What were you like when you were a kid?

Until third grade I lived in rural central Alabama, near Talladega. Paternal grandparents farmed 160 ac East of town, maternal grandparents farmed 60 ac West of town. Lived with maternal family till third grade. Roamed the hills and farms locally, debarked a few hickory limbs when "neighbors" called up to say they had seen me cutting across pastures 6..7 miles away. Followed the spring that came down the mountain up towards the head water, was run off by a couple of guys doin some kind of building up there. Mom was divorced by the time I was four and married an Air Force Sargent who was almost immediately sent TDY to Colorado. I could see the mountains from my second story classroom...nearly failed third grade. Left Colorado for MacDill AFB (Tampa Fl) caught a blizzard when leaving (by car) saw a truck load of cattle that had jackknifed, cattle frozen standing up scattered all over, eerie sight. Spent the rest of my school days in Tampa, was smart enough to be bored with the std curriculum.
Was small for my age but played baseball and football thru jr high. At 14 skateboards were making their first wave of popularity, shattered my right elbow. An AirForce Ortho Surgeon just back from Nam spent 10 hrs in surgery piecing it back. Was told I'd never have full use of it and maybe none. Regained 80% range of motion, but was eliminated from all sports. Didn't go over well with me so I rebelled and started to hang with greasers that would in 2 or 3 years turn into hippies. Meet a guy a few blocks over from me while he was working on his KnuckleHead (HD) hung out cleaned parts, fetched wrenches and by 18 I had a panhead. Got fed up with that scene for a while, tried to join Marines..no, Army...no and finally Navy.. again no, because of the elbow. This was during Viet Nam. Navy recruiting officer decided to talk with me a while, I had done well on the aptitude testing. He steered me to a National Alliance of Small Business training program for the shrimping fleet. Off to Freeport Texas for the classes, attended 2 classes and was hired on by a 60 yr old transplanted Buckeye. Stayed on with him for 2 years. When at the docks I'd attend a class or 2 so the guys running it would get their money out of it. I learned shrimping... that includes navigation, net mending, net rigging, splicing and general rope handling, was also introduced to radar, radio, loran and automatic direction finders.
Worked the boats for 6 years from the Florida Atlantic coast to Brownsville Texas on the gulf.
Spent a few years as a machinist, rebroke the same arm in a bike accident. Got a job handling ropes for a tower construction company, within a year was climbing towers on a daily basis. Skip ahead 10 years still working towers, lotta road time, oldest daughter starting school..time to get off the road. Got hired as the first full time employee in the installation dept at the 3 year old Houston Cellular. A year later transferred to the field engineering dept. Houston Cellular became Cingular Wireless became ATT Mobility. I retired after 25 years as senior field engineer. So idyllic childhood, some potential, wrecked in my early teens followed by years of angst and rebellion, got tired of it and worked to a satisfactory level within the system. Now can I go back to lurking? THIS should count for at least 10 posts and a dozen Hail Marys.