brent hamilton blackstone pg4

it was 1965 when we moved into the  home in foster manor, or was it 1966 i'm really not sure but things were alright, brad, bruce and i slept in the basement but it was finished to resemble another floor of the ranch home, mom eventually went back to school for her degree in teaching, dad took up flying homing pigeon's as a hobby, barbie was still a baby, and it was the weird sixties with the vietnam war,hippies, and bell bottoms. when we moved we were still sort of young but in several years we discovered girls, cars, marijuana, beer, and a new type of fun.brad,bruce, and our friends were constantly playing football,baseball, and basketball and some of us were really good but i guess no one was really that good, but we did have our individual moments of greatness. if only we would have devoted all that time to something like the piano or guitar, but i suppose it doesn't really matter,no matter what it would be first you need the natural ability. junior high school was quite a time it started out with my brother(brad), ans several friends and me going to the ohio state fair with the intention of seeing the james gang featuring joe walsh this would have been 1971 and the long hairs were thick and we were just young and all eager to be cool dudes, i don't remember ever actually seeing the james gang but i was definately tired for my first day of 7th grade. junior high was held at glenford, east of thornville approximately 7 miles the building it was held in was once glenford's high school and was really in need of demolition, the boys locker room actually had a dirt floor,"it was disgusting," the music room/industrial arts room wasn't any better, but it was 7th grade and everyday was new, sort of. in 7th grade i had my first taste of rejection, i can still remember the feeling of not making the basketball team it really hurt. i also began to discover girls in 7th grade. in 8th grade we were the first class in the new jr. high building, the building was located next to the high school between somerset,glenford, and thornville. it was in the 8th grade that the hormones went bezerk, it was where i also met "ERNIE."ernie was a strange kid not a very good athlete but fair to poor not a good student, and not very good looking, but he was sort of fun to be around and always eager to party. in athletic's i grew some between 7th and 8th grade so i developed into a good football player a fair basketball player, and a fairly fast track runner and high jumper. high school was quite an experience the discovery of girls was fabulous, at that age my hormones were going a little more than berserk. my friends and i were now experimenting with drugs and alcohol, nothing serious but on occasion. in school i had above average grades but i always enjoyed blue collar jobs like farming, working at the elevator,etc. in fact during my years in high school i had jobs at the elevator and at bob cooperrider's farm and driving a grain truck, so i always seemed to have a little money for a six pack or a bag of pot. the summer after my sophamore year i along with some friends were out partying one saturday night and while driving through thornville the police stopped us i was setting in the back of pat hunt's father's van stoned, the van pulled over in front of the lutheran church on rt.204, i must have crushed the girls(nan kelber,kathy montel?) who were sitting in the front seat with pat hunt driving, but i was frantic. after getting out of the van i ran and i was scared, i out ran one of thornville's deputies, all i can remember is my heart beating, i later found out the deputies thought i was jim walser's older brother donald which i felt was a compliment because of his speed.when i arrived home i hurriedly took my clothes off and hopped into bed as though nothing had happened, i woke brad up who was sleeping in the bed beside mine and he asked me why i was breathing so hard? i really don't remember exactly what i said. i was really scared what my mother and father would say, it just so happened that when this occured my father was mayor of thornville and they had left brad and me at home while they were in canada on a fishing vacation,"i wonder if they caught any?" the court of perry county didn't charge me with anything but i was kicked off the football team for my junior year of high school, and thank god my mother or father never really said much about it. i failed to mention all the passengers in the "big bust," brian jones,brian cooperider, charlie billings, some guy they called moondog(it was the early 70's), pat hunt,nan kelber,kathy montel,lisa van sickel?

it was really exciting but at the time i was scared shitless.