272

As a real little kid I had quite the imagination. Sometimes I was a rabbit, eating bits of grass from a neighbor's lawn....sometimes I was an angel of an elf, and Mom would make wings for me out of paper towels and fix them to my sun suit with bobbie pins.

That wasn't the worse of it.  There were times I'd go up to complete strangers and tell them I was Casper the Friendly Ghost, or start gibbering in some curly-cue sounding language...insisting I was from outer space. To say the least I was a normal child, on the surface that is.

But inside, where all the secrets rumble around, I always knew I was a completely different animal.

Most girls my age(we're talking between five and eight here) were busy playing House and Dolls. I did that too sometimes, but most of the time I liked to be off by myself, exploring.  And when the fellas were playing Army I liked to be part of the action.  When I got to be about nine they let me join in the game...before that I was just another one of the little kids.  A pain...nothing more.

Even when I was accepted in the games of older children, I didn't always join in.  And once I was able to ride a bike, I was usually out on my own....ranging further and further away with each opportunity.  It's like I always knew there were other sights to see and things to experience. 

My dreams have been with me for a very long time....from Whitby Avenue to Sheffield Road where Iived my childhood and first felt California calling.

For today, Fifty Five Is The New 272...my childhood address on Sheffield Road....remembering how it first felt to hunger for adventure.