I Killed Shamu

While on my way in to work tonight, driving down the 15 South, traffic started to really slow and nearly stop because of debris in the road. I couldn't tell what it was right away, until something popped up and I just ran it over.

It was what appeared to be a stuffed Shamu... The unmistakable black and white whale shape...jumped up and I struck it at a moderate rate of speed...stuffing flew everywhere...

I also noted several other "babies" in the road...looks like maybe someone tossed it out of the car, lost donatable items, or maybe someone just has a wicked mean sibling that was mad...or maybe better yet...

Maybe they had a Dad like mine... Don't get me wrong..I love my Dad. He's grown up so much through the years...when we were young though, he had ZERO tolerance for stupidity/insubordination...or really anything that didn't go with his idea of how kids should act...With that being said....

I recall one time when my Dad took us camping in the mountains. My brother (younger by 1 year) had a brand new Tonka truck. We were playing with it at a campground in the dirt, while my Dad made us lunch. I recall the lunch vividly - peanut butter and mustard sandwiches...yah, it sounds nasty but I remember it being quite yummy. Although, I can't say I would recreate that same culinary delight in my kitchen any time soon...

Well, my brother and I started bickering about sharing the truck...mind you the damned thing was his in the first place...and I had to play with it. A tug of war ensued...then along came Daddy.

He took the truck from us and shouted at us...something along the lines,

"If you two S-O-Bs can share the G-damned truck, then neither of you can play with it."

He proceded to pry the truck from our clenched hands and he demolished that damned thing into a couple of pieces and most impressively flat as a G-damned pancake!

Mind you, this was early 70's and I could swear I recall a commercial about Tonka trucks being super strong and having the ability to withstand incredible amounts of force...like an elephant standing on it ...or was that Samsonite? I just knew my Dad was freaking Superman or something like that since he could do that to a TONKA!

From that moment on, I knew we couldn't let Dad see us bicker about a trivial toy...that is, if we ever wanted to see it again as it was meant to be seen. We still bickered and I think we still had shit tossed out or destroyed I am sure...but I can't recall any but this one right now.

So killing Shamu tonight, brought on this flashback...because I could just see my Dad -

"If you two can't share Shamu and all these other f**king dolls/animals than no one gets it!!"

As he chucks them out the car window one after the other....

Poor kids...

I am sorry I killed your Shamu...