Sunday, November 15, 2015

My Sparta

We rolled in on a November day when I was in the middle of the 2nd grade. I didn't mind moving in the middle of the school year since my parents had held me back and I was getting made fun of at my other elementary school. They moved us into an old farm house where you couldn't tell if you were in the town or the country and I had proof! On the edge of our property stood the city limit sign and cars started going 55 mph when they passed our driveway. Sparta was where I learned to ride my bike and I owned that town. There was a pipe that crossed the river in town behind the soccer fields that most couldn't see and that's where we could cross into town if we walked. Sometimes we would walk the tracks but you had to be careful and look down them...if you saw the 'big kids' walking the tracks you had to find another path...so we did. My town had one traffic light when I was in elementary and as I approach thirty years from my arrival to that small town it has morphed into a five light town...impressive. My Sparta boasted of a party store near the elementary where we would bring back cans in exchange for bazooka gum and a can of soda but now you can't get the penny or five cent candy because it was sold to a family from overseas and they tossed out all the candy...they don't want kids hanging around a liquor store. Sparta rolled in the blue and white and under those Friday night lights you could hear the band play and the announcers voice clear across town in my own back yard. Evergreen street is the site of the time I was feeling the vibration of my bike spokes with my flip flop toes...that is, until - my toes caught the spokes and hit the bar of my bike. Our bike ride got cut short...so did my toes. In my Sparta everyone went out to either Angela's for pizza or to Trini's for a buritto - didn't matter that we had BOTH McDonald's and Burger King. My town - the one filled with pranks, and floats and prowling tickets and mattress surfing and sitting in the church pew covered in cow crap. Sparta.

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