RIP
October 17, 1938-November 30, 2007
Evel Kneivel--who was heroically rumored in my childhood to have cumulatively broken every bone in his body--has died.
Republicus had the toys.
The motorcycle and rubbery, wire-framed Evel were practically indestructible, and the stunts inevitably evolved into setting up a ramp facing a brick wall a few feet away and revving up the motor 20 times before release.
Amazingly, the toy was none the worse for wear (which only provoked me into finding something that would finally make it say uncle, using stuff like gasoline, matches, and a sledgehammer).
My vainglorious neighbor got really inspired by Evel. Upon his announcement that he intended to perform his very own stunt, we set up a little ramp for him at the edge of a ditch that had a 4-5 foot span while he rode warm-up sprints up and down the driveway on his purple, banana-seated, V-shaped handlebar bicycle.
The main concern was the integrity of the ramp (made of stacked bricks and a wooden board), and this was jumped up and down on, readjusted, and jumped up and down on again to the daredevil's satisfaction.
The other concern was traffic; but once the all-clear signal was given, off the young wannabe went with determination (despite the glint of fear in his eyes).
His dad's driveway was the runway, and he pedalled his way down it as fast as he could, the bike wobbling from side to side as the downward force on the pedals alternated from left to right.
He reached the end of the driveway, quickly crossed the road, hit the makeshift ramp...and he was airborne!
He sailed UP...then descended, and...
... OO! Nice try! His front wheel cleared the chasm but had no shock absorbers so it just jerked then stopped with a thud when it hit the opposite edge head on and the bike with its rider clumsily collapsed in a tangled heap in the ditch.
He rolled over and started to wail. You could see that a small wet spot had formed on his groin from peeing in his pants. His older brother screamed "MY BROTHER! MY BROTHER!" and lumbered over to him waving his arms about while the rest of us just stared, our mouths gaping.
He was fine.
The disillusionment coincided with the dropping off of the Knievel craze.
R.I.P., Evel. Truly an American legend and icon.
(I thank Jack's Shack--http://www.blogger.com/profile/16625864271071630940 --for inspiring this post)
posted by John | 3:13 PM
6 Comments:
That is a good story. I appreciated it.
Good to see you Jack. Thank you for the inspiration (as you can see, this blog's been pretty idle).
my brother had these toys and when he'd intermingle them with his gijoes, there would be hell to pay with my barbies!
Godspeed, evel.
p.s. this blog goes with the same speed as its author...just sayin'...
*;]
Huh? Whaddya mean?
Evel was a hero to all of us kids growing up in the 70's. He inspired thousands of kids to take their perfectly good bikes and try and break their necks with them. I tried my best, for sure.
We had the Evel Knievel toys and we launched those things all over the place. I remember watching a lot of his jumps and sat through the entire Snake River Jump program like I was watching another Moon launch.
Great stuff. The planet is a lesser place without him.
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