My dad teaching me how to drive the new riding mower he bought! At first I couldn't drive it because the tractor came with a kill-switch underneath the drivers seat that would stop the engine in case you fell off while mowing. But I didn't weigh enough to keep the switch down! My dad wasn't about to mow the lawn himself and so he went into the kitchen and found a really strong magnet, lifted up the seat and clamped the magnet to the kill switch! Blamo, problem solved!
This brilliant move, however, would come back to haunt him later in the afternoon when he was teaching me how to park the tractor in the shed. I went in to far and started hitting the back wall of the shed, and instead of telling me to hit the brake, my dad just started yelling "STAND UP! STAND UP!" thinking the kill switch would engage and the tractor would stop. But he forgot about the magnet he put on and I drove the tractor right through the back of the shed. Hahaha. Famous family story.
Brett & Me, Halloween 1989. I was Freddy Krueger. My brother asked me to help him look like a punk rocker. I dyed his hair pink, gave him Alice Cooper make-up and made him a rock-shirt with a bunch of hand-drawn logos of all the bands I was into! (I can't read them all, but I do see Anthrax, Metallica, Van Halen and TESLA! hahah).
On Friday morning I went through some of my parents photo albums and took some pics of some choice cuts. Here's my kindergarten class photo! I'm in the 2nd row all the way on the right.
My 2nd Grade Class photo. I'm on the right in the top row. While looking at this photo, I realized my friend Mary Andrews who I met in NYC in 2000 was IN MY 2ND GRADE CLASS!?! Crazytown! How did we never figure this out! (She's in the 2nd row, 4th from the left!)
It's funny that we relate to places we used to live as old friends. I remember my dad's Mustang parked out front of the house. I had night terrors when I was a kid and when I couldn't sleep he'd drive me around the neighborhood.
My dad's parents, Hank and Connie Battjer, with my cousins Chris and Steve. The one on the bottom is me blowing out birthday candles with my cousin Chris watching (and looking like a bug).
Also found a bunch of fantastic old photo albums. I snapped a couple of pics of my favorite pics. Here me with my parents and brother. I think this was from my 5th birthday - which would make it August 1981.
