weekends.....

the rain would bring the smell of the wet woods and the overflowing stream through my window every morning. mixed with the smell of coffee and bacon from the kitchen it was always a warming sensation to wake up to. my first thought would be the hope for a still warm apple turnover strategically placed on one of the blue laced china plates my grandmother would lay out on the butcher block. the cake box had the best apple turnovers EVER. i would wait ll week for one of those things. the long oak table would be decked to the max with bagels and lox, danish, a huge plate of bacon over a greasy paper towel, slice of red onion and tomatoes....it was a bummer that grandpa was dying but the benefit was that grandma sure knew how to spend his money at the house. we would sit at the glass table on the front porch staring out into the big grass field that was our front yard. i wuld fantasize about being a rich family, it sure seemed like it at the time. i could forget about the fact that my mom had to work all the time and i had to watch my sister cuz we couldnt afford a sitter. i could forget about the fact that we lived in the projects in garfield n.j., and that all my friends parents had no teeth and miracle whip in the fridge. i would stand at the edge of the tiny cliff in my back yard and stare into the swimming hole that was now eroded into a tiny guppy pond. skipping rocks into the stream that ran past. it was so awesome when it would rain. just the smell of the wet leaves, the sound of the stream overflowing, walking past trees and shaking them so whoever was walking behind me would get soaked from the wet leaves. frogs would always end up in the pool for some reason when it rained. and we would have to get them out before the chlorine killed them. i would find mice in the filter all the time, mom told me i would get a disease if i touched them so i would grab a stick and fling it into the woods. if scott or eddie were there we would sometimes perform some light poolside operations. i think my biggest fear as a child was the shallowend of that pool. jaws was huge back then and everytime i would jump in the deep end and open my eyes under water i would picture a shark or a dark shadow at the other end waiting patiently for me to swim into its evil clutches...if i was alone forget it i wouldn't even jump in, or if i did i would jump out immediately thinking something was grabbing at my feet. same reason i could never swim in the stream unless i was with scott or someone....kind of a bummer when gram sold the house...especially cuz i was living in it and in my party no rent paying prime....thus began the couch tour from hell........