LEARNING HOW WE LEARN FROM EXPIERIENCE

"A Boy in the 60's-Growing-up in Anderson,California"

by Pete holly

I remember as a young boy-i liked to go for walks along the banks of the Sacremento
River-we lived right on it's bank's.I'd walk along the river banks and through the Quiet Suberban streets of Anderson;a town of only 2000 people ! Some times i'd walk to a little store that was about a mile away.It had every kind of candy on earth.For just a nickel and a dime you
could buy more candy than you could eat.
One day i was walking around the closest block to our house and it was a really hot quiet
day{115 was not unusual in the summertime}.Not a single person seemed to be at home or
around.Suddenly,i thought of the very first time i had walked around this block about 5 years
earlier.I noticed something strange however.Even though the nieghborhood hadn't changed
at all,something made it look differant to me.Then,i had a clearity of thought.The niegborhood
didn't look the same to me-because i had changed.Alot had happened over those 5 years.I knew
most every family in the niegborhood and they knew me.I also knew all thier secrets-or a least enought of thier secrets that could no longer see the the Block the way i did when i didn't know
anyone or anyhing about them.I knew there were people who lived on the block who had serious
problems.In the 60's-even in a sleepy little town in northern California-Anderson-people had
serious problems.Some had son's that had died in vietnam-some drank to much-one of my best
friends mother seemed like she did nothing but drink all day long.But she wasn't mean or any- thing like that that-in fact i remember her being quite nice.Everyone was nice but the times were not nice-and we all knew it.Nobody talked about it.I was fasinated by the way people didn't talk about anything serious.Nobody asked questions when someone had "the Flu"."Oh yeah-
it's going around,thats what i hear"-and that's what children heard too.But i think most of us,
even alot of the kids-knew it wasn't "the Flu".It was something more serious,so we didn't talk
about it.But it was strange how it made the neighborhood look differant.That was really a
revelation to me at age 10.

written by Pete Holly-Copyright-2010-all rights reserved