Bananas and loud motors
April 29, 2008 (Monday)
I wrote on Friday about being a pre-schooler in Houston. I talked about how we neighborhood kids played in the mud by the house we lived in on Noble Street. It was at that same house where my twin sisters were born (I wrote about that yesterday). I have some isolated memories of that same general era, when I was 2-5 years of age.
One strong memory is not tied to anything and has no significance, but it’s sort of strange. Our next door neighbor suddenly had thousands of bananas in his garage and driveway. The garage was packed full and the overflow was in the driveway. I was just walking around our yard and saw them there. Why would anyone have so many bananas? Ah, here’s a mystery. Of course, they were not there very long, because ripe bananas have a short life. Keeping in mind that memories cannot be trusted completely, I sometimes wonder if, “yes, they had no bananas.”
Another recollection from that era was a next door neighbor who had an outboard motor and a boat. He was always working on that motor. It was the only one I had ever seen. He wrapped that rope around the pulley and pulled hard time and time again. Then he’d use his screwdrive and pliers on it and try again. After a while the noise of chugging could be heard. As the exhausted guy pulled and pulled that rope, eventually it started, and he would race it over and over. I thought he was our rich neighbor. No one in our family ever had a boat or motor. I thought he had lots of money. So went my childish thoughts. I now know he was not rich. No rich people lived around there.
When you see a little kid, please pay attention to him. You don’t know what’s going on in his head. But I betcha he’s eager to talk about it, if someone will take the time to ask him about it. He may have bigger thoughts than loud motors and bananas.