Hoover Dam was a big experience for me as a young boy. But I was happy to leave the dam because it was scary.
We began our journey to Las Vegas up the Nevada side of the canyon wall and that was also scary. Once we crested the canyon wall, we then began our drive towards Las Vegas.
Along the way we drove through a small town known as Boulder City located in Boulder Canyon. And it was a small desert town that looked out to Lake Mead. As I would later learn, Boulder City was built for the workers who constructed the dam. And from the Nevada side of the dam, it wasn’t called Hoover Dam, it was called Boulder Dam even in 1965. Hoover Dam became the official name in 1947, but the Nevada locals still called it Boulder Dam and that is what I called it when I was still a young boy.
When we made it to Las Vegas later in the afternoon, it was sunny and hot. What I didn’t know was just how hot it can get deep into the summer months. We got off the main highway and followed some streets that my mom had written down on a paper map. We drove into a large group of buildings very similar to the buildings we had just left in Phoenix. This was another apartment complex as I had learned it to be properly called. I wondered if my room in this place would be like my last one.
When we arrived at our new apartment, we were greeted by a lady who welcomed us to Las Vegas and to the apartment community. After the greeting she opened the front door to the apartment, and we went in. It had furniture in the living room. The kitchen was smaller than the one we had in Phoenix. So too was the living room and there was a small area next to the kitchen with small round table and four chairs. This would be where we ate breakfast and dinner. I could also see in front of me a small hallway with three open doors. There were two bedrooms with furniture and a bathroom. This apartment was small compared to our apartment in Phoenix.
As my mom and her boyfriend were bringing in our stuff from the car, the neighbors popped in to say hi and they introduced their daughter to me. We were about the same age, and she had the shiniest red hair I had ever seen on anyone. She was also cute and freckled.
There were not any boys outside playing so I wondered if I was the only boy in the neighborhood. And there was no pool that I could see. I thought to myself that this place was not as nice as our place in Phoenix.
A couple of days later the girl next door was outside playing with another girl. She was cute too. She had long brown hair and was skinny like me. She said “Hi” and I said “Hi” back. They continued to play, and I just watched until it was time for me to go inside.
The summer was just beginning. One day the girl with the shiny red hair who lived next door and her friend knocked on my front door. I was home by myself. My mom was out, and her boyfriend was at work. They asked if it was ok to come inside and play. I said “Yes” and let them in. I was so happy to have someone to play with. And it didn’t matter that they were girls. We sat on the sofa for a little while talking and giggling at dumb things we were saying, and then the girl with the long brown hair asked to see my room. I quickly said “okay”. We all went into my room, and I showed them what toys and games I had to play with.
The girl with the long brown hair said she wanted to do something else and once again I said “okay”. The girl with shiny red hair looked at me and smiled. She then closed my bedroom door. I will just say that this was another moment of discovery that only a girl can teach a boy. While I was scared, it was one of the most memorable times in my young life. It was a moment of newness and my awareness of being a boy with a girl became special. This memory would eventually confront me in strange ways as I would move into my preteen years and puberty.
Now, it is not easy to write about this memory because it does touch upon youthful topics that I am sure a lot of boys my age at the time, maybe a little older, find difficult to talk about with others, especially with our parents. So, I never told anyone about this encounter when I was growing up.
And the girl with the long brown hair would become more involved in my life a few weeks later in a good way and then not under the best of circumstances. And her parents would be introduced to a new reality, both mentally and financially. We were all going to be changed by a harrowing event that impacted me the most.
And this impact would present me with one of my biggest tests in life to overcome. And this is the kind of test that will never let you forget. Surviving this event and the challenges it presented would become a new strength of my character and would also become a test of my fortitude to succeed. And I would also learn to become resilient.
And I am only nine years old…
“Follow my story for new vignettes”