An IB Childhood for Throwback Thursday

A little throwback to 1974 on the 1400 block of Hemlock where I lived from 1971-1980. That's me on the left, with my friend Scott, my little brother Nicky and Mike who lived down the street.

My dad made us a wooden camera so we could pretend to make Billy Jack and kung fu movies. That gave us an excuse to practice our fighting moves on the lawn of our neighbor's house-basically running at each other with flying kicks--calling cut --and then doing it all over again and again and again. It was like fighting but not really, so for little boys it was about as good as it gets.

For some reason this photo encapsulates everything about my IB childhood--neighborhood friends, a homemade toy, play "fighting", and my Goodwill jeans that my mom would patch again and again and again.

I stopped by my old street a couple of days ago (my parents bought a house for $80,000 on California Street in 1980) and realized that I am still in touch and friends with with most of the kids I grew up with in the neighborhood, which is very cool and says a lot about IB.

Serge Dedina is candidate for Mayor of Imperial Beach. He can be reached via sergededina@gmail.com or via Facebook.com/Serge4IBMayor.