your friend's surname (meaning builder) - now calling a lady "miss" is politically highly problematic. As you mentioned in your text, diminutives are sthg typical for German language speakers. There are regional differences. In Vienna where I now live you'd recognise diminutives by "erl" at the end; examples: Häferl (a cuppa), Buberl (a young boy), Mäderl (a young girl), Lackerl (a small amount of water or other fluids), Henderl (chicken)
You'd be surprised how different Viennese German is in comparison to German German or Swiss German. There is a special dictionary for German students studying here, I heard. Even simple things like tomatoes or potatoes are called differently in Vienna (and Eastern Austria).
Curious to read more of your blog and the gratitude alphabet is such a great concept. 👏👏
See you another time during London Writers' hour. Still need to convince myself on starting substack... (with culture/museum/historical content)
All the best,
Isabella
This is wonderful and reminds me so much of my tomboy-ish 70s childhood, pernickety neighbour, dens and all
That Nothing To Do Book Clubhouse is a treasure, as is your friendship with Georg. So wonderful you've reconnected!
Beautiful story, beautifully told. It evoked lots of my own memories of carefree youth. In the "best friend" genre, my best friend in 2nd grade and I used to sing Beatles songs together as we walked home from school about the time Beatlemania was on. I remember us being so happy together. We had a disagreement one day, about what I cannot recall. We had an actual fight, which I'm pretty sure I started, foolishly. I came home bloodied, and chastened (and minus my best friend). I took the lesson "Don't Start Fights," and pretty well followed that except for one time as a bicyclist chasing down a carload of punks, and in city league soccer.
I remember getting into some kind of quarrel with Hal only once. It did come to insults and weapons, and the next thing I knew a broomstick was hurled toward my face, hitting my teeth and puncturing my lower lip. Lots of blood. I still feel the scar to this day. But no love was lost between us.
Wow. I have no memory of that! Thanks so much for helping to fill in the gaps, Georg. I wonder what the argument was… I vaguely remember a fierce competitive edge on the Frisbee golf course. :)
No idea what the argument was either, but we were both upset, and it happened in your main bathroom. We used a lot of TP to stop the bleeding, and were instantly friends again.
Loved this tale of a boyhood friendship! I especially like that you two have reunited! Hooray!!