Kid tested

This card is evidence that I had a happy childhood.

It more than likely was:

• Flipped against a wall
• Wrapped with 100 or so other 1976 cards with a pair of rubber bands
• Brought to school and shoved in my desk
• Carried in my back pocket
• Thrown
• Shuffled while I scouted for cards to trade
• Used in an improvised baseball game involving dice (roll a "9" for a double, "12" for a home run). Each card was required to take a trip around the bases to reflect the action
• Stuffed under my pillow after looking at it with a flashlight after the lights were turned out for the night
• Dropped on the sidewalk
• Had food spilled on it as I looked at my cards at lunch
• Harmed in a brief, jealous frenzy when I let a friend see it
• Categorized by team, or by earned-run average, or by pitchers who weren't scary ugly
• Walked on
• Stared at and fingered, oh, about 3,467 times. And that's just the front of the card.

But please note that it was not:

• Folded into a paper airplane
• Placed in my bicycle spokes (even at that young age I thought that was going too far)
• Carried in my front pocket
• Tacked up on a bulletin board
• Tossed in the air with the rest my collection so I could produce a "it's raining cards!" effect.

But here's the sad part: one day soon -- maybe as early as this weekend (there's a card show coming up) -- I will upgrade this card.

Because I can remember being a kid, but I can't relate to them at all anymore.