Sunday, February 8, 2009
My first memories of Toby are when he was about two and we lived in South Dakota. I was the first born and Toby the second, as such he was my constant playmate and side kick. We had tea parties in the closet, with a huge stuffed bear that we named “Big Bear.” We took dolls out in a baby carriage and paraded them around our street. Toby and I were always having fun and coming up with imaginary games.In 1983 our family moved to Orange County, in a house directly behind the South Coast Plaza mall. When we lived there Toby was five years old and I was eight. My mom traded in Toby’s bowl hair cut for a crew cut. I vividly remember Toby with a crew cut, freckles and a pair of “pilgrim” shoes. We called them pilgrim shoes because they were black dress shoes with a big silver buckle across the top and they looked exactly like pilgrim shoes. Toby wore those shoes with everything and in the warm climate of Orange County that often meant he was dressed in shorts, Hawaiian shirts, and pilgrim shoes. The crew cut was my mom’s idea but everything else was Toby’s.Toby had a best friend named Frankie, he lived down the street. Frankie was also five; he was a cute little Asian boy who wore cowboy boots with everything. Frankie had a sister named Betty and it was Betty and Frankie and Toby and Jenny (my little sister) playing together all the time.One day Toby and I thought of creating a haunted house in the garage. The real perk was that this was not only designed to scare the neighborhood kids but it was also a money making scheme. I would be the guide and take people on a tour of the “horrors” in the garage; Toby helped arrange the displays on our Dads pool table and made scary sounds. We recorded, some of the frightening sounds ahead of time on our dad’s miniature tape recorder, to be played at the appropriate time. One of the main attractions was the “real” vampire teeth; they were really just a staples remover. we shut the garage door most of the way so that our patrons would have to slip thru a small opening to get in. the door being closed helped to create the spooky, dark, atmosphere we were after and maybe (we hoped) disguised the true nature of our displays in the shadows. We invited the neiborhood kids, and of course Betty and Frankie, all for a small fee. We had a great time leading the nieborhood kids on a frightening tour of the haunted house which was really a trip around our dad’s pool table that was in the center of the garage, with a bunch of our dad’s office supplies artfully arranged on the table.Another fun memory I had with Toby was after we moved out of that house. We moved around a lot when we were younger. There was a prank that Toby and I played at almost every new house for many years. I would dress Toby in one of Jenny’s dresses and put a scarf over his head to cover his perpetual crew cut. Then Toby would go knock at the door posing as a young girl. It went something like this, Toby would knock at the door and I would tell Jenny, “ You better go answer the door.”When she answered Toby would say “Hi, my name is Sara, can you come out and play.” Jenny would see the resemblance and ask if it was Toby in disguise. Toby and I would then go to work convincing her that he was in fact a little girl by the name of Sara. Eventually Jenny would always decide against her better judgment and play with "Sara" for the better part of the afternoon, then we would tell her the truth. We never ceased to get a good laugh out of it. I don’t remember how old Jenny was when she finally stopped falling for the prank.One thing I will never forget is that Toby would never go down easy in a fight, but I always won. Then one summer when Toby was about 14 we got into a fight, boy was that one a deusy! It all started when I threw a candle stick across the room at my brother, I thought he would take it in good humor. To our mutual shock it hit him square between the eyes. His face slowly turned the most awful shade of crimson, that shade was reserved for his worse temper fits. For the first time I actually got a little concerned, my brother had grown quite a bit over the last summer. Then he charged at me like a bull. We fought something savage for a long time, at last I had him pinned to the floor. I asked him if he would stop hitting me if I let him up, he said no. Finally after sitting on him for a while he finally agreed to stop hitting me. When he got up he came straight back at me charging, I had to pin him down again. We did this several times until we were both worn out. That day I knew that I had had a close shave with defeat but I was not about to let my brother know that.Now Toby is a school teacher and tutors troubled teenagers in the Portland OR area. Recently when I went out to see him we took the kids to the Columbia River Gorge. After walking down to the river and playing around in the sand, we took them to play at the adjoining park. I spotted a tether ball, something I hadn’t seen in ages, and challenged Toby to a dual. He never could back down from a challenge. We sweated, strained, jumped, and hit as hard as we could. Toby won the first game, so I challenged him again, only this time I came out victorious. That’s how I want him to remember me
My first memories of Toby are when he was about two and we lived in South Dakota. I was the first born and Toby the second, as such he was my constant playmate and side kick. We had tea parties in the closet, with a huge stuffed bear that we named “Big Bear.” We took dolls out in a baby carriage and paraded them around our street. Toby and I were always having fun and coming up with imaginary games.In 1983 our family moved to Orange County, in a house directly behind the South Coast Plaza mall. When we lived there Toby was five years old and I was eight. My mom traded in Toby’s bowl hair cut for a crew cut. I vividly remember Toby with a crew cut, freckles and a pair of “pilgrim” shoes. We called them pilgrim shoes because they were black dress shoes with a big silver buckle across the top and they looked exactly like pilgrim shoes. Toby wore those shoes with everything and in the warm climate of Orange County that often meant he was dressed in shorts, Hawaiian shirts, and pilgrim shoes. The crew cut was my mom’s idea but everything else was Toby’s.Toby had a best friend named Frankie, he lived down the street. Frankie was also five; he was a cute little Asian boy who wore cowboy boots with everything. Frankie had a sister named Betty and it was Betty and Frankie and Toby and Jenny (my little sister) playing together all the time.One day Toby and I thought of creating a haunted house in the garage. The real perk was that this was not only designed to scare the neighborhood kids but it was also a money making scheme. I would be the guide and take people on a tour of the “horrors” in the garage; Toby helped arrange the displays on our Dads pool table and made scary sounds. We recorded, some of the frightening sounds ahead of time on our dad’s miniature tape recorder, to be played at the appropriate time. One of the main attractions was the “real” vampire teeth; they were really just a staples remover. we shut the garage door most of the way so that our patrons would have to slip thru a small opening to get in. the door being closed helped to create the spooky, dark, atmosphere we were after and maybe (we hoped) disguised the true nature of our displays in the shadows. We invited the neiborhood kids, and of course Betty and Frankie, all for a small fee. We had a great time leading the nieborhood kids on a frightening tour of the haunted house which was really a trip around our dad’s pool table that was in the center of the garage, with a bunch of our dad’s office supplies artfully arranged on the table.Another fun memory I had with Toby was after we moved out of that house. We moved around a lot when we were younger. There was a prank that Toby and I played at almost every new house for many years. I would dress Toby in one of Jenny’s dresses and put a scarf over his head to cover his perpetual crew cut. Then Toby would go knock at the door posing as a young girl. It went something like this, Toby would knock at the door and I would tell Jenny, “ You better go answer the door.”When she answered Toby would say “Hi, my name is Sara, can you come out and play.” Jenny would see the resemblance and ask if it was Toby in disguise. Toby and I would then go to work convincing her that he was in fact a little girl by the name of Sara. Eventually Jenny would always decide against her better judgment and play with "Sara" for the better part of the afternoon, then we would tell her the truth. We never ceased to get a good laugh out of it. I don’t remember how old Jenny was when she finally stopped falling for the prank.One thing I will never forget is that Toby would never go down easy in a fight, but I always won. Then one summer when Toby was about 14 we got into a fight, boy was that one a deusy! It all started when I threw a candle stick across the room at my brother, I thought he would take it in good humor. To our mutual shock it hit him square between the eyes. His face slowly turned the most awful shade of crimson, that shade was reserved for his worse temper fits. For the first time I actually got a little concerned, my brother had grown quite a bit over the last summer. Then he charged at me like a bull. We fought something savage for a long time, at last I had him pinned to the floor. I asked him if he would stop hitting me if I let him up, he said no. Finally after sitting on him for a while he finally agreed to stop hitting me. When he got up he came straight back at me charging, I had to pin him down again. We did this several times until we were both worn out. That day I knew that I had had a close shave with defeat but I was not about to let my brother know that.Now Toby is a school teacher and tutors troubled teenagers in the Portland OR area. Recently when I went out to see him we took the kids to the Columbia River Gorge. After walking down to the river and playing around in the sand, we took them to play at the adjoining park. I spotted a tether ball, something I hadn’t seen in ages, and challenged Toby to a dual. He never could back down from a challenge. We sweated, strained, jumped, and hit as hard as we could. Toby won the first game, so I challenged him again, only this time I came out victorious. That’s how I want him to remember me
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