📁 08-22

My folks lost their home in Hawthorne, FL (where I learned to respect nature 1989-1996–snakes), and moved to Gainesville, FL. My old room window is visible in the photo above. That red and gray building was a local pub (12pm-2am). My Dad had a Vietnam War problem, but wouldn’t admit it, and so I moved out to share a room in an apartment within the same city when I was sixteen. I’d rather not talk about how I moved–it was a mutual decision, and I graduated on time (barely).

I sat on that storm drain guard rail while others sat on the concrete bus bench a few dozen yards to the right. The convenience store/gas station to the left of that railing was robbed four times under the same management. One morning a girl attempted to stab another girl one just after Ms. Dallas (our bus driver I think?) picked us up. One of the chill middle school guys offering to share a joint. “Nah, I’m good man.” “You sure?” “Yeah.” Lots of bass booming vehicles passing through that area in the morning. For some reason in 2005, (perhaps because they reminded me of ’the old neighborhood’) I tried Black & Mild cigars (such an iconic smell).

If I could go back in time, I’d stop myself from wasting so much money on tobacco products

Local rowdy middle school boys found out I was decent at basketball at the mobile parks’ basketball court, and so they attempted to initiate me as part of their roaming bicycle group. I admired John Stockton back then for some reason (so many elbows..). Same rowdy boys that used the emergency exit of the school bus when we got stuck one morning. Same ones that made fun of me for practicing freestyle tricks on a skateboard (ironically before I learned of Rodney Mullen).

As I sat on that storm drain guard rail (probably while wearing my Goosebumps tie dyed t-shirt) one of them smashed an egg on my head. My guess was that the big guy was itching to fight someone, and my leave me alone face was bugging him. So with egg dripping down my face he asked me, “You’re not mad?” I responded with a soft but stern, “No.” What they didn’t see is me walking back home to take a shower, and my Dad calling my Mom from work so that I wouldn’t miss a day of school. They didn’t bother me much after that.

The positive side was that before moving to Gainesville, FL, I had no general sense of modern skateboarding. What I knew came from 1980s how to skateboard books. Kickflip? I knew more about what lived in Florida swamps and fishing than skateboarding. My first deck was actually a Status shop board (~$35). Probably bought it from Play It Again Sports.

My conscious keeps saying the world needs to know, and so here I am again.

I was wearing a corduroy golf cap (Andy Capp style) turned backwards. It was hot. We were riding bikes on a soccer field (1997). As a former builder of makeshift launch ramps I needed excitement, so I thought riding through a soccer goal would be fun.

The first soccer goal on the far left side of the field (not shown) did not have sidebars, and so I didn’t inspect the one ahead of where I was going. Obviously, the goal next to the fire station had sidebars (mid height stabilizer bars on each side). One moment I was riding my bike, the next moment I was picking my self off the ground and picking up one of my front teeth at the same time, “Hey guys! I lost a tooth!” My twelve year old self had lost about six years of time in a few seconds. My voice was reflected this fact. I knew to keep it in a cup of milk, but my concussion made it difficult to convey why that was important. A parent of one of my friends pointed to my hat and said something like, “Chris! You’re bleeding!”

Definitely ruined the nice golf hat from a recent birthday. I rinsed my mouth using the faucet on the side of the 20th Ave. fire station (we lived across the street, and yes it was loud), and I chuckled along with the doctor while he stitched me up at the local clinic. The other tooth was removed by a dentist for other reasons when I was in my twenties. Ok, hopefully that’s all the storytime I have for a while.