It's 1986 and here's what we're doing

It's 1986; you and I are 12 years old. Here's what we’re doing today.

First we pump up the tires on our BMX bikes. Then we get as much of our allowance as our moms will allow us to take. First stop, AM/PM mini-mart for a pack of candy cigarettes and a Pepsi.

Then we're going to The Cortland Standard to pick up the 75 copies for my paper route.

When we deliver to Dr. Speicher’s dental office he's gonna lecture us about how we kids shouldn't be smoking. We'll take that saucy tone and say, "It's JUST CANDY Dr. Speicher!" and ride off giggling.

Be really nice to the lady in the wheelchair who lives in the old run-down house next to the train tracks on Port Watson St. You know the one that looks like “the Psycho house?” She’s really, really nice. She gave us one of her kittens who became our cat Brownie, the chocolate-black longhaired one you like so much. In a year from now, I’m going to slip on her wheelchair ramp and break a vertebra on one of the crossbars. I’ll be out of school on my back in bed for two weeks and you’re going to bring me my homework.

In 30 years, they’re going to tear down that beautiful old neglected house and put up a concrete “senior living care home” in its place. We won’t know what happened to the nice lady.

After we finish my paper route we're gonna ride through the abandoned dump behind Commando's restaurant and play on the train tracks and pick through the junk piles to see if there's anything good.

Now let's go downtown to Center City Mall, which is really just a suite of small stores in the hall next to J.J. Newberry's 5 and Dime.

We need to check this week's new Top 40 45 rpms out. The Billboard chart is posted on the corkboard above the 45's rack. The record store is playing:

♫Don't want to grow old too fast, don't want to let the system get me down

I’ve got to find a way to make the good times last and if you show me how--I'm ready now!♫

You picked up the 45 of Stacey Q's ‘2 of Hearts’; I got The Crystals' 'And Then He Kissed Me.' The record store always has a few new-pressed 45s of 60s girl groups.

My mom won't be home from night school until 8:30 so we can go to my house and play our records and sing along with hairbrush mics. But you have to go before she gets home because she's crazy. Don't tell your mom I didn't ask permission before you came over.

See you this weekend at the 25-cent matinee on Main St. They're playing Return to Oz and we can watch it as many times as we want for one ticket! My mom says we can get King Subs afterward.