14 to 16

Freshmen year was also the year I met Christina. She was also a senior but did not go to public school. We met at a party and I drove her home… I didn’t even have a license… But Naples was small enough I could probably have gotten away with it. She recently visited me – first time we had seen each other in quite a while.

High school in Naples was very interesting. Like being stuck in an episode of OC or 90210. Most of the kids had money and cars and all of the trappings of privilege... My Dad pretty much made my brother and I go it on our own. We drove the old family cars or bought our own. Paid our own gas and insurance. All of that. And in hindsight I know now that he did us a favor. He was more than able to have provided us the privileged life but instead sheltered us from that burden – such that it is – and we both grew up to respect money and other people.

I’ve never had real car luck. My first car was my grandmother’s old car - a 1965 Oldsmobile Jetstar 88 . That baby got around 6 miles to the gallon so I moved on as soon as I had the money saved up to a buy my next car – a 1976 Honda Civic. This car was love. Great gas mileage and peppy. It cost me $1500 which was a ton of money for me back then. But this car took me to college so – it wasn’t all bad. In between I had a play car – ended up buying a Triumph TR6 in really poor shape for $300. But it was fun to work on and a real blast to drive.

Around this time my Dad decided he just couldn't stay retired and ended up buying more real estate about this time. Which meant I was cheap labor - which was fine by me as I needed the money. He bought houses and other properties that needed work - and usually kept a hold of them once we fixed them up. If you were to have seen my Dad back in those days you would have assumed he didn't have a dime in his pockets. Wearing old painters clothes most of the time - as he worked hard on these houses too.

Dad was an incredible role model and while I can't say we were close, I can say we had and still have a great relationship.

Being 16 was what it was all about in high school as many may remember. In Naples it meant hanging out with friends from the other two high schools in town – partying late at night on the beach – doing things you wouldn’t want your own kids to do…. Grrr…

Around home where we lived there was always something to get into. We lived on a lake - a small lake of maybe 20 acres or so - but it was deep as it was one of the holes they dug back in the 50's to help build up the road bed for hwy US 41 - AKA the Tamiami Trail (Tampa to Miami Trail). Funny name that was bestowed on it appropriately back in the early 1900's as it was a wilderness trail down the coast and through the Everglades between Tampa and Miami. But I digress... The lake - yes, good fun. It was deep and cold. My neighborhood was perhaps 5 feet above sea level so, did 10 feet down and you hit water. And this lake is 35 or 40 feet deep. I can remember swimming down to the deep end with a friend and pulling ourselves to the bottom by the long stalks of the lily pads that covered the lake. By the time we got back up all of the pigment from our skin was gone - we had lost our tans temporarily to the cold water. What an experience. And we were fearless. There were plenty of alligators in that lake but being young and dumb I guess we figured they had better people to eat than we skinny boys...

And snakes... I can't count the number of snakes we ran into, or stepped on. Just a common thing for a couple of boys living down there. Two yards down from my house there was an empty lot we would play in and once day we ran across a diamond back rattler sunning itself - must have been at least 8 feet long. As big around as a football in the middle. I still remember standing back 20 feet or so and throwing pine cones at it - until we hit it.. I'll never forget the sound as that giant curled up and rattled... They say a snake can strike twice it's length away... we didn't stick around to find out. Needless to say, we gave that lot a WIDE birth for a few years...

To be continued… (The Everglades, cow tipping, wild boar, and snip hunting :)