I grew up in trees in western Pennsylvania, aka Penn's Woods. We always had a treehouse -- or two -- and often slept out in our treehouses. We played a chase game called Tree Toad, running along logs we placed from tree to tree and swinging on ropes and grapevines to get away from whoever was "it." Our biggest treehouse was 25 feet off the ground and had three floors. We saved for-deposit pop bottles in the top floor. One windy day as we played ball in an adjacent field, we heard a loud crack. We looked up and saw our treehouse shudder, then crash to the ground, flat as a pancake. All our pop bottles broke, a small fortune gone. Luckily no one "was home." I was born in a Chinese astrology year of the monkey. I have been gifted with sock monkeys, monkey mugs, monkey bowls, a Barrel Full of Monkeys, a toy monkey that does flips, and a monkey clock. Some people have flat-out told me, "You are a monkey." I never have denied it.
When I was a little boy, I spent three long summers playing in the tops of trees. I was usually an airplane pilot, but sometimes I was an ape-man like Tarzan. This started when I was eight. But when I was eleven, I fell out of a tree and broke my arm. After that I played only on the ground. I was too poor to own a bicycle, but I did have some skates.That´s when I began to skate to the library and to read at least one book every week. But sometimes at night I still dreamed I was playing in the trees. The books taught me to use my head, but the trees taught me to use my whole body.
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I grew up in trees in western Pennsylvania, aka Penn's Woods. We always had a treehouse -- or two -- and often slept out in our treehouses. We played a chase game called Tree Toad, running along logs we placed from tree to tree and swinging on ropes and grapevines to get away from whoever was "it." Our biggest treehouse was 25 feet off the ground and had three floors. We saved for-deposit pop bottles in the top floor. One windy day as we played ball in an adjacent field, we heard a loud crack. We looked up and saw our treehouse shudder, then crash to the ground, flat as a pancake. All our pop bottles broke, a small fortune gone. Luckily no one "was home."
I was born in a Chinese astrology year of the monkey. I have been gifted with sock monkeys, monkey mugs, monkey bowls, a Barrel Full of Monkeys, a toy monkey that does flips, and a monkey clock. Some people have flat-out told me, "You are a monkey." I never have denied it.
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