Galivanting was Vinnie's byline - he loved to play in the neighborhood with the guys and sometimes with the girl's, too. Vinnie excelled at bike riding, rollerskating, handball, stickball, wireball, red rover, electric tag, yo-yo, marbles, cars, and chew the peg. Now, excelled may be an embellished description but only slightly exaggerated because he was competent at all the above. It must have been when he turned 10 that he watched the girls jumping rope double dutch. Vinnie was no taller than any of the girls so when he asked if he could try they said sure and he discovered it was harder than it looked. So instead of quitting as he was prone to do whenever failing at something, he waiting until they went back to a single rope and he would get in line as they chanted "trip to California and a hurry up you're late and a 1, 2 3 . . . " This he could handle using those ball playing timing skills and every once in a while he'd try the double dutch thing until finally he could do it at the fast speed the girls were able to get to. All this talk about mixing his playing between the boys and the girls is just a little background to a girl's game that certainly changed Vinnie's direction in life: hopscotch. Drawing the typical 0 to 9 squares on the asphalt with chalk, the girls would make a hopscotch court in different places depending on who was playing. Vinnie thought he found the secret to being able to run the court, that is starting at 0 going all the way to 9 and then all the way back to 0 on single turn without ever missing the toss. Vinnie's secret was to not use a pebble but a string of paper clips so the toss would slide instead of bouncing. One day while playing hopscotch a very strange thing happened and I'll tell you tomorrow what that was.