Terry and the Pirates
- James Evans
- Sep 13
- 2 min read
My closest neighborhood friend growing up until high school was Terry Lapp. Terry was two years younger than me, and had a sister, Linda, who was an additional year younger.
Terry was an easygoing kid. We build forts and tree houses where we played cowboys and Indians and fought World War II over and over again. We always made Terry’s sister, Linda, and her next door friend, Paulette, play the Indians or the Japs. We usually quickly wore out our welcome with the girls, made them cry, and run home to their mothers to complain about us. We then were in trouble for a day or two. These two little girls spent much of their summertime running around in nothing but their dirty little underpants, so it was always remarkable to me how they grew up to be lovely, sophisticated women.
Terry’s dad, Fred, was a lineman for PG&E who came from a large family of brothers who spent a lot of time hunting and fishing. Fred also was handy with his hands, and made hunting bows out of Eucalyptus wood. My father occasionally got to go fishing with Fred. My father loved to fish, even though he wasn’t a very good fisherman. Usually, though, my dad came home with a large catch when he went fishing with Fred.
The Lapp family had chickens and rabbits and a couple of dogs, “Nig” and “Pal.” Pal was a spaniel who liked to go bird hunting with Terry’s dad and uncles. This was a real outdoors family that did serious hunting and brought home a lot of game for the table to supplement those home-grown chickens and rabbits. On a couple of occasions I had venison or elk dinners at Terry’s house. It was something I didn’t get at home.
One of Terry’s virtues was that his family had a pool table in the basement. We spent a lot of afternoons in the summer knocking balls in the pockets. I guess this was my introductory training for the big time when I started playing pool at the Holt Recreation Center.
