Jonathan Tufts had the coolest watch in the whole of
standard one. It was a rubber, digital Casio, with a calculator. That was
sweet, but not as sweet at Michael Thompson’s kief Nintendo Gameboy with Turtle
Panic on it. I never got a Gameboy.
Then there
was Steven and Michael Bense with their metallic-pastel Le Turbo racing
bicycles. Michael had the light-blue one, and Steven had the pink one. They
called that colour Salmon. The light blue was probably called Turquoise, or
something.
I badgered
my dad to get me a Le Turbo and he eventually did. I came fifth in the
Oosterlig Sirkel on that bike. In the under-11s. When they called out my name
in assembly I still stood up, because sometimes everyone who got called out had
to stand up. I was at the front of assembly so I stood up. But that day no one
was standing up, just me. Took me ten minutes to realise I was the only one
standing up.
In high
school, Wade Bodley had a Honda MTX, which was the raddest fifty at school.
Until the MBX came out. That was the road version of the MTX. My Le Turbo got
stolen when I left the garage door open. So I needed a new bike. Dad said he
wasn’t going to buy me a new one. But then I saw an ad for a 1985 MBX in the
window of Dagwoods Café in Rink Street.
It belonged
to the son of the owner. We go to their house in La Roche Drive and Dad pays
for it.
The MBX is
the fastest bike at school for a while, but then the exhaust starts getting a
bit carbonized. Within two years it barely goes.
Luckily by
then I’m off to varsity. Grant Kirchmann drives a Golf GTS, and Jono Heinemann
has a GTi. Dad says he’ll get me a Golf L. I operate as a pedestrian for a
year, and then, just in time for the December holidays, we go fetch my new Golf
from a family in Greenshields Park.
In August
of the next year, I crash the Golf into a parked car on the way back from happy
hour at the Motel. I go back to being a pedestrian.
After
varsity I move back home and Dad buys Uncle Walter’s old Sierra for me to drive
to my work in Walker Drive.
My folks
buy a place in Westbourne Road and I move in there. My mom makes me pay rent.
The same as Smiler and Jorgie. Four hundred bucks a month.
Cliffie goes on a diving course,
so I ask Mom to pay for a Open-Water I course. It’s only a few hundred bucks.
But Mom
says no. She says, “You earning your own money. I think you should pay for that
yourself.”
And that’s it. I’m grown up.
I think Mom and Dad went out to
The Ranch that night. Just the two of them, to celebrate.
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