In 1989 the Ball family lived in a 3000 square foot 5 bedroom house that was built in 1972. There were 10 people living in that house. Eight children and my two parents. To say it was a little crazy is a vast understatment. For many years it was “anything goes”.

 My parents were focused on keeping us dressed, fed and alive. Us kids were focused on fun, candy and entertainment.

I was focused on photography and skateboarding and candy and fun and entertainment.  My younger brothers were focused on building a tree house in the backyard. I know, it looks like the tree house is very dangerous, and it was, but my brothers loved it. The beam that leads to the first floor of the treehouse was my Sisters gymnastics balance beam. It was such a handy device to have around.

I built the skateboard ramp with my buddies. It worked, kind of. We couldn’t ever get the entry lip flat enough. You had to learn a specialized hop to get onto the ramp. I had a friend over one time and he wanted to try it. I warned him about the lip but he proudly sped towards the ramp. His skateboard stopped dead cold and his body was thrown into the ramp. It almost tipped over backwards. I fell over laughing. He never came back. 

Another problem was it wasn’t heavy enough. Every time we’d do a trick, it would move backwards with a loud screeching sound.

One day after school I prepared my daily toast with sugar and cinnnamon. I glanced out the back door to see my brother Joey hammering away at the ramp. By the time I stopped him he had already made a prounounced hole. Luckily it was in the middle so we could skate around it. My front wheel fell in the hole one time and I stopped skating on the ramp at that moment.

My childhood was fun!