He is featured in so many memories of my life. As a young
child, I recall being so excited when “Johnnie and Ronnie” were coming to visit.
I saw cousins James and Derrick every day, as they lived across the street, but
these cousins brought a fresh, daring vibe to our kid adventures
When us cousins got together as kids, my brother Fred, the
oldest and more mature cousin would usually exclude himself from our
shenanigans. John, the next oldest, became the de facto leader and the
facilitator of fun.
He led us as we attempted to launch a G.I Joe helicopter off
a roof to see if it could fly. John was the aerodynamic engineer as our Evel
Knievel toy motorcycles attempted jumps over all kinds of objects culminating
with an attempt either onto or from a roof! His never-ending imaginations once led
him to put “golden ticket” type notes into helium balloons and let them go to gauge
the distance of the responses.
John also used my Super 8 movie camera to direct us in a silent stop-action short film. The five of us spent an entire
summer recording a TV News parody that John had conceived using our audio cassette
recorders.
I smile whenever I think about our childhood trips to Disneyland.
Playing “Ditch em” on Tom Sawyer Island with my cousins was insane. Speaking of
insane, John nearly crossed the line once when he boldly opened a closed gate
at the Monorail station nearly causing the whole family to be kicked out of Disneyland!
Besides our country’s independence, July 4th always
makes me think of John and his plastic car models. He would modify them with Piccolo
Pete components for propulsion and firecrackers for explosion. Just like in an action
movie, if you didn’t pay attention, you might end up having to suddenly dodge a
Hot Wheel with a bomb speeding towards you.
When we all began having families of our own, we didn’t see
each other as often. Though I’d see John at birthday parties, my family and I
would randomly run into him in the strangest places under the most bizarre
circumstances. We walked into the Cerritos Target one evening and there was John
sitting alone on a bench just inside the store. Imagine our surprise when, on another
evening, we were grabbing a snack at Taco Bell and when we reached the window,
John had commandeered the drive-thru and asked, “will there be anything else?”,
as he handed us our food!
John’s most notable unexpected sighting occurred when my
wife, Chris and I were on a dinner date at our favorite romantic spot, Johnny Carino’s
in Downey.
There I was sitting across from Chris discussing the menu
gazing into her eyes, when suddenly the spell was broken by the startling shock
of John sliding next to me and putting his arm around me!
Over the years random “John encounters” were also logged at
Bob’s Big Boy, Home Depot, Downtown Disney, and Toys R Us of course.
So, how do I say goodbye to Cousin John?
It makes me sad knowing there will never be another one of
those surprise meetings.
But my sadness turns to a sweetly hopeful expectation when I
realize the next place, I’ll see John is in Heaven.
So, it’s not goodbye, but until then.
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