Archie and Wes ..well, worked for us ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I went for my morning walk today, well hardly morning, was just after noon. Just looking out the storm door and I knew that the Oklahoma summer had officially ended. The cool breeze along with the grey skies told me to grab a jacket. Good idea, as it is in the 50's according to the thermometer and with that breeze.... So I'm walking down close to the school and hearing the kids having their fun, recess, Friday, oh yea, don't get no better than that. But it got me thinking about something that hasn't crossed my mind for a while. That's part of living 1000 miles from home, and also having my memory. Archie and Wes. Those guys used to take a day like today and wear out the competition. Archie Manning rarely got sacked or even touched and that Wes Chandler, well, IF you could keep up with him, you STILL gotta tackle him when he gets the ball. Sometimes Fran Tarkenton would show up, but mostly it was Archie, since the Mannings lived there and Wes, since he was Archie's favorite. When it was just the two of us, it was mostly Alan's back yard, a couple others and we'd use those useless peach trees on my yard as out of bounds all the way down to the Sluder's yard. That crab apple tree was the end zone most of the time unless we stretched it down to the cedar tree I planted by the fence between our yard and the Fulmer's. The peach tree dividing up the Wilson's (Alan's) and the Sluder's, was an end zone and goal post for kicking field goals/extra points, as if anyone was sissy enough to kick an extra point. Grab that ball and run, son! Was about 5 years I guess. We would be inside watching a sporting event of some type and we'd end up going outside at the halfway point and playing. Alan had the old basketball goal stuck up in that huge old pine tree where Kareem and Magic used to hang out and wipe the floor with any challengers that foolishly stepped up. We had Reggie Jackson and Don Drysdale if anyone was up for some baseball. Kings of the neighborhood, hey, it's my story. We weren't perfect. There was the time when Wes went out on a long crossing pattern. Archie being the dead shot he was, launched that ball just ahead of those perfectly designed hands and that damn peach tree took off about half of Wes Chandlers face. Oops...again. We were fortunate enough to have the good Dr. Cauble across the street. Usually he'd fix us up and not tell the parents. Can't have the great ones of every sport known to man in trouble with the folks because of some little injury, now can you? Well, I seem to remember when Granny Cauble died. I heard a few years ago that Mr. Wilson had passed on, and Mr. Eaton, Mr. Sluder and others. Those times were long ago. As they like to say online these days. Things were different. If and I said If you were allowed to be in the house, must be awful cold or raining awful hard, you were helping clean house or watching what a parent wanted to see on the only TV in the house. You might be coloring or something quiet in your room. But I'm telling you, when you had some of the greatest ballplayers of all time right there in your back yard, why would you spend any time at all inside that boring ol' house?