Childish Things

“Genius is nothing more than childhood recaptured at will, childhood equipped now with man's physical means to express itself, and with the analytical mind that enables it to bring order into the sum of experience, involuntarily amassed.” - Charles Baudelaire

My memories begin in Germany. I was born there. Except for a year in California which I don’t remember, I lived in Germany until I was seven years old. My father was in the U.S. Air Force, stationed at Ramstein Air Base. He’s from New York. My mother is from Frankfurt. There was a year when my mother and I lived with my grandfather while my father was stationed in Greenland. When my father returned we moved into base housing. The kids in the neighborhood were from all over the U.S. We usually played in the wooded area behind our apartment buildings, acting out our favorite TV shows. We would run through woods shouting and having crazy adventures. We played a lot of Star Trek. It would be awhile before phaser and tricorder toys would be released. The right fallen tree branch, broken just the right way, made a pretty good type II phaser. It was all about getting the phaser grip angle just right.

The older kids had the coolest toys. The younger kids and I often watched them as they set up elaborate G.I. Joe dioramas in the playground. These were the 12-inch Joes, pre-Adventure Team. They also built awesome plastic model kits that we got to check out sometimes. One thing we all had in common though, were comic books. We all read comic books.

When a kid found out he was was about to move back to the States, he would pass on his comics to someone in the neighborhood. After awhile I had a pretty good collection going. I kept them stuffed in the bottom drawer of a dresser. A lot of them were in rough condition. They were read a lot. The drawer was full, but the only two I specifically remember are THUNDER Agents #7, with No-Man falling from a plane towards gangsters in a car, and Captain Action #1, with Captain Action holding a panther on a leash, pushing Superman out of the way. I’m pretty sure I had other issues of those titles as well. Years later I would put names to the creators. Wally Wood and Gil Kane stood out and are two of my favorite comic book artists to this day.

One day I found out that my father had gotten new orders. We were going to move to the U.S. and I was told that I couldn’t bring my comic books. It was my turn to pass on my collection. I remember sulking at the airport, complaining about having to leave my comics behind.

We moved to a small town in Georgia. I started at the new school and got settled. One summer vacation my mother and I returned to Germany to visit my grandfather. We stayed with him in his apartment, the same place we lived for a year while my father was stationed in Greenland. There was a small toy chest in the room I slept in. Inside I found an old comic book. It was an issue of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. Memories washed over me. The characters and the art were so familiar. It was like finding buried treasure and reconnecting with an old friend at the same time.

As a child I loved adventure shows, toys, and comics. Like most kids I ran around yards acting out adventures. I’m so much older now but those childish things have stayed with me. I don’t run around backyards anymore but do I keep thinking of stories. The difference now is that I want to organise them, write them down, and find out where they lead.

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