The world's fiction was our reality

As young boys growing up my brother Dave and I were heavily influenced by the world of fiction. I have written earlier about the impact that The Hardy Boys series had on us. There were other fictional characters as well that influenced our daily lives. There is no way I could list every influence we had but here a few that top the list. The following events are true and really happened. No names have been changed because there were no innocents involved.

I personally was fascinated by The Wolfman. He was my favorite monster. You know how grownups will always ask a little kid what he wants to be when he grows up? There was a time when I would look them dead in the eye and give them the honest answer of " A Werewolf". It was what I aspired to be. I could do great wolf call too. Mothers would call their kids in at night when I busted loose with "bahhwwwhhhoooooooooooooooo"

Most kids pinned on a towel and ran around playing super heroes. We went beyond that. Having a mother who was a former seamstress helped too as we had a ton of old material left over from her seamstress days to use for costumes. Dave had a cool Superman costume. If you recall Clark Kent wore his Superman suit under his clothes and when duty called he ran into a phone booth and did the quick change bit. Well this inspired little Dave. My mom recently told me a story about picking him up from school one day and noticing he seemed a little thicker. Appears Dave had worn his Superman costume under his school clothes that day. It is a good thing Lex Luthor didn't show up at LB Barton because he would have had Super Dave to answer too. This is assuming he could have found a suitable phone booth to allow him the quick change.

We had Batman and Robin costumes that, given that they were put together by elementary school age boys, were very realistic. One night I was woken by Dave telling me that he had heard something go bump in the night. He really believed and had convinced me that something or someone was in the house. We did what we were called to do. On went our Batman and Robin costumes. We were inching our way down the hall, completely scared to death. Whispering back and forth we made enough noise to wake up our Mom. She came out and saw what she probably knew she would see. Her two goofy little boys were at it again. I remember her sternly telling us to get back to bed and that all was okay. We did just that. What I wonder today is after having time to think about what she had just witnessed just how long it took my Mom to quit laughing so she could get back to sleep.

Of all the fictional characters though I would say Tarzan held the most influence. Tarzan was the ultimate good man. All he ever wanted to do was to provide for and protect his family. Playing Tarzan was easy. No costume was required and every kid in the neighborhood had a tree with a rope to swing on. We all had treehouses to play in. Dave read many of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan novels. Tarzan had his own language and we learned to speak the Tarzan language. If we wanted someones attention we just said "UMGAWA". If we wanted someone to stop what they were doing we just said "UMGAWA". If we wanted someone to follow us we said "UMGAWA". Dinner time? "UMGAWA". We always understood what the other meant.

The good news is that for the most part our influences were all guys who stood for the right thing. Dave and I still stand for the right thing, we just don't run around with costumes under our clothes any more.

Or do we?

I'm off and pedaling for now.