Basketball and Driving.

As the summer of 1969 ended, I had grown to 5’ 9” tall. I had two obsessions. Playing basketball and driving a car. Yes, that is correct, driving a car at 10-years-old. I was a very observant child and watched my mother's every move when she drove a car and I knew I could do that. So, she started teaching me. I would start the car, put it in reverse, look in the mirrors, back up and put it in drive and off we would go. My parents were good teachers when it came to driving, and they both were safe drivers too.

My dad also let me drive on the road while he sat beside me. I was also interested in anything with a motor, cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc. I was never afraid to try and drive or ride anything. I would ride my friend’s minibike any chance I could get and that was fun too.

Any time we went to the store, shopping, etc., I was asking my mom or dad if I could drive. I got a lot of experience doing this and of course today my parents would be in jail for child endangerment or something, I am sure. However, it was not unusual to see Indiana farm children driving tractors, trucks, cars on the farm at a young age in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Most boys by the time they were 12 were helping their fathers on the farm and that included driving trucks in the field. Southern Indiana is mostly farmers and blue-collar workers.

When my mom would load us up in the car and go shopping for school clothes in early September I always went along, but not to buy clothes. I always sat in the front seat and my three sisters sat in the back seat with their coloring books and would color while mom shopped. Mom always left the keys in the car because I was a responsible 10-year-old. People used to do that, leave the keys in the car. And as soon as mom went in the store, I would start the car and drive it around the parking lot. My sisters would be screaming and yelling. They said they were going to tell mom I had driven the car. After driving around the parking lot a few times, I would park the car in the same spot mom had left it and you could not tell it had been moved.

However, my sisters would rat me out anyway and I would just look at my mom and deny the whole thing. I said, “I did not drive the car, they are just trying to get me in trouble.” Well, my mom believed me because she did not see where the car had been moved. And you know how siblings love to tell on each other too. So, mom just ignored the noise.

I could not wait for school to start that year because I wanted to play basketball for the school. I had played in third and fourth grade and now came fifth grade. I always played center because I was the tallest boy on the team. Indiana is a basketball mecca and if you didn’t play basketball there was something wrong with you. The movie “Hoosiers” is no joke. Most of the schools shown in the movie I played against. And I loved basketball!

On the court my job was to get the rebound and pass it to someone else to shoot the ball. I loved doing this because I could outjump most boys my age. Occasionally I would shoot if I was open, but I really enjoyed blocking shots and rebounding most. I spent hours and hours playing basketball with my friends when we were not in school too. I had to go to the park to play basketball because we did not have a basketball goal at our house. I would ride my bike to the park and play with my friends until dark and then ride back home.

I always hoped I would be about 6’ 10” or taller so I could play professional basketball but that never happened. I did play basketball all through school until my senior year though. However, when I got to be a junior, I was 6’ 1” and had to play power forward. I did not care too much for that position, but I was not tall enough to play center. Our high school center was 6’ 7” and that was his position. I finished my senior year of high school at 6’ 2” and played forward my senior year too. I really loved playing basketball and driving!