muscles, bikes and cigarettes

I like reading Carver because it's like sitting on your porch and watching the goings on around you in your neighborhood. His characters are so genuine and familiar. He keeps his descriptions so minimal that the reader's imagination is allowed to fill in the backdrop. I love this because although we're all reading the same story, the uniqueness of our own experiences set the scene and create the plot on our own terms. The characters could be your neighbors as much as mine. Because of this, I think his stories would be a great entry into a short story unit in any high school class.

This was such a sweet story fo me to read. I have two boys and though they are not angels by any stretch of the word, they are generally good boys and rarely give me any issues. (believe me, I know how fortunate I am). They have such an underlying sense of goodness that even though they are "typical boys" and stir up their share of mischief, they ultimately would never intentionally do something to hurt someone else. At least, I don't think they would. They're just not mean spirited. Somehow they've become very empathetic to the feelings of others. I'm not going to take credit for this attribute, but I do take advantage of it and try to foster their understanding of other people's circumstances. It helps them to see outside of themselves, and I think that is an important attribute for any human to have.

My dad would never have done anything like this when I was a child. He's very non- confrontational and for a long time I also hated to rock the boat on any issue in anyway. I'm not saying that it's a terrible personality trait, just that more often than not I found myself getting taken advantage of and that led to resentment and tension. Instead of talking about what was bothering me, I'd just cram it all inside and stew about it. I still have a tendencey to do that, but I try to put my feelings regarding a situation out here before they can fester and cause a larger issue later. Which, by the way, is always the case when you try to be a "non boat-rocker." (at least that's been my experience). My mother...on the other hand would totally have gone down the street and made an issue of the bike situation. I'm trying to think how she would've behaved if it were my bike, and she definitely wouldn't have been as nice as Gilbert's mother.
I'm not sure how I would react in such a situation, my Jon let someone ride his bike this summer and complained that the kid "bent his rim". He is my ...opinionated child. I really didn't know anything about it until about 9:30 one night when my doorbell rang and it was the kid's mother with a twenty dollar bill in her hand. She apologized and tried to give me the money, "this is for Jon's bike, " she'd said. I asked her what she was talking about, and then she gave me the story about her boy riding Jon's bike and Jon accusing him of bending the rim and then demanding payment for it. OMG!! I was mortified. Now, don't get me wrong, I stand up for my own when the situation calls for it, if you know anything about me it has to be that I'm not afraid to..express myself. This, on the other hand was different. I smelled a rat, and he was living in my boy's room. So you can get a better idea of this..allow me to paint the picture for you. Jon, my 12 year old, is the hardest headed child that Jesus has ever made. He is going to learn EVERYTHING the hard way. I love this boy beyond words..but there are definitely days when I've considered taking two twenty's for him. Obstinate would be putting it mildly. Jon is 50,000% boy, really, no exageration. He hates to shower, he smells his clothes to see if they're clean, I can smell him coming home in the summer, and even though he goes to school looking like a clean and well brought up child, he comes home looking like he's been working in the coal mines for eight hours. There are actually times when I throw his clothes out because I don't want to foul up my washing machine..yes, really. We bought him one of those silly BMX bikes a couple of years ago, the ones with the pegs sticking out of the wheels. He "ramps" over twigs, okay? Once I looked out the window and he was dragging a palate from behind the grocery store down the street. He came in and started rummaging through Matt's (my husband) tool box, grabs the hammer and walks out. Because I wanted to see where this was actually going, I just watched for a minute. He took apart the palate, and started leaning the boards next to each other against the blue recycle bin. He throws the hammer down and rides his bike to the end of the street. I knew where this was going so I went out and said "uh, whatta ya doin?" "I made a ramp for my bike, he says. "I'm gonna jump it with my bike." Yeah, okay, that's happening, Can you wait 'til I get an ambulance to stand by? "Are you insane???!!!!!!!!!!." He goes through a minimum of four inner tubes for his bike tires every summer, we finally wised up and got the "Unbreakable" ones...and unbreakable is really a matter of opinion, he managed to ruin one of those as well. This is a kid who tried banging a 9volt battery into a AA battery spot, and was irritated with the fact that he couldn't "make the stupid battery fit." When Jon got the bike he gave every kid in the neighborhood a ride on the back pegs...even though we recommended against that. "It's my bike," he'd say to me. (Can you feel my pain)?
so..the point here is I knew damn well the neighbor's kid didn't bend Jon's bike rim. I certainly couldn't take her money. I did make Jon come downstairs and face the music, and he was really mad at me for a while. He really insisted that this kid bent the rim. Now, I'm not sure what this has to do with the story other than I think there are two sides to every story. I was glad Mr. Hamilton kicked Berman's ass. He deserved it. I can see my little (long) story going completely the other way if I decided to pretend that my kid is a perfect specimen of humanity..but I know better. He's not. Can I fault him for it? Neither am I, but I do want him to make the right choices and even if it makes him want to "stick my doll"..I'll do that to the best of my ability. I want them to say that they wish they knew me when I was little, like they could imagine us being friends. I loved this story. Sorry that I carried on and on and on..