So Whooooooooooooooo’s a Debbie Downer?

I had been reading a skateboard magazine. An older guy in his 70s came up with some books, so I set the magazine on the counter. As I was counting up his change, I noticed how he couldn’t take his eyes off the a two-page sequence of Ted DeGros doing a switch front crooks fakie flip on this knee-high ledge that keeps going up”It’s a sick sequence, huh?”

He chuckled.

“I mean, look here how proper that fakie flip is; he catches it above the ledge and stomps it down bolts. Sick.”

He smiled and conceded that it was, in fact, “sick,” and took off.

Awesome.

I went back to thumbing through my magazine when the next lady, trim and in her 60s, stepped up with a few books. I notice that her eyes are really bloodshot. Not as if she had just smoked pot, but as if she’d been at some windy beach and kept getting sand blown in her eyes all day. Either that or she hadn’t taken her contacts out in, like, a fortnight. Anyway I put the magazine down and ring her up. She asked what I was reading.

“Thrasher. It is sick.“

“Oh, sure. Skateboarding,” she said with a hand gesture I usually reserve for bothersome flies. “What a great way to break your neck.”

Yeah, Right. I inform her, matter-of-factly, that skateboarding has fewer reported injuries each year than both hockey and football, which is significant when you consider the fact that skateboarding is more popular than baseball. [ed: Yeah, he still fucking cares about this.]

Debbie ain’t fazed.

“Well, that’s just what my sister said about skydiving. She said, ‘oh, don’t worry. Skydiving is safer than driving on the freeway.’ She had 6000 jumps and then her parachute didn’t open and she died.”

……

…..

“Um, sorry to hear that.”

…..

“I’m…uh…”

…..

“…still gonna skate?”

She looked at me with a tight little smile and left. Hopefully For. E. Ver.