The Lawn Job

    The year is 1991, I'm 10 yrs old, and I was spending my summer as I always had, playing basketball, riding my bike, and building forts and club houses with the other kids on my street. Once in a while we would have a falling out as any group of children would. This occasion the particularly pompous kid, he was an only child, down the street, Danny Cristo, was not our friend. Well, one day Steve Lackic and I were hanging around outside when this older kid across the street, he was between 16 and 18 at the time, Brian, had a friend drive up in a Chevy Blazer. He drove right up on the lawn. This definitely got our attention. Somehow Steve and I, two 10 year olds, with little to no convincing talked the guy into doing a lawn job on Danny's front yard. This dude piles up both Steve and myself into his truck and tears down the street and around the block with heavy medal music blasting in our ears. Within a few seconds we're pulled up on the kids lawn when puts the gas pedal all the way to the floor. It felt like we were in a monster truck. The engine roared and the truck lurched backward! Grass was flying up on both sides of the truck as we did a perfect 180 degree spin in a snap, and then in a cloud of dirt and dust the truck hit the pavement and peeled off down the street.
    He let us out around the corner where we walked home. The next day Danny's Dad was seen hosing the grass down with a garden hose in his typical fashion. A wife beater, boxer shorts, and slippers. I can only imagine what he was thinking standing there facing the complete destruction that was his front lawn. That was so awesome and it may be the reason why I bought my red pickup truck so many years ago. That was so fun!