Week 76: 1965 Pontiac GTO

Another GTO on Daddy's Tiny Cars, having previously featured a '67, '69, and '70 GTO as well as a '66 GTO Wagon, not a "true" GTO, but part of the family. I love my tiny GTOS, and like a boomerang, I keep circling back to them.

Speaking of which, I dug out my actual boomerangs yesterday and took the kids to a local school playground and baseball field, empty for President's Day, to practice throwing those crazy circling pieces of wood.

I'm not any type of hardcore boomerang person, but I find boomerangs hopelessly cool, and I have two decent ones I've had for more than ten years that were handmade by a boomerang maker in Michigan. My boomerangs include a short range right-handed boomerang and a mid-range left handed one.

Didn't know there were left- and right-handed boomerangs? Neither did I most of my life, possibly explaining why my red plastic Wham-O! boomerang never even considered coming back to me when I was a kid, no matter how many times I set it free. That thing never even soared -- just sadly flopped through the air before landing in a patch of nettles or some dog poop. I, of course, was left handed, a condition largely unrecognized by teachers in the 60s and early 70s, and if teachers weren't going to acknowledge the existence of left handers, my cheap little boomerang certainly was not going to, either.

See it turns out the bevel on a boomerang only works its magic when the boomerang is thrown the correct way by the correct hand, common sense aerodynamically speaking, I guess, but something you probably wouldn't even consider before reading about boomerangs or being told. When you finally get the throw down, however, witnessing that smooth, unearthly arc, and, even, more gratifying, finally catching the boomerang, nears the sublime, and doesn't itch as much as nettles.

President's Day in Ohio was sunny, and, after weeks of being cooped up as a result of being sick or caring for sick kids, I quickly became good pals with that sun. All three of my kids practiced throwing the boomerangs, and, having left-hand and right-hand persuasions, I helped everyone, even the youngest, to get the things to actually do something, if only a little. We had fun, everyone laughed, and no one even got beaned in the head, even if I did avoid a near miss from a throw from A by a lucky duck of my head. Racer A did manage to get a boomerang stuck in a basketball net, but for some reason, again probably the sun, that struck us all as tremendously hilarious, and my oldest son was able to knock it down with a ball.

Boomerangs, however, were only part of our playground day in a juice-box-on-the-picnic-table kind of way, where the kids did other things but then every so often would run back to take a few sips of the boomerang.

At this particular playground there is a small alcove with a sign that reads General Store above a type of serving counter window. There is a small dinner bell next to the window.

Tthe two youngest zoomed in on that window as their ice cream and hot dog stand and were soon pushing each other to try to take center stage in the window to take orders. The five year old kept telling Baby G (almost 3) that he should work back in the kitchen, an important and fun job, but G wasn't having it, and eventually the two kids reluctantly fell into place beside each other taking orders, their shoulder slam pushes against each other gradually lessening to state of cooperation.

"Can I get you something, Sir?" asked the A.

"Yes, can I have a hot dog?"

"Sure," answered A. "Can I get you something to drink? We have everything: lemonade, Coke, milk, soy milk, Pepsi, rootbeer, whatever you want."

"Okay, can I have a lemonade?"

My son disappeared through the woodchips to the kitchen and returned sighing. "We're out of lemonade."

I ordered a milk instead, trying to set a good example instead of ordering an imaginary soda. I took turns placing varying orders with each of the young kids (I was playing all the customers, you see), and on my fourth visit to the store A said excitedly that they now had sushi and it was delicious.

I ordered a sushi, which it turned out A thought was a drink.

I drank my sushi under the bright sun and in the cold air. Delicious. Then helped baby G throw the boomerang, who was then joined by my older son Dre.

A perfect day.


-- neither here nor there footnote --

When I think boomerangs I always think of my favorite movie, 1987's Bagdad Cafe, where the boomerang flying through the sunset scenes become a character in the movie for me. I couldn't find the exact scene I wanted to include, but here is a collage of scenes from the movie with two quick glimpses of the boomerang and one of the best movie songs ever. Enjoy. 

Thanks again to Phil Pekarcik for yet another GTO pic. If you would like to follow these pictures and are doing Pinterest, follow the cars of Daddy's Tiny Cars on my Pinterest feed: http://pinterest.com/nickadizzy/daddy-s-tiny-cars/.