Agony of Defeat
In March of 1970 a brave fellow named Vinko Bogataj crashed during a ski jumping championship in Germany. His image became that “Agony of defeat guy” in the opening credits of ABC’s Wide World of Sports. They played his crash several times during the Saturday sports features and it thrilled me to see this.
At five years old this image sunk into my brain in a very unnatural way. I wanted to go out to my now stockpiled snow pile and do some sliding on my saucer. It was snowing a thick wet snow that was calling me out the door into the last of winter’s glory. I shoved on my boots and was soon out the door. The flakes were thick and large each one trembling as it fell stacking up on the significant snow we already had.
Once in the garage I wedged myself between a pile of firewood and our car which were both parked inside to avoid the snow. It was dark and I couldn’t find nor could I reach the light switch, so I did a blind man shuffle with my arms and mitten covered hands extended. Boom, my shins ran into the air compressor, then a ladder but eventually I found the red round saucer with the webbed cotton handles. It was unwieldy as I tried to wedge it and myself back out of the garage but I found that by giving it a push by rolling it on its edge the saucer would bounce back and forth off the wood pile and the car and eventually out into the driveway.
The snow was falling so heavy I could only see a few feet away from me. Formidable snow piles were surrounding the driveway on all sides. Choosing the one that was in the middle of the driveway I made my assent dragging the saucer behind me. From the top looking down I thought only for a moment that it was pretty steep. Positioning the saucer under me I wobbled forward and then plunged screaming at the top of my lungs then my voice left because of fright as the driveway took hold of the forward edge of the saucer and flipped it and me with a sudden jerk that threw me sprawling across the snow covered pavement. The saucer made a terrible clatter as it banged and bounced to a stop.
I had bit my tongue and lost my mitten but was in one piece. I spent most of the afternoon plunging off every snow bank reenacting the agony of defeat.
