The Chronicles of Ricky: 1986 Shuttles and Comets 3rd Grade

1986

During class in second grade we watched the challenger shuttle explode on tv, it was horrifying. This was back when they had a TV on a cart and getting to watch anything was a special event. Everyone was interested in shuttle launches back then and even have a launch on VHS somewhere in our collection, I'm not going to look for it, but I saw it when I was looking for family movies in our old collection. I remember being curious and asking people if they thought that people survived the explosion, then crashed and died. I can't recall where I first heard it, but it stuck with me, I also don't think adults liked these kind of questions. lol

I put so many space shuttle models together as a child, This is something that kids got annually for different events, every store had different models and paints, and things affordable.

1-28-1986

Great Grandpa Harold also (Grandpa Landers stepfather) passed away in January

It was around this time that I started seeing a therapist. This was down on Maple Street, in the same building that I filed a complaint against police officers in the future of 2014

This summer when he went to the camp I could see, I remember my father and the rest of us laying on the dock and looking up at the stars and seeing it I don't remember being amazing because we didn't have a telescope but I remember seeing a streak in the sky, and that inspired me to take pictures with my nephew in 2024 or maybe it was 2025 but now I have the checker

Below is a link to a Youtube video of my May 10, 1986 first communion. You can see us marching along like army troops. I remember taking this event so seriously and now looking back, I feel like it was a complete waste of my life.

You can see my friend Tammy Lynd's and a bunch of other students whose names I've forgotten. lol

During this mass you can see Sister Winnie standing behind me. I'm pretty sure she noticed that she was being recorded. That's why she didn't pinch me on the back of my arms. lol She used to be really mean.

I even got into a scuffle with her, when she tried to pull me down a stairwell once,

and I grabbed the railing, and then she slipped and fell, and then got mad at me because she was being rough with me and I was sick of it.

6:38 The video switches over to us. as kids being rambunctious in my basement on Hope Street. You can see me tossing around this big stuffed monkey, I used to love that thing. It drove me nuts, that stuffed ape had two of the same hands, and by design, his hands were supposed to be able to link them together and it could hang around you neck, but because I had two of the same hands, I couldn't link them together, so he couldn't connect his hands, unless his arms were twisted all funky.

This thing was huge. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I used to bring it everywhere.You can see me punching it in this video at 7:03 The video switches over to our porch before it was redone, and you can see my sister as a very small toddler.

That's our cat Durdur on the window sill. 8:12 Video switches over to the family picnic that we held after my first communion. I used to love these family picnics, these gatherings. There's so many people here. My cousins. Michael, Steven, Joey, Kenny, Jeremy and Andrea, my grandpa Stebbins, My grandma stebbins, my uncle Mike, my aunt Sandy, my uncle Dave, my aunt Donna, my aunt Mary. Every time we went over there, it was a blast. We're playing freeze tag in this video. You can hear adults are complaining for me to calm down..

https://youtu.be/3LpO2Ft8zCQ?si=u3sGN9EZKX1VFdc

Summer

We had family picnics, we went over Grandpa Stebbins for Father's Day, we never did that with my mom's side of the family, because they didn't have fathers around. lol

trips to new rok, fern lake

Starting 3rd grade

September

3rd grade was rough. My teacher Mrs. Dubois would pull me in the hallway and ask me what's wrong and say nonsensical things like- I thought you were taking your medication? Why can't you sit still? Why aren't you better?

It was really really stressful and I didn't have the words to explain what I was feeling but there was something really wrong in adults purposely ignored it. At some point I refuse to take the medication because of how bad it was making me feel and a doctor sat with me and alone in an office and threatened to stab me with a needle and said I was going to start getting injections if I didn't take my medication. As an adult I don't handle that kind of stuff very well no ones that have tell me what to do without explaining it, unless you're the Commonwealth of Massachusetts then you can just do it whatever you want lol

⚽ The Hill, the Ball, and the Distance Between Us

(Mary Lynch Field, Springfield, MA – Childhood, 1980s)

You used to love playing soccer—especially when your dad and uncle coached your team. Your brother and cousin were often on the field with you, and your grandmother’s house sat just above the field, making it feel like the whole neighborhood was watching and cheering.

But something changed.
You got sick, and it hit hard.
You said:

“I remember struggling to do leg lifts… I remember struggling to run during games because I didn’t have any energy. There were times I thought soccer sucked, but that’s only cause I was sick.”Unedited Conversations …

Despite that, you still showed up. You ran when you could, you watched when you couldn’t. You wished your dad and uncle would run around with you, just once. And at the end of every practice, there was that ritual:

“We used to run up that hill and touch the trees, then run back down. I do that now with Harley. I ran up as fast as I could—Harley had to catch up. It reminds me of when I was young and I struggled to run up the hill when I was sick. Now I’m so fast.”Unedited Conversations …

You’re not just remembering—you’re rewriting the memory, every time you run it now. And Harley runs with you.

🏥 The Twisted Ankle – Dad, the Station Wagon, and the Rescue

One of the clearest memories you shared:

“One time when we were really young, my dad, my brother and I were playing soccer together at the field at the hill. My father twisted his ankle. I remember panicking and running up the hill to get my mom. She drove our station wagon across the field to pick my dad up.”Unedited Conversations …

It’s one of the first moments you felt the pull of responsibility—not just fear, but action. You ran not just because you were scared, but because you knew someone had to take care of him, and it had to be you.

🛠️ The Hill Was Everything

This field and hill weren’t just for soccer. They were:

A bike ramp and racetrack
A rocket launch site
A place for flying kites, RC cars, and throwing frisbees
Freeze tag, volleyball, log-rolling in summer, and sledding in winter
A GI Joe trench where you joked there might still be a lost ED-209 RoboCop figure buried somewhere
And later, a quiet place where you’d take photos of comets with your nephew

And as you put it:

“Now I’m still showing up on the field—still chasing that ball—even if now it’s with Harley instead of a full team.”

Mary Lynch soccer field

2 adults in back on left My dad Rick on the right, his brother uncle Mark

6 kid in the middle, 1-?, 2-?, 3- Me, 4-?, 5- Bobby, 6- cousin Michael

6 kids in front, 1-?, 2-?, 3- Tommy Cerleli?, 4- cosuin Joey, 5-?. 6-?

🖼️ Image Description: 1980s OLSH Soccer Team Photo – Mary Lynch Field, Springfield, MA

This is a youth soccer team photo taken in the early 1980s on the . The photo includes 12 children and 2 adult coaches. Behind them is the field’s signature hill, scattered with leafless trees that act as directional markers.

Summer

This summer I got to see Halley's comet at aunt Pearl's cabin at Fern Lake in New York. We laid out on the dock and we used binoculars to get a better look at the night sky. I remember being creeped out while we were laying out on the dock, since it was so dark and feeling like it was a little chilly and breezy. I could never shut up during events like this, I was amazed at the fact that there was a streak of something in the sky and I don't think I really understood what it was at the time. I didn't really understand that this is one of those things that you just look at and that's it, I kept expecting something to happen, I almost felt like it was magical.

I would constantly nag my dad to join my brother and I fishing or to go layout on the dock to look at the stars, my mom found me very annoying.

September

I remeber I was having a lot of trouble sitting still at this time, I don't remember specific thought, just restlessness. My most vivid memory of this time is sitting on the stairs outside of the end classroom, on the first floor, I was in the northern stairwell, just staring out the window. I felt like such a disappointment and didn't even understand was expected of me at this point, adults could never explain anything. Mrs. Dubois came out at some point ask why I wasn't better, wasn't I on my medication. I was 8 or 9 years old when she asked this, and I still don't know what she was expecting me to say. lol

I remember spending a lot of time in that stairwell, I remember running up and down the stairs and peeking in the windows, while kids were learning, there are a couple other stairwells that I would run up and down as well, I don't think anyone was ever paying attention to what I was doing. lol

Whenever I would get sent to the office, I would always take the long way I would always end circling around, then backtracking. lol It was always an adventure.

Therapist- Maple St 1986

Down at the First Therapist on Maple Street, I used to love and go playing on these wooden playsets that they had built into the corner. It wasn't anything special, but I thought it was awesome that they built something for kids to climb on inside the waiting room. I didn't know that I was there for mental health help at the time, I didn't understand what these people were trying to get me to talk about. I remember this person showing me pictures of animated characters Anatomy and Physiology and this woman would get me to talk about my knowledge the human body.

Looking back definitely recall that I made woman very uncomfortable with all of my questions, I wanted to know why she was asking me everything, I wanted to what everything did when she pointed at it on the page.

I remember being so curious about why she was asking me these questions. I thought, Why do you want me to know this? What is that for? And when she asked if anybody ever touched me, I remember asking "why would someone want to touch me like that". lol

Almost every visit, we would walk up the street to this candy store and get these little caramel creams, I absolutely love candy, and I think they used this as a way to get me to talk. lol ,

I think this is kind of dumb when talking to someone like me, offering something I like candy, in exchange for a conversation, doesn't really work, I'm willing to talk no matter what, but adding all these distractions got me to think about completely different things. No one ever tried to get me to really focus on how I felt or what I was thinking, and if they did, they didn't pass that information on to my parents, so they were just as clueless as I was.

the needle threat 1986

I remember sitting across the desk from the doctor, I felt so small and intimidated, but the medication that they were giving me at the time made me feel absolutely terrible, and I didn't want to take it anymore. I don't think I was arguing with the Doctor, but at one point he grabbed my right wrist, yanked my arm and squeezed, then threatened to stick me with a needle and start giving me my medication that way, but I was still defiant, I didn't want to take it, it made me feel terrible.

I used to love putting quarters in that stupid gate as we left, The times that my brother would go, we would fight for who got to put the quarter in. lol

October

October: I remember going to Kmart and being able to pick out this G.I. Joe battle platform and I got Main Frame and I'm pretty sure Zandar, I can’t remember what other G.I. Joe’s I got, but I remember seeing Ship Wreck on the shelves and wanting him because he had poly, But I thought main frame was cooler because he was a computer guy.

November

I remember Thanksgiving at being even more exciting than Christmas, We got to go over my grandma Francis/ aunt Flossie's, or Cousin Ellie's, Then we'd also get to go over Grandpa and Grandma Stebbins on Moss Rd> and hang out with all the cousins. Playing GI Joe on the Stonewall in the Stebbins backyard on Moss Road was awesome, there was a little fire pit build into it and we'd play in there too, I never remember having any fires, but I always wanted to.

December

Christmas was awesome, I got the G.I. Joe Mauler, It’s a battery powered tank and you can fit two G.I. Joe’s inside of it and it has a hitch so you could tow other vehicles around. I bought one of these as an adult and had it pull vehicles in the backyard over my father’s when we lived in Warren. Videos as an adult in there somewhere I’ll share them med at some point, or they might be in this blog or somewhere. I know they’re on Facebook and they might be on YouTube