Matty:

When Nigel was 2 1/2, we moved to a new neighborhood. We moved next door to Matty. Our family will never forget him. Matty was 4, and big for his age. Matty had a unique way of talking, for instance Kristin was called either "Trista" or "Chittin". (Those are still some of her nicknames, along with Sissy.) Kristin was always really nice to him. She would push him in the tire swing and even made him a "tree driving license". And then, when she turned her back, he slammed the tire swing into the back of her head. He was that kind of a friend, sometimes.

Matty had quite an imagination. He never left home without his Batman cape. One day he came over in the middle of a styrofoam cube duct taped around his body, wearing his cape. It was still one of the funniest sights I have ever seen. I said, "Matty, what are you?" He said, "I am a bat chimminal." I thought he meant he was a bat chimney, whatever that was, but later his Dad told me that he was a Bat Criminal. Something close to being the Joker, I guess.

Matty really liked Nigel, whom he called Nitey. Nigel cried the first time that happened, because he thought that Matty was calling him pajamas. One time they both got in bad trouble for throwing steel Pachinko balls at the little black and white tv; denting the face of it beyond repair. He always tore off the arms and legs of Nigel's Ninja Turtles, which irritated me to no end. We never could get them back on.

Anyway, I found this picture of Matty the other day, when I was looking for pictures of Nigel when he was little. It reminded me of one of the funniest Matty stories of all:

Gabe, Ollie and Peter were visiting, and were out in the front yard.

Matty came running over, all excited, yelling: "Boys, boys! There is a tit in the back of my dad's twruck!"

The boys said, "What did you just say? What is in the back of your dad's truck?"

"A tit, a tit, come see!"

You have never seen any three boys (8, 10 and 11) run as fast as those boys did that day. They ran next door and climbed up on the back of Matty's dad's pick-up, and peered into the bed. Was there a tit?

No, but there was a stick! Gotcha!

The end.