Holy S**T! The South Wedge was my stomping grounds. Went to #13 and then #24 elementary school and then on to Monroe high school. Skated at the Highland park Lily Pond every winter and played little league at the ball park facility there.
The Highland Park Bowl was a good spot to meet girls at the summer concerts and operas held there.
I had a file the size of an encyclopedia at the Highland Hospital emergency room. Our neighborhood playing field was the street or the "LOT" as it was known in the neighborhood. A fire burned down a bunch of old homes and the "LOT" was formed when the city bulldozed the site. It was full of rocks, busted glass, cement chunks, and crap dirt. It was softball diamond, football field, and hockey rink as the seasons changed. It backed up against a casket company with a nice blacktop parking lot which got plowed in the winter and made a fantastic "road hockey" facility at night. That parking lot was also lit up with their anti crime flood lights. Injuries were a fact of life in that neighborhood.
Met my wife to be when she moved into a home right up the street from the "Lot" when we were 13. That's a long story, but I told the boys when I first saw her that I was going to "marry that girl" and got my balls busted big time. They all attended the wedding 8 years later. 52 years later and I'm still on a high.
Nice to meet you neighbor! Maybe a neighbor?
