The Big Red Jeep

So I've been slacking, I'm sorry. Time to get to it.

In fall of 1993 my little sister was born. I was pretty darn excited, except for the fact that on the day we brought her home, I asked my parents about when we were going to take her back to the hospital. Just to drive my point home about how flustered and frustrated I was with this new family member, I proceeded to wet the bed that following night.

Lets fast forward a wee bit to the day of my sister's baptism. Lots of my family members came over my house to celebrate the joyous occasion. All of the young kids were playing in the backyard, while the parents sat inside of the house talking about grown-up stuff. Some of the youngsters thought it would be a good idea to drive my battery-powered jeep around my backyard and chase the other kids. Well, it slowly turned into one of those crazy improvised games that children are so good at making.  My cousin would drive the jeep in a circle and when he came around we would have to jump out of the way in the nick of time. I'm not going to lie, just like I am today, I was a pretty big fraidy cat. From what I can remember, I was afraid to barely step into the yard. When I finally did, I ended up flat on my back with the big red hunk of plastic stuck on top of me.

Immediately after this event, the by-standing children ran inside to get help. They did so by yelling, "Brett got run over by a car!". Quickly, the adults panicked and then realized that I had not been struck by an actual vehicle. However, my father still sprung into action at a moments notice.  He went outside to find that my cousin was still in the jeep, foot on the gas peddle, trying to get it off of me. My father's solution was to just flip the jeep off of me and it is possible that my cousin may still have been inside (but honestly, how would I know). After that debacle was over, my mom took me to my room, where she gave me a po-go (my term for a Dum-Dum sucker) and let me cry it out until I had one of those nice, big, long yawns that really calmed me down.

I never looked at my jeep the same after that day.

P.S. The day we brought my sister home from the hospital was the only time I ever wet the bed. Just in case you are keeping score at home.