1:21 pm - Thursday, Oct. 09, 2003
2nd entry in a day
Boy has no bike right now. You're thinking it's unAmerican, maybe even downright French, for me to not buy the Boy a bike. Well you remember the whole Boy-gets-lost-and-the-police-bring-him-home episode... and he really had outgrown the thing... we gave it to a neighbor kid.

I bring this up because last night Boy is outside, running behind the other kids on their bikes while they race, and they zoom across the street without looking and thwuck, one gets hit by a van. His front wheel gets smooshed and it throws him down... he didn't actually get run over or anything gruesome. Boy runs home screaming to Simon, the kid's little bro runs in and gets the Mom, the Mom comes out like the big ninny she is and Picks Him Up and takes him inside.

None of these kids are wearing helmets. I doubt any of them looked to see if anyone was coming.

This entry is not about how dumb it is to move a freshly injured person. Nor is it about how stupid it is to let kids ride helmetless. It's about how god-damn scary it is to have kids. It SOOO could have been Boy. We tell Boy to wear his helmet and look both ways and blah blah blah he just doesn't believe anything bad could Really happen and he forgets these things in the fun of the moment and it's a wonder any of us grow up. It's a wonder any of us live through our kids growing up.