July 25, 1993...
I was woken up early by my dad, who came in slowly, quietly to my bedroom after trying to process the news he and my mother had received 45 minutes previously. The unthinkable. It was a bright, shiny Sunday morning, the sun just now coming through the curtain of my east window. I had been at a friend's house the night before playing music in our high school garage band. Had it not been for the band, and the fact that I was scheduled to work at the grocery store that Sunday morning, who's to say I wouldn't have been out at that party with them Saturday night? Dad sat down on the edge of my bed, placed his hand on my shoulder, shaking it gently. "Buddy... Buddy wake up." I rolled over quickly. Dad never woke me up in the mornings. "I've got some really bad news to tell you..." His eyes visibly red, his voice weak and shaky. "...You lost two friends last night." "Who?" Twenty years is an eternity, and also a blink of an eye. A comm
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Thanks for hanging out with us Friday night. We are still laughing about your MIL's cooking!
So you can imagine what happens in my only big wheel race attempt. i think I lost to two girls on Barbie big wheels in the process of me desperately spinning my wheels. Really a metaphor for a good majority of my formative years, actually. After that soul-crushing debacle, I trashed the Dukes of Hazzard ride, and upgraded to what was THE hottest Big Wheel of the time......the Knight Rider. Digital readouts, the light bar up front....even KITT talking to you! (Okay, it was all stickers, and KITT was actually me talking to myself.) Just like a teenage boy, there's no better way to stroke your lack of self-esteem when you're 6 than getting a Knight Rider Big Wheel.
I, too, had the Knight Rider big wheel, and actually cried when I opened it.
Just sat there on it, with my forehead on the "digital" dash and just sobbed......
Then I punched myself in the face and got out and yanked off the red brake trying to do ultimate K.I.T.T. skidding stop.
But who needs brakes, right?
Oh, and my father already has his eye on the F150 for my youngest. Good followup to my oldest's red Mustang convertible!
El Dante