RISKY
We have had a flood of dare-devil shows in recent months of television attempting to run the reality shows off the air.
This series made the old days of Evil Knievel jumping his motorcycle over cars and canyons, seem like child's play and most of these scary-shows were fitted with parenthetical disclaimers front and end: “Do not try to do these stunts at home.” It was just strong enough to make a lot of people try them anyway. ER statistics will probably show that in a great many places.
Skate board stunt demonstrations are another chiller with men, women and children skating on, near, around,close-to and especially above rinks designed and constructed in convoluted patterns resembling the Black Hills of the Dakotas.
It all brings back memories, of course.
I remember hearing people in the Schuyler, Virginia (Sky'-ler)area talk about one of their own - Luke Snead by name, who,one day long ago did his thing. I think it must have been been 1931-32. Luke was gunning his truck up a steep,raised bridge crossing a railroad track. The bridge was built entirely of wood and Luke hit one rail almost head-on. He was sudden ly in the air at about forty feet over the terrain, realizing that his truck was turning over - doing a net somersault. It turned over completely and landed on all four wheels on the railroad tracks below. Luke fell back into the set as he held firmly to the steering wheel. He got out,cranked the truck and drove off absolutely unharmed.
Now that was near Schuyler,Virginia, remember - in he edge of the Blue Ridge mountains where the Walton family of TV fame lived. Folks in that part of the country just don't make good liars, so I've always accepted the Luke Snead flip-over story as authentic and reliable. Of course, some tellers of the tale insert a speeding train bearing down on Luke as he desperately tried to crank new life into the old truck. That's where I sorta wonder, however, because we stopped cranking our cars and trucks a good ten years before that date.
Now, let's see some of you TV stunt drivers do that little trick. It had a certain flair about it, originality,for us. I've asked around but I have yet to find anyone who knows if Luke Snead every had any ambitions to try it from a higher bridge bridge with several “flip-overs”.
A.L.M. November 19, 2003 [c422wds]
