We were also Goonies

I love watching movies with my Granddaughter Madi. What is really special is when I introduce her to a favorite from my past that becomes a favorite of hers. A prime example of that is "Abbott & Costellos's Jack and the Beanstalk". We have watched it a hundred times and can still watch it today and find new things to laugh at in this movie. Two weeks ago I bought her "The Goonies". I remember watching it with my girls and that they absolutely loved that movie. It has now become a favorite of Madi's. The movie is about a neighborhood of kids on an adventure together. There is the older cool teen brother and his love interest. There is the younger brother with asthma. He is an optimist and a tireless worker who never gives up on anything. There are the rest of the neighborhood kids. One is a brainiac inventor, one is a wisenhiemer smart mouth, one is an eating machine. There is a younger girl that was more mature than the younger guys her age. None of the younger guys see as attractive yet but by the end of the movie you see her and her main nemesis, the smart mouth kid, share a "moment". First spark of puppy love perhaps. They were all different but they all were pieces of the puzzle that made up the neighborhood and together they were something special. They called themselves "The Goonies".
Reflecting on that movie led me to compare them to my childhood neighborhood and I came to the conclusion that we had this core group of kids that were also Goonies.

I grew up in a neighborhood with houses full of kids. We all knew each other. We all played together. Some years the kid next door was your best friend, some years it was the kid on the next street, and the next year those two were best friends and you found someone else to be your best friend. It was all good in the end because we were all pieces of the same pie. We lived in the middle of Williamsburg street. My Goonie story starts with my brother Dave. He is two years older than me. Dave was my first playmate and my first best friend. Others come and others go but Dave and I will always have each other. Dave was very smart and he was the one who had a way with the ladies.Two houses to the left lived David and Mike Skaggs. David was about 5 years older than me , the oldest kid on the block, and was every one's hero. For little boys the biggest, strongest, and fastest kid on the block is revered. He was funny and he was so cool. He never bullied us and in fact he was just one of the guys. But he was the leader, no doubt about that. His little brother Mike was my first playmate outside of my brother. He was a year older than me. Smallish kid and very funny. Mike was a mechanical whiz. Next door on the other side was Kenneth Johnson. He was Dave's age. His parents were older and a little more strict than everyone else's parents. Kenneth was kind of nerdish but in a good way. He taught me the joy of roller skating. Kenneth had an older brother David and he always scared me. He was the same age as David Skaggs but I considered him more bully than buddy. That is probably not fair to David because he was not a bad guy. Around the corner one way was Jimmy Cox. Jimmy was Dave's age. I was terrified of Jimmy until the third grade and then we found out that we shared two things. We both loved to sing and we both loved to laugh. Jimmy and I became inseparable for many years and stayed close until he graduated high school and moved away. Around the corner the other way was Pat Roche. He was Dave's age and just a great guy. Pat was always calm and laid back and he loved to laugh. He also could run like a deer. Mark Stephens became a part of the group when I was in maybe the 4th or 5th grade. He was an outsider who showed up on his bike one day and through overall general coolness and a passionate love for The Beatles was an instant fit in the core group. The last Goonie was Roger Buchanan. Roger was Dave's age. He lived around the block from us and in fact our back yards butted up to each other. I really didn't get to know Roger until I was in the 4th or 5th grade but his easy going nature made him fun to be around.

And then there were the girls. There was Pat's sister Kathy. She was a year older than me. She was also calm natured and was definitely the sweetest girl on the block. The girls on the hill were the McCollough sisters. There were two that were much older. Shirley was the oldest and she was 6-7 years older than me. Barbara was a year or two younger than Shirley. Barbara was gorgeous and she was David Skaggs first girl friend. Way to go David!. Wanda McCollough was Dave and Pat's age. She was a fiesty red head and was Pat Roche's first love interest. The youngest McCullough girl Mary Nell was a year older than me. She was definitely the fem fetale of the bunch. She was a pretty blonde and was Dave's first offical steady girl friend that I recall. She may have been everyone's first girl friend except mine although I'm not sure of that. She kind of went through the whole group. Although they were younger and not really a part of the core group I have to include my two younger sisters. Betty Ann was 4 years younger and Dinah was 8 years younger than me. They had their own group of Goonie friends ( The Glover kids, Dotson kids, etc) but they were all much younger than I was so I have not included them in my list.

There were a few other kids on the outer boundaries of the neighborhood that we interacted with as well. There was Neil, Betsy, and Patsy Farris on Luke Street. On Jamestown there was Vance, Denise and Stephen Galimore and Charlie Rucker. On Roanoke street were Charles Cox and Karen BeKnight. I am sure that there a couple of kids that I am forgetting and I apologize to the world if I left a name off that obviously belongs here.

Note one recurring item here and that is in our core group EVERYONE WAS OLDER THAN ME. Being the youngest presented challenges. I was kind of a goof ball. I was not as active romantically with the girls as the other guys. I wanted to be the funny one and sometimes I was, sometimes I wasn't. I consider this neither good nor bad. It is just the way it was.

I have some neighborhood adventures I intend to share from time to time but today I just want to introduce the cast. To summarize the main characters :
Rick Holland... youngest and part time village idiot
Dave Holland... Rick's brother. Part boy genius, part boy Casanova
Betty Ann and Dinah...Rick and Daves younger sisters
David Skaggs... Oldest and coolest
Mike Skaggs.... Funny little guy, great mechanically.
Jimmy Cox.... Rick's best friend
Kenneth Johnson... Artistic one of the bunch
David Johnson... Kenneth's older brother
Pat Roche... Mr Laid back
Mark Stephens... Joined group as we were pre teens but was instant fit.
Roger Buchanan ... He had the most easy going nature of the whole group.
Kathy Roche, Mary Nell McCollough, Wanda McCollough, Shirley McCollough, Barbara McCollough... the girls on the hill and love interests to the above listed males.

Monday...The Story of the Haunted House...I'm off and pedaling for now.