What Could Have Been?

Remember last week I wrote about Trish, the person here at the apartments who is putting together the annual “yearbook” and asked for an image from my youth and I supplied a rather hairy image taken from our past? I love that image. Now Trish wants me to write a paragraph or something as to what I was up to during that time for a little bit about my history around that picture. I'm putting together a mental paragraph right at this point in time which am sure might be worth a post of the blog for another point in time. This post or today's post is about another image of me that I came across while researching images for the Trish project.

This image is 1966 early in the summer probably about the middle of June approximately a month before my accident (I almost said “fatal”). Thank God it was not fatal that would've made writing tonight's blog difficult but possibly a lot more spiritual. I love the way I looked in this image tough young guy always a thought I was. I felt like any number of Billy Joel songs that he sings about his youth. Looked at my face behind those heavy rimmed glasses and my arms hanging out of the cut of sweatshirt I was wearing says it all. I was trying to be cool and for a split second set summer I kind of pulled it off. My older brother left with my other older brother and his wife to drive back to North Carolina was going to spend a year. This ended for some reason after the accident. He returned home to a destroyed motorcycle and a pretty much destroyed brother. He mourned his motorcycle. Hey, no hard feelings after all are pretty much stole his motorcycle. I have to admit I pretty much wrote the hell out of it until that fateful day in July when it rode the hell out of me. I guess I got my non-monies worth. Succinctly, my brother returned home got into some trouble than of the Vietnam. I would been so self absorbed with my disability and life is probably only been in the last 10 years that I realized that I may have been the reason for his near fatal turn of events. Luckily, we're both still alive and friends and brothers. I've often to verbalize that had I not been run over I'm sure I would've got in trouble with the law and possibly killed and I cannot see myself sidestepping Vietnam. I'm sure I would've somewhere along the line ended up pretty much like I am now if not worse “pushing up daisies”.

I know I'm pretty shallow but I have to admit I really liked wearing that body. Everything worked, I ran, jumped, danced, pitched hay, Swam, rode my bike and in general love life. There's a couple other images taken during that time that I really enjoyed. One where I'm sitting at the card table set up putting together a 1/25 size model of a big deuce. It's a hot rod vehicle that ask for for Christmas, and actually got. I'm wearing a T-shirt and I'm in pretty good shape after all Christmas happens in the middle of wrestling season. I think I was in the ninth grade. I don't moon over these images but I do like them and wonder What could have been…?