Memory Maker
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By Travis Naughton
One day when I was a teenager growing up in Hannibal, Missouri, I suddenly became aware that my days of worry-free childhood were numbered. Most of my friends had part-time jobs by then, which I thought was pretty much the worst thing that could ever happen to a person. I remember telling my dad, who had been strongly encouraging me to get a job, that I wasn’t ready to be a grown up just yet. Shortly thereafter, I was flipping burgers at a fast foot joint for $3.35 an hour and hating every single second of it. I came home each night smelling like 100% pure beef lard, French fries, and unfulfilled childhood dreams. It was horrible.On a day off from work a few weeks later, I was playing football with some friends in Riverview Park when my father drove up and interrupted our game to tell me that my boss had called and needed me to come in to work for someone who had called in sick. I got in the car with my dad, changed into my polyester, grease-stained uniform, and begrudgingly reported for work. At that precise moment I realized the impending death of my care-free boyhood could not be avoided. I was miserable.
I quit that job a few days later and resolved to make the most of the time I had left before I was forced to become a responsible adult. Knowing that once I finally became a permanent member of the rat race I would have precious few opportunities to recreate and enjoy the simple pleasures of obligation-free life, I vowed to experience as many fun and memorable things as I could. I planned to take those memories with me wherever life’s journey took me, to sustain me through the dark ages of growing older and being weighted down by the pressures of the real world.
It was a fine plan, and I do have lots of unforgettable memories of my time in high school, many of which are documented in my book Naked Snow Angels. I continued this mission in college, which may explain why it took seven years to earn a four-year degree. From taking a roadtrip with friends from my dormitory to New Madrid to be present for the predicted apocalyptic earthquake that never happened in 1990 to going on an epic roadtrip to Las Vegas with my roommate Bill (who is still working on his four-year degree twenty-two years later,) I did it all and made lots of blurry memories.
Every now and then, I fall into a rut and catch myself just going through the motions in life. Such has been the case recently. The kid in me hates that. Therefore in 2012, I am rededicating myself to making memories (for me and my family). I’ll write about those experiences in this column. I hope you will be inspired to make some of your own unforgettable memories, too.
