The Creeper

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They're showing a commercial now that has Scooby and the gang chasing the creeper.

I smiled through it on Saturday morning as I remembered that it was Jake's favorite one of all-time, but that it scared him to no end. I used to say:

THE CREEPER

In a low voice and his eyes would pop clear out of his head.

It's so hard to consider those days and not wish they were that young again, even though I was driven completely up the freaking wall by watching the same cartoon a hundred times.

Jake got up early to head to the Irish parade.

(Yeah...Fazzolari is a nice Irish name).

It was a grand scheme he designed with his friends.

"I need eight bucks," he said.

I handed him a twenty, thinking about his wide-CREEPER-eyes as I did so.

"We're gonna' ride the bus. I need it in singles," he said.

"So get change," I answered. "A twenty is better than eight."

He just glared back.

And I knew that Kathy wasn't enamored with the bus idea. And the not knowing what he'd be doing every minute of the day would drive her crazy, but learning to figure things out in the real world is important too.

He was smart enough to figure out how to make change.

I thought of the fact that I once went to New York City with a buddy for a few days. We were a bit older than Jake is now, but it was fun learning on the run.

"Just don't be stupid, you moron," I said.

(Howard Stern's Dad would say that to him from time-to-time).

"I'm not a moron," Jake said.

We talked about Howard Stern's Dad and he laughed.

I dug the singles I had out of my wallet and handed them over.

He's still just a boy.

Why make him struggle to break the twenty?

I wanted to do the CREEPER voice for him, but he wouldn't have caught the drift.

I guess watching it over and over a hundred times wasn't quite enough.

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