I remember when I was first really introduced to pop music.  Previously I had liked a song here and there and I owned a Paula Abdul album (Spellbound).  However, I really only listened to jazz and classical.

I think I was in tenth grade.  It must have been 1995.  I remember that Jim Falk introduced me to Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and the Rolling Stones.  Shortly thereafter, I remember Austin Meoning playing Green Day for me in my room.  And I remember liking what I heard.

I remember running downstairs and informing my parents of the music that I had "discovered".  They smiled and humored me and soon after I started spending my allowances up at Music Master instead of at Video Game Master and The Vault (a comic store).

Back then I used to be able to buy a few albums with my $20/week allowance.  Nowadays that only buys me one album at Best Buy.  I guess I could still download two albums of MP3s for $20 but it just is not the same.

I have definitely been reminiscing about Rifle River lately. I remember the scenery. I remember when we started getting close how the road would be less wide and we would be surrounded by tall trees. What I didn't understand then was that this was because we had got off the expressway. The road looked like many roads in Michigan look like and because of this I would never be able to remember how to get there just by the landmarks. I remember that we would . . . Read More..

The Rifle River events were primarily intended as a father/son venture. However, I remember that there was one girl there. She was younger than me and I think her name was Maureen. She was there with her father and brother. I can understand why her father brought her along. I have a daughter and I would want to do the same. I just remember my younger brother Kevin having the "hots" for this girl. They would often play in the river together with their innretubes. I'm not sure if he ever kissed her. He would look forward to seeing her there every summer and I remember him being disappointed on the years when she did not show. Kevin always had his game on with the ladies. I was a little slow to start on that.

I remember it was one of the first Rifle River trips for me.  There were some older kids there (probably teenagers at the time) and one of them in particular was a troublemaker.  I remember that he said that he was part of a gang from Chicago and that they were a national gang, terrible and powerful.  This had a fearful effect on me.  I remember it being one of the first times I had heard about such a gang.  I am not certain, but now I know that teenagers say a lot of silly things like that to make them feel important and validate themselves.  I know the guy's father and the kid is probably just a spoiled suburbanite.  But still, as a kid I remember feeling pretty inimidated.

I remember playing "Zombie Tag" with my brother, my cousins Dan (dan10878) and Dave ( TheMemoryCrawler) and my childhood friends John and Derek Conrad. It was kind of a mix between"tag" and "hide-and-go-seek". Zombie Tag could only be played at night. One person was "it" at first. Everyone else hid. The person who was it was only allowed to walk because Zombies can't run. (But really they only had to walk when no one was looking). Being "it" really sucked in Zombie Tag since it was dark and everyone else was hiding in a large forest and you could only walk. The people who were hiding were allowed to move around too. They could yell out to the others to notify them that the Zombie was coming.

However, if a Zombie was able to sneak up and "tag" someone, then there were two Zombies. We would play this way until there was only one person left and he/she was the winner. It was a lot easier to catch people when there was more than one Zombie.

I loved those nights, hiding behind a tree . . . Read More..