Street Kings

Fond Memory #2 - Roller Derby Street Kings

The Unbeatable Street Kings

Grade school, skates attached to the hard soles of your school shoes via screw clamps on the front edge. The back tied down with a small leather strap and buckle. These skates would come off for any number of reasons. The bolt in the middle that controlled the size might get loose and the skate would fall into two pieces, or you might hit a slight crack in the sidewalk and the clamped toe end would just pop off. These would prevent you from getting any speed (unless you enjoyed a tumble on the sidewalk) and no matter how skilled you were at falling those falls hurt. The only solution was “Roller Derby Street Kings” shoe skates like the kind at the roller rink - except with steel wheels for outdoor use (no polyurethane back then). These allowed you to go full speed without endangering your life. I wanted those but the price was much too high.

     The answer to my dilemma came when I got to go on an electrical side job with my father. I always liked those jobs, I was a little scared - at once not to let your father down and also not to get electrocuted*. Half the time I didn’t have a clue but it was exciting and the pay was great. I made enough at the time to buy the Street Kings and now was the undisputed fastest skater on my block. (Actually a bigger kid may have been faster but his skates would fall off two thirds into the race…) I would go around challenging the best skaters in the neighborhood to expand my dominion.
     I met my match across 95^th street and a block over, the boy’s name was Bobby and he had a pair of Street Kings too. The race was set to be on the sidewalks, he on the east side of Lowe street starting at 96^th, me on the west. We would end at the alley just before 95^th. The other kids yelled the start and we were on, hell bent for glory. After a few moments of flailing and pounding steel on concrete we ended, in a dead heat. We both claimed victory, so we ran it again with the same result - neither one of us would ever concede - only grudgingly calling it a tie.
     A kid today would be screaming if he had to wear those metal wheeled beasts, accustomed as they are now to luxurious polyurethane, but to us they were pure heaven…

 

The Infamous Clip On - Fall Off Skates

*(Ok, I really had no chance of being electrocuted…)



Story: Ken
Artwork: TMITH
Photo: Random Internet





 

To Heaven Itself...

Every now and then we will retread one of our olde graphics with new words and so...

Downtown Charlie Brown in...

Words: Zzen - Concept: Reynard - Artwork: Ken

Oh Lord! Kim Speaks...

Photos: Random Internet - Words: Deegan - Layout: TMITH

BAM Disclaimer - Kim

Disclaimer:

The following post does not represent any or all of the Cosmic's disposition on the matter, as we uphold every individuals right to be a complete and utter asshole.

Kim Davis by TMITH

The neat thing about misguided belief systems is that it allows you to be the asshole that - deep down inside - you really want to be.

But, The Hat Is Righteous!

Words: Zzen - Graphics: Ken & TMITH

Fond Memories

#1 - Virginia

Taking a break from the unsettling world, Ken shares a fond memory...



Grandma Lillian and Ken

I think I am about five or six. Tobacco hanging from the rafters or beams in a barn or something like a barn -  with an indescribable smell - one that you relish. You have smelled nothing like it since. The sap is running in a tree you are climbing. How did you manage to get it all in your hair? It was hard to remove… Two ticks on the hunting dog - they look like tiny balloons - the pigs will eat the big weeds you throw into the pen. You did not know how dangerous they were. They will eat you and your boots too, but you had no thoughts of going down in the pen - which was dug down into the earth with a wooden fence around it. Down the orange clay road there is a certain smell and the peach from that tree at the end (if you recall correctly) of the driveway - is the best one you will eat in your entire life. The field hands throw tobacco into a big wooden box with heavy wooden skids - you are sitting on the front of the box with your older brother and it is pulled by a blue-grey tractor. Upstairs at night the quilt feels perfect and Grandma Lillian tucks you in - there are dead wasps in the windowsill but you feel safe. In the morning at breakfast Grandpa Isaac teases you a little and you don’t know if he is being mean or friendly, you figure it’s both and keep on eating…

 

 

 

 

Fond Memories - number one in series of memories, maybe not all sweet but subtly interesting...