Sweet Funny Extra and Boy-in-Black became friends on the first day of seventh grade.
That was the year that Boy-in-Black began setting things on fire. It was a year of record snowfall, and all winter long, we had at least a foot of snow on the ground and a foot of snow on the roof. So I felt comfortable letting the gang of seventh graders head out into the back yard at night armed with structures made of paper bags, newspaper, and duct tape. They would have a contest to see who could make the structure that would burn the faster. Later they advanced to candles, bug spray, action figures, lighter fluid, model rocket engines, and gasoline.
The indoor fire game involved the kind of white socks all the boys wear. If the socks are old and worn, with threads hanging off them, you can light a match to the sock and watch flame dance all over your foot.
Sweet Funny Extra was always an enthusiastic participant in these scientific experiments. He used to love playing with the boxes of dress-up clothes we had in the garage; in seventh grade, he was small enough to wear all the prom dresses. His Friday night tradition used to be to put on a dark blue dress, crank up Shania Twain’s I feel Like a Woman, and dance.
A senior in high school now, Sweet Funny Extra is a snowboarder who joins us at our table in the ski lodge on snowboarding Sundays. He hits the jumps pretty aggressively – I only catch glimpses of him as he flies past, doing all kinds of tricks. On the school soccer team since seventh grade, he is a fiercely competitive soccer player. And as you can see from this photo, he wears pink nail polish on his toes.
15 comments:
pink is great and all but i think he'd look better in a slightly darker color. why his toes and not his fingernails as well?
He has fabulous toes! No wonder he's such an ace snowboarder, he must have really good balance! I also love that shade of pink.
The first thing I saw was the pink toenails. It would seem rather fun to have such an extra around. I hope you have some great photos of him dressed up and dancing, you know for wedding day sillies or another embarrassing moment.
If I were 16 years old, I'd be tripping over myself trying to date him!
I used to love to burn the trash...back in the day when everyone had burnbarrels out back. My mom would present me with a paper bag full of detritus and a box of heavy kitchen matches, and me and my pyromania would have a field day!
real men do wear nail polish. We have a banner stating the same at camp.
My brother and I, back when we were left alone a lot, burned everything. He used cans of hair spray for blow troches. I think back and shiver. It's a wonder we both aren't badly scared from all the narrow escapes. He is still fascinated by fire. EVery year, on the fourth of July, he buys hundredsand hundreds of dollars worth of expensive displaying fire works and shoots them off on his land. IN addition, he provides hotdogs and cokes to the people who come for the show. It is impressive, but everytime I watch him bend over to light a fuse, I remember that little boy who pushed the limits with every explosive he could get his hands on.
This boy is excellent.
The pink toenails were the first thing I noticed as well. I read avidly to make sure you were going to comment on whether or not I was seeing what I thought. The pink looks good on him. :>)
Very intesting
If my feet were that beautiful, I'd paint my toes as well.
I thought you'd photoshopped it at first! Too funny!
I cannot believe you let them burn things in your backyard. Seriously, Jo(e), you may be a saint.
I'm this extra's sister, and I remember the nights of sparkling grape juice, wet kitchen floors, dress-up and Shania Twain. Unfortunately I seemed to have come at the end of an era and only had a few nights at your house, but the memories have always been important to me.
And we tried to keep the pink toenails a family secret, but he's just too flamboyant for his own good.
Hey, Extra's Sister, I didn't know anyone in your family had access to my blog. Weren't you part of the group who used to put butter on the kitchen floor and then skate on it in bare feet? And also the group who used to climb out Daughter's window in the middle of the night to sit on the roof and talk under the stars?
Oh, it seems funny that you are all off in college now. And everyone from your class turns twenty this year so you aren't even teenagers any more.
my brother told me about it so I could see if his toenails were up.
I didn't mention the butter and the roof because I was afraid that might still be under wraps. : )
I know it! I can't believe I'm twenty already, but more I can't believe my brother will be 18 soon. When did everyone get so old?
That's right ... your brother turns eighteen the same day my daughter turns twenty. They have the same birthday. Two big milestones.
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