Lots of other kids lived in our neighborhood, which was known as the
Tracks, and after school we all played together. We played red-light-
green-light, tag, football, Red Rover, or nameless games that involved
running hard, keeping up with the pack, and not crying if you fell down.
All the families who lived around the Tracks were tight on cash. Some
were tighter than others, but all of us kids were scrawny and sunburned
and wore faded shorts and raggedy shirts and sneakers with holes or no
shoes at all.
What was most important to us was who ran the fastest and whose daddy
wasn't a wimp. My dad was not only not a wimp, he came out to play
with the gang, running alongside us, tossing us up in the air, and
wrestling against the entire pack without getting hurt. Kids from the
Tracks came knocking at the door, and when I answered, they asked,
"Can your dad come out and play?"
Lori, Brian, and I, and even Maureen, could go pretty much anywhere
and do just about anything we wanted. Mom believed that children
shouldn't be burdened with a lot of rules and restrictions. Dad whipped
us with his belt, but never out of anger, and only if we back-talked or
disobeyed a direct order, which was rare. The only rule was that we had
to come home when the streetlights went on. "And use your common
sense," Mom said. She felt it was good for kids to do what they wanted
because they learned a lot from their mistakes. Mom was not one of
those fussy mothers who got upset when you came home dirty or played
in the mud or fell and cut yourself. She said people should get things like
that out of their systems when they were young. Once an old nail ripped
my thigh while I was climbing over a fence at my friend Carla's house.
Carla's mother thought I should go to the hospital for stitches and a
tetanus shot. "Nothing but a minor flesh wound," Mom declared after
studying the deep gash. "People these days run to the hospital every time
they skin their knees," she added. "We're becoming a nation of sissies."
With that, she sent me back out to play. Some of the rocks I found while
I was exploring out in the desert were so beautiful that I could not bear