Our Soul

Evel Knievel

On left as all of us remember him, heading for a crash. Back to God only Knows when......I took my five year old and three friends from her class to the Destruction Derby because I thought it would be fun for them and a change of pace from movies about talking butterflies. So we get out front and there is this huge poster of Evel Knievel who I figured none of them knew anything about.

Wrong.

As soon as the little fucks saw the poster they went totally nuts. "Evel Knievel, Evel Knievel," they all squeeked as they jumped up and down. I was stunned that these little babies all knew about him. He was a legend already. They wanted posters, banners, pins, you name it and I was out forty bucks before we even got inside. I recalled that day this AM when I was drawn like refuse to a storm drain when I heard ESPN doing a sort of retrospective on some of his best jumps (almost all spectacular failures) and immediately went to the boob tube to watch. And watch. And watch.

He was more of America than most of us think. He represented the chance taking of a businessman going into a business that everyone "knows" will fail, the kid going out for the team that he cannot possibly make, the inventor inventing something that cannot be done, all combined with failure-- and returning to the quest again. And again. And still again. Churchill's advice for success: "Seven Words; Never, never, never, never, never give up" was Evel Knievel. He represented our collective soul, like it or not. What a life. Lots of memories from fans posted here; you will be surprised at how many lives he touched on a very personal level and many times, on a very private level. Makes me realize what pricks some of our current "stars" are on a daily basis. Slide show is HERE.