the it list

Frankie has tagged me on a recent meme — list 10 random yet interesting facts about my life.

Since I’m as old as the hills, and in blogging years I can remember the Magna Carta, I’ve actually done this before. For all I know I may have started this meme when I posted this list (linked from this blog entry).
For whatever reason, I’ve never moved this into the blog content system. My list contains a dozen items keeping with the original egg motif of the site. Without further ado:

Many of my closest friends don’t know …
(originally published at Leather Egg on 10 May 2000)

1. I won a National Championship racing All Terrain Vehicles at the age of 14. These were the 6-wheeler “buggies” like the characters had on the Banana Splits. My father owned an ATV dealership and was the co-founder of the National All Terrain Vehicle Association, which sanctioned races in the northeastern US throughout most of the 1970s. He also owned a racing team, and I raced one year … in the “junior” category with other 14-year-olds. I only lost one race all year, and that was due to mechanical difficulties.
   (Photos: a toy ATV I still have to this day, and my championship trophy.)
2. I’ve driven an 18-wheel semi truck loaded with coal. More than once. I also worked on tractor-trailers regularly for several years. It was part of the family business for a while when I was in high school. Also, while I’m at it, I’ll throw in the auto body shop. That was part of the family business, too. I even repainted my own car (which, at the time, was a pretty hot 1978 Pontiac Firebird).
3. This won’t have the impact it would have had 25 years ago, but in junior high school when Chucky “farted” on the school bus … what really happened is that I slid a Tupperware container with a dead crab underneath his seat. It really smelled badly flatulent. Everyone on the bus was shrieking. It was hysterical. I did this because Chucky had thrown up on my new winter coat a few weeks before. See, I was a vindictive little bastard at the age of 13.
4. I designed an award-winning logo for the City of Pittsburgh’s “Pride Festival” in 1993. I didn’t tell many people about it because I wasn’t “out” to my family and some friends and co-workers at the time. I still think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever designed. I wish I could have shared my happiness at the time with some of those close to me.
5. OK, this would have had a lot more impact 20 years ago, too. But on our 9th grade trip to Spain, it was me that broke the window and ripped down the wallpaper in the hallway of a hotel in Madrid. (I stole a couple towels, too. So there.) I guess if I had confessed at the time, it would have been trouble for several other people, because at least 4 of us had snuck out to a bar after curfew and I was one shit-faced little 9th grader when I carved my swath of destruction. (Apparently, they did not enforce a drinking age in Madrid in 1978.)
6. I have one less disk in my back than most people. (It was removed, I wasn’t born that way.) Too much lifting coal truck tires (see #2) and lifting kegs at fraternity parties in college (see “Animal House”), and all that sort of thing. I’ll probably write an extended piece about it someday.
7. I was once escorted out of a movie theater (during the movie) by two police officers. No, not that kind of a movie theater. It was The Rocky Horror Picture Show which (by a quick estimate) I’ve probably seen in a theater at least 50 times. And it wasn’t even my fault that I got thrown out … it was my college roommate Jeff that threw the rice into the face of the usher after she asked him to stop. I was just sitting next to him, and he moved to a different seat after the usher said she was calling the police. I stayed put because I had a great seat to jump up and dance the Time Warp. Again.
8. I’ve played several musical instruments at various times in my life, and I also DJ’d extensively in college. I’ve played the piano, trumpet, saxophone, guitar and oboe. I currently do not play any musical instruments, although I might be able to pluck out a tune on the piano if I tried. I’m toying with the idea of getting an electronic keyboard, but that will probably wait until after the house is remodeled.
9. Nearly all my grandparents grew up on family farms, so I have many family members in the farming business. I did a lot of farm work as a kid. I’ve milked cows, baled hay, shoveled manure, and all that sort of shit.
10. I once showed up at an annual fraternity alumni meeting dressed as the Joker. I was president of the fraternity’s alumni group at the time. I was obligated to attend Homecoming dinner and conduct the annual meeting afterwards. I was also going to a Halloween party later, and didn’t feel like changing. That’s not the whole story … I was also a little disheartened by the alumni group in general and planned to refuse nomination for another term, so I just went with it. It was a strange night. (Photo: Marlin and I, with Winston looking very strangely at me. Wonder why?)
11. 3 piercings, 2 tattoos. They have meaning for me … sort of rites of passage … things in my own mind. And if my parents read this, I hope they don’t completely flip out. (They’ll never see two of the piercings.)
12. I was voted “most dramatic” in my senior class in high school, performed the lead role in the senior play and the lead comedy rolls in a few high school musicals (including Luther Billis in South Pacific and Ali Hakim in Oklahoma). I’ve always enjoyed entertaining, and might make a stab at writing a screenplay some day. Writing daily in Leather Egg will help sharpen my writing skills, which have been dormant for far too long.