RIP Evel Knievel

Yet another one of my childhood icons has passed away. I remember sitting in front of the TV watching Evel Knievel on Wide World of Sports and even in prime time shows jumping over cars and RVs. He'd gun his motorcycle back and forth to build the tension, then maybe get off the bike to talk to his advisers, hop back on and speed down the track, up the ramp and over the parked cars before landing or more often than not spilling off his bike as he came down and his crew would run out to make sure he was okay. I remember his foolhardy attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon in a little jet propelled rocket. And I recreated his stunts over and over again with this very toy. (Just mentally photoshop my 6-year old frizzily afroed head onto this moppet's body. But pretty much with the same expression on my face)

Our house was at the bottom of a hill. Rev. Smith lived across the street and had a nice steep driveway so his house was the launching pad for any toys that needed to get up a head of steam. If I angled Evel just right, he'd run down Rev. Smith's driveway, streak down the hill and across the street and into our driveway, usually crashing against my Dad's blue Ford Gran Torino. The toy was so slow that we would actually run along with it; we didn't have to run fast to keep up.

I'd heard that Knievel had been sick for a long time. Every time you read about him in the news, the story would mention the factoid that he'd broken almost every bone in his body. And in a weird way, he'd just come back into public view for a new generation due to his spat with Kanye West.

Godspeed, Evel! And I'm off to eBay. Rev. Smith died years ago, but his daughter lives in their house now and I think she'd let me use their driveway. I bet I can still find a little rubber mark there to show me just the right angle for the cycle.