Tuesday, June 23, 2009

National Day of Hero Worship

Most people, when asked who their heros are, will name someone like their Mom or their Dad, or their Great-Aunt Judy who rode her bike from Austin to Little Rock 45 times in one year just cause somebody told her she couldn't do it. I, also, am a big fan of my parental units (HUGE FAN!), I admire them tremendously, and they are indeed my personal heroes. But when I was a kid, I often looked elsewhere for inspiration, for role-modeling, and for guidance. You want to know who my heros were?

1. Davy Crockett. I dreamed of being a wilderness explorer, and plus his picture on the cover of his biography was CUUUUTE! In my games I often pretended I was Davy Crockett, tramping around the vast unexplored American West with a rifle, a Bowie knife, and a coon-skin cap. No doubt the romanticized version of his life I read as a kid left out the less-than-savory aspects of his character, but to me he was the very spirit of adventure.

2. Amelia Earhart. I know, I'm not the only one. But seriously, this woman was amazing. I read her biography, too, and I read a passage that described her running in to a meeting with "windblown hair." I had no idea that was merely a polite way of saying "messy." I thought that if your hair was in the wind enough it would take on some fantastic qualities that were immediately identifiable as "windblown," and furthermore, it must be extravagantly romantic to have windblown hair. God bless my mother, who never asked why when I spent the next six months hanging my head out the windows of moving cars.

3. Claire Huxtable and Julia Sugarbaker. You know them, right? The mother on the Cosby Show, and the main character on Designing Women? God bless women who know how awesome they are, and aren't afraid to tell it like it is. While I can occasionally approximate eloquence in the written word, when it comes to spontaneously expressing my thoughts verbally I am at a complete and total loss. If one day somebody thinks even in passing that I am one-tenth as cool as either of these fictional characters, I will faint dead away with glee.





The following link will take you to the greatest Julia Sugarbaker moment of all-time, though embedding has been disabled (bummer):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVl4bmGcn3c

So what about you all? Who were your heroes (non-familial) when you were growing up? Who did you intentionally model yourself after? Why? Tell me all about it, or write a post on your blog and then let me know to go read it!

15 comments:

Mala said...

Alec Ramsey. Just him, a deserted island and his gorgeous black horse.

Cheasty said...

oh my god, mala, ME TOO. i actually just re-read that book a few months ago (you find random things in Nicaragua) and I still think he's the absolute rockingest person ever. and oh my god that horse! i had a sneaking suspicion you and I were soulmates. now i know. :)

Mala said...

Cheasty! Soulmates!!! SQEEEEEEE!!!!!
Oh, and I admit I haven't actually given up on my dream of living on a tropical island with my breath-taking stead.
gorgeous black horse - check!
deserted island - not so much.

Frank Irwin said...

Harry Houdini and Charles Lindbergh.

Samsmama said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1FwGF4Y0Vk&feature=player_embedded

Enjoy. Courtesy of LOTD.

Cheasty said...

mala - i didn't know you had a blog - how did i miss that?! beautiful horse you got there, lady. i'm in full-scale alex ramsey envy mode.

frank - somehow, that seems apropos. i'm not sure why, but still. a man who can wiggle out of any mess combined with a man who can fly to another continent?

samsmama - I KNOW. THAT IS THE MOST EFFING HILARIOUS THING I'VE EVER SEEN. i almost posted it, but thought it might ruin the vibe. though I do admire a woman who can make faces and sounds like that on public tv and still smile about it. :)

Frank Irwin said...

Cheasty, maybe that's why no woman has been able to pin me down! ;-)

Cheasty said...

Frank - we're still working on pinning down your coordinates, but fear not. the supreme council is tracking you down... :)

Frank Irwin said...

Fear not? Heck, I'm looking forward to it!

Anonymous said...

That Aunt Judy sounds like a cool chick! By the way, Cheastypants I don't know if anyone has told you this but you are ten-tenths as cool as Mrs. Huxtible! No lie.

So I think it takes a special person to have an animated barbie doll as a role model but I was totally into the whole Jem thing. Business woman by day, rock star singer by night. With pink hair to boot! She was cool as shit. And one Halloween in college I tried to dress up as her but I ended up looking like a pink prostitute. Go figure.

Cookie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMKT0gGEBJQ

Lindsey said...

I like when Claire talks to the children through the ceiling, muttering threats.

Mine are Erwan LeCorre and Macgyver.

Anonymous said...

Auntie Mame. Nuff said.


The Fairy King

Kate said...

I have been in a "down in the dumps" kind of mood lately, so I don't feel like I like anyone. People suck. Boo to me.

I did always want to be Indiana Jones and then John Douglas (an FBI profiler.)

Brown said...

Magnum P.I. Hawaii, babes, a helicopter, a Ferrari, need I say more?

Then again, I did always want to be bitten by a radio-active super spider too!

Cary McNeal said...

My heroes have always been cowboys.

Not really, but I couldn't come up with anything better.