I just finished reading a few articles about the death of Evel Knievel, and it brought back a few memories of my childhood. My brothers and I had Evel Knievel toys all over our house, and often immitated him by jumping 5-gallon buckets with our bicycles. As we got a little older, we jumped buckets and small things with our motorcycles.
We watched several of his jumps on the Wide World of Sports (ABC), which was the only Saturday sport's program in those days. Although it seemed that he crashed every time we ever saw him jump, he was still exciting; fearless, and tough as nails. He was interesting to listen to during interviews.
One expects a daredevil to live a short life and more times than not, they do. Despite the serious accidents, Knievel kept making returns until his retirement in 1980. Perhaps it was his knowing when to quit that kept him alive, which is interesting because it was his not knowing when to quit with alcohol and other shady endeavors that led to the negatives that were often printed about him.
At any rate, we enjoyed watching him as kids and enjoyed immitating him with our bicycles and motorcycles. He made his last jump yesterday, the jump of his life, and I hope that he landed right side up on the other side.
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