I wrote this the day I heard he died 11/30/2007
Growing up in the early 70's there was an abundant amount of things to keep a 10 year old boy occupied. We had no video games, no VCR's, no computers and only 3 channels on a black and white TV. But that was what it was. We would create things to play like cowboys and Indians, army, and cops and robbers. We played baseball and football in one of the many vacant lots that existed in Nederland at the time. Mr. Kennedy would mow all of these with his tractor for us and we would stay out all day long bitching and complaining when we were called in for supper. We drank water out of the garden hoses having to let it run to cool off and getting that rubbery taste in your mouth. Our parents didn't worry about us being out like that at all. One of our favorite things to play was Evel Knievel. Oh my God I only wish I had pictures of our rag tag bunch on our bikes back in those days. We would put those old metal trash cans in a row on the street and make ramps out of plywood. Everybody would start with maybe 2 and as the length of cans grew longer the chickens would all start to drop out. But some of us brave souls would go to the limit every time. The neighbors all got mad at us because we were destroying their garbage cans when we would miss a jump and land right on them. We would keep track of who had the most garbage cans jumped and try to break that record over and over again. Well the record got stuck at one point and nobody could break it. We needed a higher ramp we presumed. So we got some cement blocks and raised it up where it was pointing damn near straight up. Now I never claimed to be the smartest kid on the block so I volunteered to go first. This jump was going to require more distance on the run up so I pedaled all the way to the end of the street and got up on the pedals building up as much speed as I could. Let me tell you right now that Ol' Evel Knievel would have been proud of me that day as I hit the ramp and shot damn near straight up in the air about what must have been 10 feet or more. And I came back down the same way...straight down. BAM!!! I landed with my back hitting the garbage cans and my bike on top of me. I was out like a light for about a minute. When I woke up there was my Mom that had been retrieved by a runner to tell her about my crash. The only thing she seemed concerned with was that I destroyed 2 more garbage cans that she was going to have to answer for. I was fine after I got my breath and my pride back. The record officially stood and to my knowledge was never broken by any other generation growing up on Marshall Street. Today I heard that Evel Knievel passed away. It brought me back to those days of old when times seemed much more innocent and it was like I lost a part of my youth today. Thank You Evel Knievel for giving a 10 year old boy growing up in Nederland, TX something to do.
Growing up in the early 70's there was an abundant amount of things to keep a 10 year old boy occupied. We had no video games, no VCR's, no computers and only 3 channels on a black and white TV. But that was what it was. We would create things to play like cowboys and Indians, army, and cops and robbers. We played baseball and football in one of the many vacant lots that existed in Nederland at the time. Mr. Kennedy would mow all of these with his tractor for us and we would stay out all day long bitching and complaining when we were called in for supper. We drank water out of the garden hoses having to let it run to cool off and getting that rubbery taste in your mouth. Our parents didn't worry about us being out like that at all. One of our favorite things to play was Evel Knievel. Oh my God I only wish I had pictures of our rag tag bunch on our bikes back in those days. We would put those old metal trash cans in a row on the street and make ramps out of plywood. Everybody would start with maybe 2 and as the length of cans grew longer the chickens would all start to drop out. But some of us brave souls would go to the limit every time. The neighbors all got mad at us because we were destroying their garbage cans when we would miss a jump and land right on them. We would keep track of who had the most garbage cans jumped and try to break that record over and over again. Well the record got stuck at one point and nobody could break it. We needed a higher ramp we presumed. So we got some cement blocks and raised it up where it was pointing damn near straight up. Now I never claimed to be the smartest kid on the block so I volunteered to go first. This jump was going to require more distance on the run up so I pedaled all the way to the end of the street and got up on the pedals building up as much speed as I could. Let me tell you right now that Ol' Evel Knievel would have been proud of me that day as I hit the ramp and shot damn near straight up in the air about what must have been 10 feet or more. And I came back down the same way...straight down. BAM!!! I landed with my back hitting the garbage cans and my bike on top of me. I was out like a light for about a minute. When I woke up there was my Mom that had been retrieved by a runner to tell her about my crash. The only thing she seemed concerned with was that I destroyed 2 more garbage cans that she was going to have to answer for. I was fine after I got my breath and my pride back. The record officially stood and to my knowledge was never broken by any other generation growing up on Marshall Street. Today I heard that Evel Knievel passed away. It brought me back to those days of old when times seemed much more innocent and it was like I lost a part of my youth today. Thank You Evel Knievel for giving a 10 year old boy growing up in Nederland, TX something to do.
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