Good Morning to you all.

I am thankful it is Friday. I am not sure as to why I am thankful it is Friday. It must be conditioning of some sort :)Those years in school yes, as kids we were always so celebratory on Friday. Why were we happy except the fact that we didn't have to get up early to go to school. We had 2 TV stations, no movie theaters, no malls, no TIvo ;) NO internet. No computer games...to play other games you had to find a "special place" that had such games.How DID we survive??(chuckle)

I grew up in Cocoa Beach /Cape CanaveralFlorida. The majority of my childhood had been IN Florida  and most in Cocoa Beach.

I had seen all space shots from the beach( in elementary school) We walked to the beach for every space shot during school hours. My Father was also in the Space Industry so at home it was more of the same Space Race coverage.

Beyond that, we had very little to "occupy" our little heads. I used to draw cartoon characters and design clothes...my teachers said I didn't pay attention in class so my parents stopped supplying me with "supplies " to draw. I read quite a lot. My Mother complained about that also. If I wasn't reading, I was playing by myself in the woods or at the beach....sometimes swimming..sometimes in the woods watching the ocean . The Dunes and the woods looked out over the beach in those days in Cocoa Beach. There were abandoned houses  3 of them that we ended up hanging out in during winter months. The Police ALWAYS were running us out of there.We kids considered it a sacred clubhouse and we had quite an imaginative history about the plantation. I wish I had pictures from that house that over looked the ocean ..my home away from home. It was torn down in 1975... so were most of the woods I played in . When I came back in 1995  for a visit ..there were no woods left.. The woods that built my dreams and my imagination.

There were 2 game rooms that were public. Most of the game rooms were for Hotel Guests only. They tended to be quieter and we snuck in to play a pinball machine in the  hidden area where they were. The other one I frequented was on the Pier. The Pier was a kid hang out. We generally were not allowed to go to the Cocoa Beach Bowling alley... My Parents said there were drugs there... I really do not know where they came up with such insanity..but the Bowling alley had really pitiful arcade games. Sure I went there..Why?? Because it was a "bad place" like I said the games were bad and the bowling center wasn't kept up well but..they had a busy bar ;)