Stunted Development

When I was 11 years old, my parents moved to Utah for 3 years, which really did a number on my friend quotient.

This is one example of what happens when a tween has too much time on his hands. For more stories, go here, here, here, here, here or here.

So, what does a boy do when he's bored out of his mind and completely friendless?

That's when he turns to his nephews and nieces. Fortunately, I had a gaggle of them living about an hour away, and their mother was willing to bring them up for visits. When I knew they were coming, all my creative juices would spring into action. While there were many more examples of crazy hyperactivity on my part, here are the highlights:

1. Creating a "haunted house" in our basement, complete with spinning flashlights, rooms strung with toilet paper and "eyeballs" and "brains" lurking in the double sinks of one of the bathrooms.
2. Hosting a bike parade on July 4, complete with streamers and flags to decorate the bikes.
3. Organizing a drive-in movie. This was the most cumbersome, because I had to collect boxes they could decorate and use as cars. We had duct tape parking stalls, an admissions booth with a ticket collector, play money and a snack bar.

I think they had fun, but I'm mostly impressed with my mother who let me routinely tear apart the house for each of these ... productions.