Helmets Save Faces

I was just recently thinking about my childhood past and one memory that came immediately to mind was the day my brother's face was rescued by a helmet. If it hadn't been for the helmet his nose would probably be a lot flatter and a few teeth would be forever missing.

See as kids in the early nineties we still enjoyed the outdoors more than sitting around inside attached to the remote. I had my shiny bright pink bike and my brother had his bad ass black bike. We lived on a steep hill that had a landing strip allowing plenty of time to pick up our speed for awesome flying. I had gotten pretty good on my bike, being able to steer with no hands and glide around with ease. Back and forth up and down the street I was in m own little world but somehow I managed to catch my brother's demise.

I'm guessing that he was about five or six on this day and very attentive to the rules of the road. His helmet made him look cool. Anyway, maybe he wanted to do something different, maybe he was testing the helmet, maybe we will never understand the events that led to the end of his biking days and the beginning of "Safety First" in our family.

All I can remember is he was winding up for a long high speed race down the awesome hill. I was about ten feet behind him and watched as he slowly veered to the left and off the road heading straight for a mailbox. At the last possible moment his helmet fell in front covering his precious baby face from the brunt force of the mailbox.

He screamed, I laughed a little and than ran to get mom while the neighbor came running out to inspect what went down in his yard. All teeth in order, no noses smooshed, I relayed the story of the magical helmet to everyone and we give thanks to the helmet fairies everyday.

Thanks be to Helmet Fairy.