[Stardust]

I picked my own switch for my own whoopings. I played basketball from sun up until sun down on a piece of plywood and rim hung from a maple tree that hung over the street and required us to move when a car came. I sat on my mothers lap in the front seat of the car during trips until I could crawl on my own, which I would do my crawling and laying in the back window dash. I would be out the door in the morning, put a 50 miles on my bike going from friend to friends house just to make sure I could stay busy until dark. We would split up however many we had and play baseball, designating parts of the field out because we didn't have enough players to cover all the positions. I collected strewn pop bottles along the roadways to collect enough money to be a 10cent pack of Topps baseball cards. I could not even tell you what brand my clothes were, I'm not sure that I even knew what a brand was! Eating out was "Special" and done infrequently. Fastfood was grabbing my sandwich and flying out the door as fast as I could to get the games restarted. When no one was around, I took me glove and a rubber ball and threw it for hours against the neighbors 3' high stone wall in their front yard, and not once did they threaten to sue my parents. I respected my teachers, and when I didn't, I got my ass wore out with a wooden paddle, then had to go home and find that switch for my mom to get my next whooping!