I read some men's magazine (Men's Health?) and it ranked Fremont, CA as #1 most livable city if you have the XY chromosomes. I scoffed. The town has absolutely no personality. Then I read the main reason: recreational opportunities.

Suddenly I had flashbacks to the summer I lived with the Vollmars in Fremont. It was a dream situation- their parents were travelling in Europe so we lorded over the whole house by ourselves for 3 months. How often do teens with so much snot in their noses that they have to carry around kleenex boxes and take NyQuil every night have that opportunity?

Yep, it was easy to get active there. Soccer fields, indoor local basketball gyms, skateboarding parks, swimming pools everywhere. During night, it was a snap finding a hot tub to sneak into. The excursions to the great outdoors- close as Sunol and as far away as Big Sur. It was always around 75 to 80 degrees and sunny with no humidity. There was no reason whatsoever to stay indoors.



Anyway, here's one memorable photo of that summer. Steve, Scott and I had a fierce rivalry going on over this video game, NBA Jam (the only times we were indoors, I guess). We'd even record scores. I'd have the upper hand for a while, then Steve would have it, then Scott, and so forth. Scott's known as a well-adjusted, coolheaded guy but the rivalry often got better of even him. He'd blow his top over stuff like his electronic players missing easy 3-pointers or whatever. Well he was 16. It became so predictable that I could sense a tantrum looming when he was playing Steve so I grabbed my Polaroid camera- sure enough, he was ranting and raving like a madman. CLICK! Scrutinize his face to your heart's content :)