70s-child: True story:

Friday, February 06, 2009

True story:

While it's true I had the above lunchbox, this post isn't about that.
In the mid-70's, at the height of his career, Evel Kneivel planned a jump everyone knew he couldn't make. The landing strip was far too short for the length of jump he had to cross. But he had a packed audience, so he went ahead with it anyway. He made the jump, but when he landed, he couldn't stop in time, and crashed into a wall.
Broke every bone in his body.
As he was laying there, half-conscious because of the pain, his manager was kneeling beside him saying "Why, Evel??? Why didn't you just call it off??". And Evel looked up at him and said: "What, and give 'em their money back???"
I laughed my ass off when I heard that.

Don't expect much out of me for a quarter:

As a kid, I never got an allowance. That's something my folks weren't into. They were very generous with me, I never lacked anything, and usually when I asked for something they'd get it for me, but an allowance just wasn't going to happen. In '76, just before my folks split up, dad decided to give me a "job". It was sometime in January and the weather was pretty brutal, so he told me he'd pay me a quarter if I'd open the garage door for him when he got home so he wouldn't have to get out of the car and open it himself. We lived in a split level house (a raised-ranch), and the garage was in the lower level. The very first night, I was watching TV and I heard him pull in and stop at the garage door. I didn't want to leave my show, and it was pretty cold down there in the garage, and I was rather warm and cozy and comfortable sitting in front of the tv, so I basically ignored him. He honked. He honked again. And again. And again. Finally I heard him open the car door, open the garage himself, pull into the garage and slam the door shut. The way he slammed the door, I could tell he was angry and that I was in trouble. He came upstairs and just looked at me. Let's just say I lost my job that night, which didn't really bother me. A QUARTER??? I didn't get out of BED for that kind of money...