Whip It, and by It I Mean My Back

When I was little, I remember hearing the phrase, "Step on a crack, break your mamma's back," the playground variety, not Devo's version. A few years of crack-stepping later, what happened? My mom hurt her back so badly that I remember shifting the car for her when she drove us to school one morning. And my mom is tough, I couldn't believe she was mortal.



Suffice to say, I stopped stepping on cracks, and I still think of this superstition when I walk home along the sidewalk and have to avoid hundreds of cracks. I probably look like a sasquatch, lumbering along deserted streets with differing stride lengths.

Now that my back is a little messed up, I really am glad the rhyme isn't "Smoke on some crack, break Drew Smith's back." Because then everybody who's been a little loco lately would be doing some serious damage.

PS The new banner is a panorama I took off the front porch of my parents' house. My dad can be seen twice (He moves fast).