My father had bought an old gas station on the east end of New Boston, Ohio, where the two main streets came together. I showed up at the station only to find that no one was there. I went to an outside phone booth, called my father and told him where I was. He said that he was getting ready to go to church, but that he would come and get me. I told him that he didn't have to come, that I could just skate back to Portsmouth. (Although I didn't have any skates with me, I had developed the ability to use my regular shoes as roller blades and skate on them; so I thought I would just skate to Portsmouth.)