Downingtown, Pennsylvania (2014)

This is the house I grew up in from ages 9-14. Very formative years.

That basketball hoop and driveway extension were not there at the time. Instead, we played tackle football in that area.

We dented up the aluminum siding on the side of the garage so badly from errant punts and kicks that it had to be replaced.

Whenever you returned a kickoff, everyone was obligated to sing the Monday Night Football theme. It was thrilling.

Around the same time “Return of the Jedi” came out in theaters (1983), the house next to us on the right was under construction.

In Pennsylvania they build big basements out of standard concrete block, so they dig a big hole in the earth.

That dirt has to be placed somewhere, so they put a giant pile of it right across the property line near our football field.

After seeing that movie, I was so inspired that I got a broomstick for a lightsaber, and attached a clear plastic bag filled with Nilla Wafers to my makeshift belt and stalked around the dirt pile pretending I was Luke Skywalker in training on the swamp planet of Dagobah.