The old stompin' grounds...

I had a site visit yesterday and the trip took me through the my old stomping grounds...... Window Rock, Arizona. Normally, I wouldn't go there on purpose and even much less Gallup. I've just got too many unsettling memories of my childhood that I much rather leave there to be forgotten. But, much of it came back to me when I saw the old place I used to call home.

Not all my memories of Window Rock are bad. I remember riding my bike all over the place with my buddies Morris, Mihio, and Adrian. We'd go down to Pizza and Cream, the WR Cinema, Royal Burger, and Fed-Mart. If you remember these places, yeah, it's been a while. I also remember walking around with my friends at night to all over and all we feared was an angry dog.

I saw the rocks we used to climb, including the Window Rock, the trees we used to climb, the lady's house we knew we could get a drink of water if we wanted (now boarded up), the trails we used to race on, and places we used to party at when we got older.

I also saw the place where I responded as a fire fighter to an accident that killed a couple of people, the place that I used to escape to when my step dad would come home drunk, the house that my old girlfriend lived in, the road where I bailed from her car when she just wouldn't stop yelling at me, and the place where she hit me with a car. Yeah, the shit memories. The memories that made me tougher and smarter. I hate them but I would still welcome them because they made me who I am now. Hopefully for the better.

We went on to Ganado and I took a trip, yeah...kinda like those but with out the substance. I remember packing my helmet and pads and stashing under the bus that Justin drove and jumping into my seat and donned my headphones. My buddy, Cedric or Jonny, would pile in next to me and we'd crack jokes about kiss ass teammates and how what's-her-name looked in those tight stonewashed jeans during Algebra.....whoa. We'd all get going because this trip was on a Friday night. Game Night. It would start getting darker as we passed over the summit. Coach would call us up to the front of the bus one by one to make sure we knew what to do to beat the Hornets. As we rolled into town the field was all lit up just to the north....fresh paint on the grass, refs, stands filled with maroon on one side and Columbia blue on the other, marching bands, and oh yes, the cheerleaders. Poof.......now it's 2005 and I'm 34, married with children and a mortgage.

Man, what a trip.

Oh well, that's what life is.