Friday Flashback #12

Little late again, but I am on vacation. It is the though that counts right?

Usually, my flashbacks are about me, but this week I thought I would change things up. For the last week, I have been staying with my brother Joe and dad in California. My dad flew me out to see Joe play baseball and to visit with them. I have not seen my brother in a year (the longest we have been apart) and dad was nice enough to buy a plane ticket. Anyway, one day we were driving to Yosemite (look for the post about that) and we started sharing funny stories about growing up. One of these stories inspired me for this week's Friday Flashback.

This week it is a flashback about my little brother Jo Jo.

In the year 2000, the movie Vertical Limit came out. If you need a reminder about the movie click here. Basically, it is about a bunch of people climbing mountains in the winter. Some people die and it is pretty intense throughout the whole movie. Now, I have not seen this movie since 2000, so I don't remember all the details, but what I do remember is Joe's reaction to the movie.

During the movie, all the actors have all their climbing gear on (helmet, ice picks, backpacks, etc.) Apparently, this inspired Joe to do a little climbing himself. Later that night, my sister Chantal and I needed to go run an errand. We left the house and there is Joe trying to climb up the "hill" to our house. But wait.... it gets better. Joe is wearing his bike helmet, a little backpack, and has two plastic hangers in his hands (you know to use as ice picks)! He is on is hands and knees pretending the hill in our yard is a steep treacherous icy mountain that he is climbing. Every move forward he sticks one hanger in the ground and then moves. And while he is doing this he is talking to himself. Words like: Come on you can do it..... Almost there....... One step at a time.

I really wish I had a picture of this flashback, but I hope you all can picture it. This is one of my favorite memories of Joe. He was just so into the movie and climbing and is reenactment was perfect.

Like I said before, I don't have a picture of Joe doing this, but here is a picture of him around this time. I think he was between 6 and 7 during his Vertical Limit stage. Maybe with this picture you can visualize him climbing up our hill.