The nerdy kids

The supermarket was the perfect place for me to be. In order to get over my natural born bashfulness I knew that it was important for me to get in front of people. That was the meeting place for the neighborhood. Families would come by on their weekly ritual to buy provisions for the kitchen. Older people from the neighborhood dropped in to talk. They would take their sweet time to pick out pears and apples and ask every question they could think of about the different varieties of fruits. They always had stories to tell of nieces and nephews and grandchildren. I loved listening to them.

My goodness there was some colorful characters. While I was at the supermarket I became really close friends with a kid my age named Vincent black. I remember inviting people to a play I was doing at school. Vince was the only one who showed up. We became fast friends after that. In fact, we were quite inseparable for a while. He was a tall blonde boy from the Slavic village side of the bridge. He come from a large family of nine children. All of them did their best to make me feel welcomed as if I were also a part of the family. I think they got that from the mom. She was a very kind and loving woman. Although they didn't have much food she always shared a meal with me. She believed in Christian values and living a life that was reflective of those.

Little by little my friends began to grow at the supermarket. There was Jeff. He was a few years older than me but was also another soul I resonated with. Although he was in his early 20s, he had a Tom Selleck mustache like the manager of the supermarket. I used to go to his house sometimes to hang out or play Dungeons and Dragons. It felt like a home away from home for me. His parents were also welcoming. Jeff's house was often the hang out spot for all of us. Three of us seemed like misfits. Jeff was a Dungeons and Dragons loving kid with an old man's mustache. Vince was a gay kid who hadn't quite come to terms with his own sexuality. He hid it by dating strings of women. From that I began to meet their friends. There was Alan who had a slight vampire complex. He wanted to be one. Dodi was very brilliant and very streetwise. She was also swift to give you a quick witted tongue lashing if you stepped out of line. Finally, there was Sharon, a girl I had fallen for and dated until things fell apart. We were the nerdy kids of Dave's supermarket. We loved each other fiercely.

The picture today has nothing to do with the story. That is the great Samm Bennett doing his thing.