My block was the best because we had the best people. Just like every other kid on every other block I knew the people on my block were good and the people on other blocks were jerks. The next block over was bad but not as bad as the one two blocks over by the time you got to my elementary school 6 blocks away they were crazy and not fit to talk to.
I had friends on those other blocks and they were okay except that they lived on crappy blocks. It's not their fault they can't help it, their parents probably didn't know that our block which was so close was so much better. I'd go to their blocks sometimes but mostly stayed on my own after all it was mine.
Up the block, down the block, around the block. Those were the universal answers when my mother would as where I was going. Nothing more was asked and nothing more was offered. If I couldn't hear my mother yelling out the back window someone on the block did and would tell me to get my ass home because "your mother sounds mad" even though they all knew she always sounded that way.
If you didn't grow up on a block let me fill you in what made them so special. My block had a football field, a hockey rink (roller and sneaker hockey), places to play stick ball, whiffle ball, slap ball, punch ball, single double triple, box ball, box baseball, stoop ball and skully. I know you're thinking I mean skelly, well maybe on your block but on my block it was skully.
We had courts and fields for other things too. When we were really young and someone got a new refrigerator we got the box for making a tank to roll around in. The lumber yard up the block was good for wood scraps to make ramps to jump our bikes over and smaller pieces to make carpet guns with the help of a wooden clothes pin and a rubber band.
We had fences for hoping (if your not from a block that means climbing over). There were alley's for cutting through to get around the block which was clearly cheating when you played hide and seek but we did it anyway. We had other fences for sitting and leaning and asking the neighbors if we could go on the other side of into their 10 x 10 garden to retrieve our ball.
We had places to go fishing, called sewers where with a couple of wire coat hangers twisted together we could fish out perfectly good balls to play with for free! In the summer we had a block party where we closed the street and moved all the cars and put tables out on the street and played until night and we had a band at my end of the block in front of Frankie Ps garage. They played Brown Sugar and Smoke on the Water a few times and some other songs but those were the cool ones.
I miss my block and I think and I confess I go there sometimes on Google Street View and ride my imaginary bike around the block and name the names of the who lived in which house, the ones with kids went by the kids name, Michael and Raymond's, Joey's, George's, Stephen's or by the parent's name, Lefty or Siggy.
I still know one thing for damn sure and it's that the people on my block were the best and the other blocks were full of jerks.
