It's the 4th of July. It's a day of celebration as we celebrate our independence and most of us will be spending time with family or having a BBQ of some form.
When I think back to how my "other" holidays were spent as a kid, well, for the most part my parents didn't really do anything different. We didn't have a grill so that was out. And they didn't go anywhere to watch fireworks most of the time. So for me, it was just another day.
However, occasionally on those holidays, we would get a visit from my cousin Terry who was either crazy or a bit of a thrill seeker. He was one of those picture perfect red headed red neck. He would pull up into our drive way in a beaten up car, grab his lawn chair out of the trunk and sit on our lawn for hours with a beer in hand. My parents weren't drinkers so this was a new sight for me when someone has had a few too many.
He would sit there all day, get sun burned drunk. If there was rain, he would sit there. If there was a thunderstorm, he would sit out in it and cheer it on while I stayed huddled inside. He treated lightning like fireworks, which speaking of he also had on hand. Watching someone sit out in a thunderstorm drunk is one thing, but watching them light fireworks at the same time and you better have some popcorn in hand.
He would take his empty, well most of the time, beer bottles or cans and light up a firework and launch it from those. Sometimes he would burn himself and other times he was out there dancing under the fireworks. Other times they would be duds which you hoped were duds when he stuck them up to his face to see.
Yeah, that's how many drinks he had. I always wondered if he had a Double Vision because of them. I have never had a drink in my life, mainly because of my already fatty liver from being a tad overweight but it also didn't interest me and I witnessed some really bad stuff involving alcohol at points in my life. So staying away hasn't effected me one bit. And I didn't need alcohol to get a Double Vision anyways. I got that done by Skybox in 1998.
In 1998, Skybox came out with a 32-card set that was distributed in one-card packs with a suggested price of $5.99. I remember grabbing quite a few packs of them trying to land the Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf rookie ones. Which I didn't and still don't have.
The slide mechanism combined with an acetate window background magically disappears revealing a full bleed color photo on two sides! numbered to 5000.
A lot of stars are on the checklist mixed in with a few basic veterans.
I still have many others as well and may chase the set at some point with the set being small.
I like the concept and look of the cards, but once again these oversized cards are so hard to store. I keep them in a tote underneath some heavier sets as I found that some of them warped over time. But, it's nice to come across them occasionally and take me back in time.
Just like when I stumble upon Terry's Facebook occasionally. I remember those moments he spent out in his chair during a thunderstorm and also think to myself, how is he still alive as I assume he hasn't changed much after all of these years. After I moved out of my parents house and created a life of my own,the other parts of my family left on their own lives and we all haven't seen each other in many years. Probably close to 25 years at this point and I don't expect that to change. So memories are all that I have, but sometimes that's enough.
I hope everyone who reads this has a safe and Happy 4th of July 2019! And keep in mind, DDWTD. Don't Do What Terry Does.
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