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Duanedust

Duanedust's Blog (12 followers)

Jul05
If Not For My Commodore 64, 1985 Would've SuckedPermalink
It still did in a lot of ways. Maybe the title should read something about 'sucking less' because of the C64. I was fresh off the heals of my parents getting divorced in late 1984 (just around Thanksgiving) & only 12 years old. Being that young, my thoughts were often VERY overblown! But I was CERTAIN on 4 separate occasions that year that I was going to die.

Backing up into '84 just a bit - when my parents divorced I was 11 years old. In the state of Tennessee a 12 year old was able to decide which parent he or she wanted to live with. So I wasn't there yet. My Dad had been working in Florida for about a year but we still were in Tennessee because that's where all of the rest of the families (Mom's & Dad's) were living. That year for Christmas I got a Commodore 64. I swear I was like Ralphie in "A Christmas Story" asking for that Red Rider BB Gun. It's all I told everyone who asked that I wanted. I was very happy to have it. Best Christmas ever! Until my kids came along anyway!

In January of '85 I turned 12 & as I just told you was now able to decide with which parent I wanted to live. As a pubescent male the choice was easy - bikinis on the beach in Pensacola, Florida. Dad came to Tennessee & picked me up on a Friday in early February. He was happy & so was I. But don't get the wrong idea, I knew I would miss Mom terribly & I did! Hell, even my sisters.

The following Monday morning Dad took me to school to get registered. They did what they had to do to get me enrolled then told me I could go back home & start fresh on Tuesday. That night the puking started. We had eaten Chinese earlier that day & it didn't look much different coming up than it had going down. But it sure tasted worse. I couldn't seem to stop & since it was after business hours, Dad took me to the Emergency Room.

I stayed in the hospital until Thursday afternoon. Food poisoning. BUT - my blood tests were coming back severely screwed up. I remember lots of concern from the doctors as they were talking to my Dad & could see the worry on his face. All of that made ME worry. "I'm dying. I must be," kept going through my mind. Sometime during the stay I heard the doctor (even though he & Dad would nearly whisper when talking in the room with me) mention 'cancer center'. Yep, I was dying.

Dad hadn't called Mom yet. I don't know if he didn't want to worry her if it was nothing. Maybe the awkwardness of them HAVING to talk about something after a recent split kept him from telling her right away. Didn't matter at that point, he had to call & tell her - cancer was mentioned. Although I couldn't see her face, just knowing Mom like I do, I know she was perfectly calm when she told Dad to tell the doctors that she had Thalassemia Minor & I probably did too. I won't go into what it is, but it's pretty much harmless. It does fuck with blood tests though. So there it was - death averted!

I don't remember the stay very vividly. I don't remember the food being good or bad, if anyone came to visit (although I doubt it, Dad was the only family I had there & since I had only lived there a few days I didn't have friends yet), or if the nurses were pretty. I remember talking to Dad about getting home so I could game on my beloved Commodore 64. It was connected to a 12 inch black & white television. I wanted to play Blue Max so badly.

Later into that summer after school was let out for the break I would go to the beach with some of the friends I had made. When Dad was able to go, I would go with him. My sisters were down visiting from Tennessee. I don't remember the month but we four were at the beach (Dad, 2 sisters & me). The waves were pretty decent for the Gulf coast and we were out in waist deep water. The waves were coming in over our heads. I went out a little further than my sisters because I was the oldest & I guess I wanted to show them what 12 year old boys could do. A wave crashed over the top of me, not any bigger than any of the others, and when it got passed me I felt the most incredible pain in my shoulder. It was worse than any pain I had ever experienced in my 12 years and I knew right away that I'd been bitten by a shark. And I was going to bleed to death. Yep, I was dying. Only I wasn't. I couldn't see a shark, there was no blood. But I was screaming bloody murder. Dad got to me about the time the lifeguard did. I was running towards the shore as they were coming out. They both saw what it was immediately - jellyfish sting. It literally looked like someone had put a burning hand on my right shoulder. And for the second time this year - death averted! Except this time I was the only one with the initial thought of dying. And you would be surprised how fast meat tenderizer can take away the pain of a jellyfish sting! The pain does return though!

A couple weeks later my sisters were back home in Tennessee & Dad and I were at the beach again. I still hadn't gotten the nerve back to get into any depth of water so we were strolling along about knee deep. Dad was actually in knee deep, I was closer to the shore. He told me this way a jellyfish would have to sting him before it could get to me. Made perfect sense in my 12 year old mind. Water was super calm. The waves barely made noise rolling in. We'd walked a good distance for about half an hour in the same direction so we turned around to walk back. Again, I got on the side closest to the shore so any passing jellies would get Dad first.

After about another half hour, we got back within sight of the car. And deja vu! My right calf EXPLODED with pain & the same thing went through my mind - shark bite, I'm gonna die! I tried to be a little more grown up & not cry but didn't succeed. I looked down and what do you know? There's blood pouring out of me. And then Dad spotted it! Stingray! I had apparently stepped on it & in self-defense it had thrown it's barb into my calf. Ripped me open pretty good too. I got the sand pretty red where I was thrashing on the ground making a scene. It hurt. Worse than the jellyfish. One thing I learned that day - a kid that hobbles out of the shallows with blood gushing from his leg and starts flailing on the sand screaming about a shark can clear the water quicker than any lifeguard's whistle. Another ER visit blah blah blah, I had beaten death again!

And yes, I know none of these turned out to be life threatening. But in my 12 year old mind I was the luckiest kid on the planet. IN MY MIND I thought I was going to die. Funny to reminisce about it now, knowing that I wasn't really in TOO much danger. But then Labor Day weekend of 1985 rolled around, and I for real, no bullshit, thought the world was done with me.

Hurricane Elena came slamming in & Dad didn't think it was going to be too bad, so we didn't evacuate. About 16 hours later I thought he was the dumbest son-of-a-bitch that had ever laced a pair a shoes. Well, actually I thought that I was the dumbest son-of-a-bitch that had ever laced a pair of shoes. Why hadn't I gone back to Tennessee after the Chinese tried to kill me, the jellyfish ambushed me, & the sand drank what looked like half the blood my body could hold? Thanks, Mom, for the Thalassemia gene & thank you, dear old Dad, for the stupid gene!

I had never (and haven't since!) feared for my life like I did during those hours. The wind would NOT stop blowing. And not just blowing, HOWLING. The rain was torrential. I've never experienced that amount of rain in that short a time-span. The most amazing thing, though, was when it was over, it was just over. Nice sunny skies, beautiful blue that seems to only be that shade on the Gulf coast. I cried when it was over. Not because we had lost everything, we hadn't. But because I was THAT sure that we were going to die but we didn't.

And the first things I made sure survived the storm were my Commodore 64 & that pitiful little 12 inch black & white TV! I was elated to find them untouched in my bedroom. That system was my world in those days. I played as much as I play the 360 nowadays. And it was PURE back then. No achievements, no boosting sessions, but strictly "how far can you get in Spindizzy?" "What level characters do you have in The Bard's Tale?" "What's your high score in Blue Max?" That computer is still in my possession. As is the 1541 disk drive. It takes 3-4 minutes to boot most games. And I still remember the buildup of anticipation as I watched the load screens change on certain games. "Almost loaded up," I told myself so many times...

That console kept my mind off a lot of what was going on at that time in my life. It was THERAPY that helped me deal with my parents' divorce. When I was in the bed after the jellyfish (only for a day or two) and again for the stingray (about a week!) I played so many hours of so many great games! And I used the Atari joystick. I later upgraded to one called "The Boss". It was like a flight-stick with a standard button that was located in the upper left corner of the controller, but this one also had a button on top of the stick. They both had the same function though, the games back then were all 1-button games.

I now only play Commodore games on a PC emulator. I want to preserve that console in all its glory. And if you know about Twin Galaxies, go there and check out the World Record high score in the game Beach Head (EMU Game 1).

Life got better after that. For Christmas that year I was upgraded to a 12 inch COLOR TV set, and I was absolutely in shock at how awesome those 16 colors looked!!! And the Mets won the World Series in 1986! Thanks Buckner! Then the Giants went 14-2 during the regular season and demolished Elway & the Broncos in Super Bowl XXI. Yeah, 1986 is when things started to turn around!

Load "*",8,1
Posted by Duanedust on 05 July 13 at 07:29

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x Malefactor x Very interesting read! I know a lot about inheriting crappy family genes, and try to enjoy life as much as possible, and not worry too much over the little things (and even the big ones). Thanks a lot for sharing, Duane.
Posted by x Malefactor x on 05 Jul 13 at 11:47
Boots Orion Awesome blog Duane. Thanks for sharing! It's amazing how vividly we remember all these types of things...and about something that seems as trivial as a computer.

That's the same way I feel about my NES and Atari actually...minus the 4 near death experiences. Hehe
Posted by Boots Orion on 05 Jul 13 at 11:59
Mtld Great read! To this day, my greatest christmas present was my 386 PC, along with King's Quest V. It took me almost a month to figure out how to load the game in DOS, but every night during this month I dreamed about the game. My imagination was solely based on the box cover art and 3 images in the back. Ahh memories!
Posted by Mtld on 05 Jul 13 at 15:04
Nervgas218 Very interesting, and thank you for sharing, brother! I still remember my finest christmas gift. My N64 with GoldenEye! I have no clue how many hours of great times that gave me. Still to this day, that game remains one of the five best shooters of all time. Side by side with the greats like Doom and Duke Nukem.
Posted by Nervgas218 on 05 Jul 13 at 15:53
Chakaal Starr I had a Boss joystick as well for my c64. I also had the red epyx joystick as well. http://www.cedmagic.com/tech-info/remote-control/epyx-5....jpg
Posted by Chakaal Starr on 05 Jul 13 at 16:46
St Tony22 Great read Duane. My first video game memories were getting a Pac-Man 12 replica arcade one Christmas. My Dad and I took turns playing all night.
Posted by St Tony22 on 20 Jul 13 at 04:38
Boots Orion If it weren't for the GTASC, your 2014 would've sucked.
Posted by Boots Orion on 23 Feb 14 at 13:36
Big Ell Write a new blog!
Posted by Big Ell on 01 Mar 16 at 04:40
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