I have lots of favorite stories about my drive to New York City to meet and hear Seth Godin. But one makes me laugh every time I think about it. I wrote earlier about how I sat on the ground in front of the guardrail for about two hours while taking in Niagara Falls.
While I basked in the beautiful day, I heard a group of kids coming up from behind me. Now, I did not hear anyone say this (but in my mind) I hear this boy whispering to his friends “Watch me scare that lady”, because all of the sudden I hear this “Ohhhh nooo!!!” and then footsteps running up beside me. But before I could turn and look over my shoulder, I hear the boy run into the guardrail, and his sunglasses shoot off his head and hit the rocks a few feet ahead.
His friends started laughing and so did I. He had not taken in the fact that the guardrail curved around towards the viewing area and he had hit the rail much sooner than he had expected. It was hilarious. I was so happy I thought to jump up to take pictures as he stretched as far as he was brave enough in his attempt to retrieve his sunglasses.
Only one girl in the group said “Be careful”, and she just happened to be the only one with a baby in tow. This scared him, so another friend had to step in… or stretch out, with the help of another girl holding onto his feet, and he successfully reached far enough to save the day.
I told the boy who had tried to play the trick on me “That’s okay, you’re still cool” which luckily made the whole group laugh.
Later I saw the teens again, and I hurriedly snapped another photo (which is out of focus), but they all laughed. One of them said “Go Vikings!” (which I assumed to be their high school mascot), and all I could think of was “Go Longhorns!”. The boy got a puzzled look on his face, something like I would picture from a confused Keanu Reeves in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”, and then about 60 seconds later I heard from behind me, “Go Gators!”.
I’m really not a football fan, and I have no idea who the Gators are, but I know they are now my second favorite team.
