Man Overboard

( On April 9th, 2006 the greatest friend I will ever have passed on. I'm sittin here in tears typing this story on my droid. I have this story to share with you about this fallen teamrider, as always I hope you like it, I know I do.)

My old friend Flint was a little apprehensive about his 21st birthday. He was alone, his family had packed up and moved back west. Flint chose to continue his life here a little longer before following them. I think it was cause he loved us as much as his family.

Flint had told me he wanted his father to be there for his birthday. I knew what he meant. He was like me or most young men, he wanted acceptance from his father. My 21st birthday I actually tried to be around my father, you know as a"Man now".

The morning of his birthday I got up, well morning for us was late afternoon. I got up got my act together and before grabbing my board I dug through my closet till I found what I was looking for and headed out for our nightly rondevu at the Carrows.

I was the first to arrive of all the crew. I waited and was seated in the smoking area and served my usual coke. After a short wait Flint arrived, I had told the hostess that when he arrived to show him to my table and she did. He set down his skateboard and removed his backpack known as "Jerry" and sat down.

I started off by saying happy birthday, then I told him this:

" In the old days when a boy reached adulthood and became a man, his father would take him to the edge of the family land, hand him a weapon and send him off into the world to make his fortune.

Flint you are 21 and a man now, since your father is absent and I am your senior , I will take his place…"

I reached into my bag and pulled out a brand new pair of Escrima sticks. His eyes widened as I presented them to him handle first. A while after I had met Flint he had made a set of sticks from a shovel handle, even carving nodes in them to make em resemble rattan.

He took them from my hand, eyes wide with wonder.

"Flint your a man now, go and make your fortune…"

He looked at me, then hugged me, he told me he loved me. Then we made our plans for the night and went skating…

(Flint carried those sticks around for a long time. I don't know what happened to them after his death but I'm sure if you went though his stuff you find a worn pair of escrima sticks amungst his things…)

In loving memory of Flint "Busta" Beck.

-B

Dreams of Memory

(This is a dream I had)

I'm never really sure how these dreams begin. I remember being at a T-intersection in my Town. I was riding a strange bicycle, it was a tandem bike bright yellow in color with chrome metal handle bars ending in white handles. Attached to the rear of the bike was a pair of "Radio Flyer" style wagons, like a column of ducks following the bicycle.

I was peddling hard but accomplishing little. Behind me in the second seat was my then wife, not pedaling but apparently bitching me out for this and that.  In the wagons that followed was my toddler son sucking on a lollipop. In the last wagon was my younger sister with my Grandmother "Cha-Cha" in her blue sport coat sitting with an air of supremecy. In her hands appeared to be a swagger stick of polished black with a chrome head but the stick itself seemed long enough to be a cane rather than a decorative stick.

There I was the only person powering this strange vehicle while being scolded by my wife. Finally what she had said something of a nature to offend me enough for me to stop our little train and dismount. I began to argue back and there we were fighting heatedly like couples do. Cha-cha and my kid sister remained in their seats, staring straight ahead.

My son did not follow their lead. He got off the wagon unnoticed by my wife or me and began exploring the immediate area by the wagon. I took notice of my son walking into the street when I looked over my wifes shoulder. The street was empty as he climbed down the curb to the on-coming lane. I looked at the traffic light to see it was getting ready to change to green.

I yelled for my son to stop as I pushed past my wife to get to him. As this happened time slowed to a bare trickle, ticking by frame after frame. As I passed my wife she looked angered and bewildered and she even appeared to be trying to hit me. Ignoring her I sped as fast as time would let me to rescue my only son.

Time was kinder to my son, as he had already tottered into the center of the near lane with cars entering the street a hundred yards away. The cars gleaming in the beautiful sunlight as a ominous reminder that a race was on, winking at me, taunting me to run as fast as slow can.

I could hear my wifes anger turning to terror as she realized what was happening. Rooted in place she began screaming for me to save our son. I passed Cha-cha and she just stared at me with discontent, sitting with both hands on the end of the cane in front of her, unmoving.

The cars were 10 meters away as I began turning to enter the street. Double trafic fender to fender, there would be no escaping this. I decided that if my son was going to die then were were going to die together. I screamed his name and he stopped turned and when he realized who I was he looked up to smile at me. The cars bore down on us as I reached down scooped him up in my arms and lengthend my stride taking both of us to the white stripes separating the flow of traffic, if we were going to die, it would be together.

The flow of sweet relief filled me when he hit my arms. As I stopped feet together time returned to normal. I stood between the charging cars waiting for our impending demise with my child in my arms and I realized that my son was hugging me. The cars sped by us in a seeming unending stream as I returned the hug with a parents relief...

-B

(When my wife left me she told me that she wasn't faulting me for it but she said I had strange dreams. I think that was her faulting me. I have had strange dream for long as I can remember, sometimes its better than here and sometimes its worse. Every now and again I have my dream interpeted. I never had this one interpeted. My Auntie Mary was pretty dang good at it.

I mainly wrote this one out because there is lots of crazy stuff going on with my son and most of the stuff I do or go through is for my beloved son.)

Pat remembers

[ This is another old FB story I wrote after finding an old friend again. He knew Flint well and we shared a memory or two of him. Again I hope you like it...]

 So this last August or thereabouts, I was reunited with a long lost friend. His Name is Pat, We used to wander this city to skate together. We met in High school was friends for years after and then had some falling out.I think its been about 11 or twelve years since I had last laid eyes on Pat. Pat got me back into skating and during one session we were skating at Paseo park ,  sitting on a ledge reminiscing bout the days of old, Pat told me about his last encounter with Flint "Busta" Beck.

Pat told me that he was hanging out at Gecko's bar and grill [I assume the downtown one] he actually ran into Flint. Flint was there waiting on his girlfriend. Pat and Flint sat down and drank for a while before making plans to meet up the next day or so to skate. They both parted ways and met the next day.

Pat Described Flints skating as nothing short of the incredible, original style that I knew him to have. Flint rolled around in the improvisinal style that gave him his reputation that he was proud of. He was not a cloned skater he defied the streets skating and dominating everything from the smallest insignificat obsticale that most skaters would be above skating. I loved skating with him.

I could see Pats eyes shining with the warm memory of our fallen friend, as if actually seeing it like a video in his mind. He smiled the whole time he remembered. I asked Pat about how Flint was back then and Pats smile faded away. He told me that Flint had a heavy sorrow that followed him. That when Flint smiled you could see the emptyness inside. He also told me that Flint seemed happiest when he was skating. Then Pat stopped talking.

I sat there in the silence of Pat's memory.Why wasn't I here? I began to feel jealous that Pat had a more recent memory of my Beloved friend. Why wasn't I here for him?

We sat there for a few minutes more before getting up to leave. Pats memory fell to the side as Pat spoke of his Bride to be and their iminent union. I told Pat I'd wear my uniform and he said that he would love to see it. Plans for the next session were made and lunch was following. As we walked to my truck I almost looked over my shoulder and yelled for Flint to hurry up cause we were leaving, as was his custom to frantically squeeze every bit of skating in. But when i turned all I saw was his memory and young kids forming new ones...

-B

I Remember

[ This an old FB post I had written a while back yet around Flints anniversary. Yet again that Time is upon us, so as April 9th appraoches here is another story of a fallen "Board Pilot" known as Flint "Busta" Beck. I hope you like enjoy it.]

So last tuesday I got off of work early, after I parked I noticed this oddly familiar sound. As a few second passed I saw two kids bombing down Academy rd in front of my house. An odd pairing, one on a long board and one on a street board rolling down the center of the street. I stood watching them and the memories rushed back to me of a time long ago now. of a time me and Flint would ride the same street at 4am.

I began to focus on the thought of Flint. How long has it been since he passed on? how much longer had it been since me and him had our last ride, Our last meeting with the glory of stupid kids? I remember riding all over this city, Having conversations with each other to pass the time and distance we would roll. I remember sitting with him at 6am discusing our own warped version of philosiphy at the phillips 66 at Montgomery and Eubank. I remember running from the cops for skating, laughing as we out manuverd police cars on our boards. I remember loving riding from sundown to sun up.

Mostly I remember him. I met him at target skating. He was taken back by me and Chuck cause we were local heroes. He was excited when we cheered when he pulled one of his signature silly, abstract moves. I remember changing the word to song to witty, clever sometimes vulgar lyrics. I remeber being able to sit with him at carrows till close dronkin cokes ,coffee and smoking ciggarettes. I remember him caring about me. Beliving in me as I believed in him.

I remeber his funeral, I remeber my wife hugging me as tears rolled down my cheeks looking at his remains. I remeber people, all kinds of people who came to say good bye.

I remember missing him, but mostly I remember the last letter he sent me. A letter when I was in Kuwait. It was a letter sayin how proud of me he was.

I remember never answering.now its too late. I wish I had, I wish I had said something. Now I cant. I remeber wishing that I could saw "I love you" and that I could thank him for being the person he was.

I stood there as the two kids and their sounds faded in to the darkness of the morning. They faded and dissapeared but my memories of Flint and me rollin down Academy may be faded but its still in my mind. I turned away and walked to my apartment wondering if he still thinks of me.

-B

Death From Above…[well almost]

(This is a true story)

(The anniversary of my friend Flint's death is once again upon us. Sould be in a week or two. I gotta admit that I have been missing him a lot in the termoil of my so called life. Good friends like him are rare, I shoulda held on tighter to him. I was thinking of yesterdays article "centrifugal force" and it reminded me of this one time Flint and me were skating. I hope you enjoy…)

If you know anything about flint it was that not only was he a great improv skater, it was that he attempted to ollie or jump any gap he came across. Board or blade didn't matter, I have seen him try to jump some silly stuff before. Usually its just funny, sometimes it was spectaculah!!!

One day Flint and me were skating by the Burger King on Juan Taboo. The Bank on the upper lot had a small wall with a small gap dropping into the BK lot. Flint looking for a crowning achievement for the weekend looked at this and decided that this obstacle was his "piece de resistance".

To make it a little more interesting Flint had decided on rollerblading that day. I was on my board having bladed last weekend. We had been switching off from blade to board to keep it "fresh", you know to break up the routine. We got a lot of shit for it but no one could deny the good time we were having.

Most skaters took the BK gap bout midway where it was a foot of planter with 9 or so inches of wall to a 5-6 foot drop with a two foot gap that in the drop was irrevelant. This was not good enough for Flint. If you go north along the wall it gets higher with a much deeper drop. Flint decided to take the BK gap at the top.

At the top of the lot the BK gap weighs in at : 4 foot gap to the 1 1/2 foot tall wall to a at least 7 foot drop with at 3 foot gap at the bottom landing in a slight incline. In short it was no laughing matter.

As Flint got ready, I stood at the bottom of the gap and a few yards south so I could see over the wall to watch. Flint was taking dry runs at it trying to work up the courage when a guy known as "the Matrix" walked up.

Matrix was a pretty damn good rollerbladers. I seen him take rails on his blades that most of you wouldn't walk down. He taught me to rollerblade with Flints help. He had a vice for burgers and could be seen walking to BK from time to time.

Matrix asked me what's up and I filled him in. He was a little alarmed that Flint wasn't jumping yet. We stood there and watched Flint take several more dry runs.

Matrix finally upped the ante, he told Flint that if he made it down the gap, he would buy him a whopper meal. To seal the deal I told Flint that I would buy him a pack of ciggarettes if he made it. Apparently that was enough to light the fire under his ass.

Matrix and I stood together on the bottom of the gap and watched Flint go back to his starting point. He paused to adjust his skates, and took off sprinting torwards the gap. Matrix and me began cheering and whooping, egging him on. He reached the gap, jumped and sailed though the air.

When Flint cleared the wall you could tell that he began to think that this wasn't a good idea. I could see it in his face and by the way he began swirling his arms that he was actually trying to hit the brakes in midair. A look of pure panic and terror was visible on his face as he drifted weightless through the air.

Flints rollerblades then made contact with the ground. His legs bent to absorb the shock of landing. He then curved left, stopped and looked at us.

We began moving simultaneously, Matrix walked to the BK and I went to the Walgreens to buy ciggarettes, Marlboros to be exact. When I came back Flint was still standing in the lot. I handed him the pack of smokes and we went into Burger king together to join the Matrix inside for a burger or two.

There are lots of cameras these days. I got a camera, a pretty cool one from my parents in my bag and as well as a pretty decent one on my phone. I'm sure all of you have cameras on your phones. People take pictures of family and friends, even loved ones. They ussually just store them or post the pics on Facebook. Little handy cameras weren't around when Flint jumped the BK gap. I had a Video camera but we weren't filming that day were were just having fun. Point is I'm glad I didn't have a camera, I captured that moment in my memory.

You can lose memory cards and phones, the internet may crash in the coming zombie appocolypse, but even though Flint is no longer here on this earth I will always have these memories to look at.

Flint, man I miss you, wish you were here…

-B

Centrifugal Force

(This is a true story)

I don't know if you have ever noticed this but if you were born longer than you can remember ago, playgrounds have changed.

I suppose its because of litigation. In short no one wants to get sued, I sure dont. I really didn't notice the changes till I had my son and began taking him to the park or to play at his school.

Growing up I recall huge maze like works of bars and obstacles. Hell I remember some flat out scared me. There was a vast array of swings and balance beams. Monkey bars were standard issue. I even remember chin-up bars. I remember girls climbing up to this bar suspended high in the air to do their flips and twirls like an olympic gymnast.

Now days that's all been toned down a lot. The playground down the street from my house is like a low "ship" with ladders and stairs compared to the beheamoths of my childhood all safely covered in a soft paint with no sharp corners. Even the slides are lame. I remember thinking the "Big" slide at school was the equivalent of jumping out of an airplane, now the big rush is will I get static shock from the plastic slide that water barely runs down. People worry about kids being overweight but everything is so toned down that the kids will burn half a calorie getting on the palyground equiptment compared to when I was a kid having to literally climb up the jungle gym to be on it. Now its like "Come on let's climb the stairs to the jungle gym!" I'm sure elevators will be next.

My final complaint is that some idiot decided to replace the sand that traditionally covers the playground with tree bark. That person has obviously never fallen off a jungle gym. How can tree bark be softer? When will they decide to put chunks of concrete out there to break our falls?

But let's not forget my all time favorite thing on the play ground…

The "Merry-go-Round"

Dang ole! Rated the most dangerous thing ever put on the playground. In some hands it was a calm, fun ride but in the wrong hands it was even better!

These days I think you have to go to Europe or somewhere else to see one. I saw one in Iraq once but they have all gone the way of the dinosaurs. Extinct only remembered or speculated about.

Growing up Merry-go-rounds were as common as swing sets. One in every park and school. The park down the street where I grew up was no exception. I have lots of fun memories on them.

I remember one time we were all at the park. My family used to make a big deal about birthdays and would make a big celebration picnic in the park complete with pinatas. Us kids, I think it was nine of us, 6 girls/3 boys, would get hopped up on sweets and food and run around screaming our little heads off in the park.

Man that must have been annoying for the adults. I've mentioned my Mother requiring entertainment or she gets bored, well Dads not that much different. Difference is that Dad was a Marine and he has learned to make do with what's at hand. "Improvise, Adapt and Overcome" was the motto he raised us by.

So Dads stuck at a party full ofscreaming, sugar-high kids aaaand there's a merry-go-round…that to him spelt "fun for all!"

So Dad and our ex-uncle (a former Marine himself) would round us all up and herd us over to the wheel-of-death. Funny part was we loved it, it wasn't our first rodeo. They would tell us to hang on and if we(hahahaha! "If") fell off to roll away from the merry-go-round when we hit the ground.

So everyone got on the merrry-go-round and held on. Like it think if we had rope we woulda tied ourselves on. I remember looking at all the girls spread out the ride. All of them would wrap they legs and arms in a death grip. My cousins Micheal, David and me being the only boys would stick together. We occupied on whole section. I sat facing out, wrapped around the U-bar. Micheal and Dave would hang onto the bar that want to the middle of the merry-go-round.

Dad and my uncle would then ask us if we were ready and when we replied yes they would begin a count down rocking the merry-go-round back and fourth untill they reached the count of three.

Then the carnage began.

It must be the way it feels to be in a tornado. The world blurred by, the colors running into each other like a water color painting. I could feel the centrifugal force pushing me into the bar, hell I could feel my internal organs moving to one side of my body. I could hear the girls sreaming as everything swirled by.

I remember looking back and seeing them fly off one by one. One second they were there, then they let go and were swallowed by the swirling vortex. Of the boys David being pretty young was the first to go. Michael them would slide down and hang on to me. His legs would tire out and let go, I looked and saw him perfectly level, sideways in the air clinging to my arm, screaming bloody murder. His hand got tired and he let go, he slow drifted into the void, then was swept away.

I began to have problems of my own, it bean to hurt to hang onto the bar. I tried to adjust my legs and released too much and the vortex grabbed hold of my ankles. I then found myself suspended like Mike. Hanging on for dear life I could see my Father laughing as he and my Uncle continued pushing the Merry-go-Round. I'm pretty sure I was screaming by then. My fingers began to tire and I succomed to the vortex drifting out into the void before being swept away.

The world stopped in a hurry with all the colors becoming recognizeable shapes. Then I made contact with the ground and rolled several feet. When I sat up in the grass I saw all the kids in a group cheering and laughing. I got up and ran over to cheer on the remaing kids on the wheel…

Man what times, I'm sure now that's child abuse.

Several of my cousins and I still sit around and laugh about the wheel of death. Come to think of it all the things we did as children are considered unsafe or dangerous now. Despite all of that I have made many memories that I cherish highly.

I remember a few years into skateboarding an old woman who did not approve came out to tell me that I could have an injury that could confine me to a wheelchair or worse and that I should do no "dangerous" activities to avoid that and be perfectly healthy in my old age. To that I replied " yeah but imagine the stories I'll tell from my wheelchair…"

-B

Things That Go Bump In The Night.

[This is a true story]

We have already talked about the unifying princibles, you know the things that link all cultures. Math and the Boogey man always come to mind. All children every where are scared of something in the night, some awful predator, monster thingy.

Before I really got into horror movies I was absolutely convinced that there was something out there at night. I suppose the young Marine across the way didn't help these thoughts, I'm sure he meant well. It just so happened that we were talking about nightmares and he told me of one where he would dream of a big scary monster hand would reach up from under the bed and pull him under. I gotta admit that the thought of that is absolutely terrorfying to such a wee grommit like myself.

I don't think  having a pretty logical mind helped either. Ok before you start questioning my logic claim, listen to this. Its not like its a good logic, its actually way,waaaay too much. Like I didn't weigh the probability of existance but rather the possiblity of completion. To dumb it down I didn't use my logic to determine if it was possible for these creatures to exist but rather just how possible it was for them to accomplish their dasturdly deeds.

Ok here's an example of my thought process. Once we went to Seaworld and my Dad wanted to go to the shark tunnel. At that time I was aware of the movie "Jaws" and the people eating (specifically the ease of eating little people such as me) capabilities of sharks. I refused to enter the tunnel. Dad got mad and asked why, to which I responded…

"The sharks will eat me!"

Dad then told me that sharks like all fish cannot survive out of water. I knew through personal expirience and through documentaries that fish can live out of water for a short time before dying, more specifically, they will live long enough to bite me in half. I knew that the shark could break the glass, swim in the water on the floor to me bite me in half, then die. I'm sorry but a lose-lose is still a loss. Long story short, cutting my losses I refused to budge, dad got pissed, I got yelled at but I remaind solidly in one piece ,un-bitten by a shark, that is a "win".

Well back to the story at hand.

Dad had declared quiet time after dinner and this reqired that we go to our rooms to quietly play or whatever. That night I chose to use the time to determine just how possible a monster attack was and how the attack would be carried out.

I'm ashamed to admit that I found myself very vunerable thus highly suspectable to a monster attack.

I had two major vunerabilities on my bed.

1. The free side of the bed.
Wide open, I used that side myself to get on and off the bed. Can't be avoided. The monster could attack from the free route and escape easily. The monster would have his choice of pulling me under the bed or dragging me to the closet.

2. The wall side of the bed.
Even though the bed was against the wall. I knew I would reach down to the floor that was and that if I could do it, the mauraders of the night definitely could. This was the secondary direction of attack that it could be carried out. The creature could only pull me under the bed from here.

I didn't really worry about the foot of the bed because the was a trunk there and I was, well really short. A lot of reach was needed compared to the sides of the bed.

Well after a little thought I finally found what I needed in Buggs Bunny cartoons.

What I needed to survive the night were decoys.

I had two fairly large stuffed animals in my childhood. One was a bear and the other was a stuffed killer whale. Both were large enough to possibly fool a monster that only had seconds to carry out its attack. Plus if one was taken I 'd have proof of these child-snatchers. Then my Father and his Marines would go to fight the monsters ending the reign of terror of the night. The Marines would fight for the children.

I slept with the bear covering the wall side and the killer whale on the floor side. Those two sentries guarded me infailibly, ready to give their lives so that the Marines would end the terror. We slept that way for a while, I'm not really sure how long till the worst happened.

I woke one Saturday morning to bright sunlight. I had slept soundly with my guardians. I did my daily check or roll call. I looked to my left and there as always was the bear. I turned and looked to my right and the killer whale was gone…

In panic I checked the bed, looking all over for her. Then my mind started racing, with the fact that I had been attacked the previous night.

The poor whale!! She was a killer whale selected because of that to perform this duty and she's gone!

I finally worked up the courage to creep up to the edge of the bed to see if there was anything left before screaming for my Father to rescue me and go to war.

I had closed my eyes when I got to the edge. I peered over the edge and opened my eyes…

There she was, unharmed lying on the floor. I guessed that I must knocked her off the bed. I reached down and scooped her up and returned her to her place of duty…

I'm not really sure how many years I slept with those two by my side. I wonder if they had ever fought any battles to protect me in the night. Both of those heros I gave to my kid sister and I believe she still has them.

I laugh about all this not because it seems childish but because once I went in to tuck my son in for the night and I noticed he placed stuffed animals on the floor side as well as the wall side. I never asked him why he did that.

I wonder if the monsters die when you no longer believe in them? Does that mean my defenders died with the monsters?

I do know that my son sleeps soundly at night with his sentries standing guard as I did as a child…

-B