10/9/20 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: Cole Hankinson in the remodeled SACC/Mr. Thornton Room that he did as his Eagle Scout Project. Nice job, Cole!

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family:

One of the great memories that I have of my son, Braden, who turned 34 on October 8 was the morning car ride from West Beaumont Road where we lived in the late eighties and early nineties down to Glen Echo Church where a day care operated in the basement.

It wasn’t a very long ride. We didn’t listen to music on the radio or the cassette tape player in my car. I-Pads hadn’t been invented yet. I sat in the front, of course and Braden sat in the back in a car seat of sorts. I say of sorts because the car seats of 30 years ago are nothing like the fortresses your children sit in today.

The drive took us down Indianola Ave. where the old Olympic Swimming Pool used to stand. My children were regulars at the pool in the summer with their cousins and many Clintonville friends. I don’t remember how it started but one day the two of us got to talking about the pool. First it was about how we looked forward to the summer coming and being able to swim again. Later, we began to tell stories about things that happened at the pool. At some point we started telling stories about things that Braden imagined happened at the pool. Thus, the BIG BAD GOOMBA was born.

The BIG BAD GOOMBA was a monster who lived in the deep end of Olympic underneath the high dive platform. He lived under water and Braden and his friends had many adventures where they were captured, got away, were re-captured, fought and defeated this large green monster.

The story became like episodic. Every day he and I would add another chapter to the saga of the BIG BAD GOOMBA whose terror spread beyond the pool walls into the heart of Clintonville itself. A whole host of fictional characters were invented and each day another more and more details were added. Ten minutes a day, five days a week for months the story developed and each day, before we had gotten just a few blocks east of our house in Beaumont a new chapter began for us. By the time we pulled into the parking lot of the Glen Echo Church we were left with a cliffhanger to be continued the next day.

This fantastical  story eventually became a play that I wrote for the eighth graders at St. Timothy where I served as a principal at the time. It was entitled “Paulo and the Purple Sharks” whose village was terrorized by the BIG BAD GOOMBA. There was even a song about this now mythic monster. Of course the play had a happy ending!

Now Braden is a father of three year old Charlie and year and a half old twins Thomas and Olivia and a wonderful father he is. He is creating his own memories with his children. Time spent with your children, even a ten minute car ride, can be some of the most valuable time there is, and it keeps the BIG BAD GOOMBA away!

Happy Birthday, Braden!

Jim Silcott