Richie, "Dash", & Danny

I was going to start off the Vow part 2 by recounting my earliest memory. At the last minute however, I decided to push that post to tomorrow and blog about something that I don't remember at all - my life in Bennington, NE.

This was a small town to the northwest of Omaha (I think). From all indications - coming primarily from my Grandmother, it was the hip new not too expensive place to buy a house in the area. My folks had a place that I only remember one thing about .... When you walked in the door, you could walk up to the living room or down to a basement. That's it - my whole memory of where I lived for about the first 2 years of my life. My dad could probably correct this and give more clarification on what he was doing ... I think mom was teaching and going to grad school; but I think I like what I "remember" from Bennington is even better.

When I was older (probably C-man's age) my dad and I would sit in our Chevy Monza (with the big window in back) and wait for my mom when she went into the Safeway for groceries in Bixby, OK. Now that I'm remembering it, I think I'll decide that this particular time it was in our red 70's Buick named "Nellie". While we waited, Dad would make up stories about me and my two best friends from Bennington. I think he chose to use the 2 other characters from where we used to live because he could do anything he wanted with them....or he first started telling me the stories when we lived there .. I hope I wasn't because I didn't have friends in Bixby.

R.C.D. stories are probably what got me into fantasy adventure. Richie, "Dash", and Danny did all kinds off cool things: they had tree forts, they encountered pirates, they found lost incan gold, they road skateboards and bicycles without training wheels! It was great - imagine if everytime you heard a good story; it was about you and your friends. I don't remember much more than just hearing the stories - certainly not enough to recount them here. In the past couple of years, Dad has talked about trying to write some of them down. He has explained who Richie and Danny were and who their parents were - but I honestly can't remember what he said. Maybe I like it better than way.

As I was typing this, I told T what I was blogging about. Based on the blank stare and her, "after 12 years ..." comment, it sounds like I should share more about this with my own family - maybe in a black mini-van named "Muriel" outside a price-chopper. I might ruin some of the magic by "researching" it with Dad - still, If I could make that kind of memory it might make for more happy childhoods.