There I Was
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Sleddin’ There I was. Winter seemed so long when I was a kid. We always had snow where we lived and sledding was a common word on weekends. Our school day seemed as long as winter, because when we got on the bus it was dark, and when we got off later that day it was dark again. This made our weekends very important and we would jam as many activities into it as possible. One Saturday we all congregated on top of this steep hill that was a common sledding run. We all piled on this toboggan and prepared for departure. I was up front behind the big curl and there were about six people behind me. My brother was in the back as usual. Everyone said they were ready to go and we couldn't move because of all the weight. So instinctively, we all did the ass shuffle to get it to launch. Once it rocked forward, we found ourselves flying down this hill at a very high speed. At the bottom of the hill were trees of various sizes and then a dirt road where we would all bail and hit the deck before we plowed into the woods. I heard screams behind me and then there were none. I turned and saw that everyone had jumped off because we were headed for trees. If you have ever ridden a toboggan, you know they handle like a bowling ball. As the trees got closer, I thought maybe I would miss them and be the hero and cool guy who hung in there and came out victorious! This wasn't my day either. I held on as long as I could and right as I was about to hit a big oak, I jumped off. When I jumped, the sled kicked to the side and I ended up hitting the tree while the sled whizzed by. I wrapped around it backwards and I swear my toes touched my head. My brother ran down the hill and stopped next to me. I gurgled a bit and he started dragging me off the main trail so that they could continue to sleigh ride. I could hear people laughing and carrying on for the next hour or so as I lay in the snow. I couldn't see them because I was facing the wrong way and it hurt too much to move. Soon after that, I heard a low rumble closing in on me and I heard someone say, "He wrecked earlier." It was my dad coming home from work. He opened the back door of his Jeep Wagoneer and picked me up forklift style. He slid me onto the cold back seat where I was facing up and staring blankly. We left for home, but on the way, I got to looking at the roof of his Jeep and there were thousands of little holes in the headliner. The more I stared at them, the closer they got–like I could touch them if I tried. I put my arm up and the dots seemed to swim around my fingers. I'm sure my dad saw my hand in the rearview mirror and wondered if I was retarded from the crash. When we stopped and he shut the engine off, He got out and scooped my body up for the trip up the steps to the house. When my mom opened the door my dad quipped right away, "Hey, I found your son." Braces There I was. Another Saturday afternoon and I couldn't find my baseball glove for practice. It seemed like it was missing every week and it looked like I would have to borrow someone else's again. It didn't matter, though, because I was on the bench more than anyone else anyway. At seventy pounds, I wasn't much of a powerhouse. The best play I ever had I did what my father said, "Get in front of the ball." I did, and stopped a line drive with my face. My brother on the other hand was homerun king for several years for the Kunkletown Reds, a team that my father coached. I always tried to hit the ball, but wasn't very successful. Usually it found its way to the small of my back and I would do the Curly Shuffle until air seeped its way back into my lungs. Regardless, I felt like a hero standing on first base. Around the same time as my floundering baseball career, my parents realized there was a problem with both of their son's smiles. They were crooked as hell and I had extra teeth sticking out from my gums. On our first visit to the orthodontist, the dentist showed my parents the x-rays of my face. Yep, there was a problem. Apparently, I was born with three sets of teeth and they all were trying for a spot in my mouth at the same time.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
At a very young age, his family picked up and moved from city-like Yonkers, NYto Kunkletown, PA. This town is south of the Pocono region in North East PA, and was pretty much in the boonies. This was a move his father wanted so his kids could grow up free of city dangers. He still found danger on a daily basis. They just weren't city dangers.
His family moved into a cabin overlooking a valley and a lake. It was purchased for ten thousand dollars in 1968. Over the years, his father turned a two bedroom, single floor cabin into a four bedroom, two story house on the side of a mountain while his mother did her best to raise her three children. This is the starting point of many of the stories that he is about to share with you. Some you may relate to and some may leave wonder how he’s still alive.
This book has been written for anyone with a sense of humor, I hope you enjoy it.
About the Author
Eric Farrington was your average little boy in your average little town in your average family. No, no he wasn’t. He cut himself with a Hershey’s Kiss, he had a demonic older brother, he had a twisted sense of humor and he was the first to take a big wheel over the national speed limit. He wore a helmet while sledding and blew all the hair off his face while playing with black powder. It just seemed things were a bit different in this little boy’s life.
He was very detail oriented and took jobs as a mechanic, electrician, machinist and many other lines of work before he studied graphic design at Pennsylvania School of Art and Design and graduated in 1997. He is currently a photoshop technician for a local magazine. He now lives in York Co., PA