Narrave Essay

As a kid growing up, my Dad lived in the outskirts of Pittsburgh in a relatively old, run-down neighborhood. Without the availability of most luxuries and quality forms of entertainment, he and his friends were forced to devise their own creative schemes to have fun. One of his closest friends, Eddie Blackson, was always extremely interested in winning prizes by way of radio call-in competitions, mail-in contests, and most commonly, sending in cereal box-tops.

When Eddie was 10 years old, he began collecting a vast quantity of Quisp cereal box-tops. This assiduous effort to gather this many box-tops was all geared towards receiving the coveted indestructible working man's hard hat. After weeks and weeks of buying abnormally large numbers of Quisp boxes and satisfyingly ripping each individual box-top, he had finally accumulated enough tops to send in for his reward. A few weeks later, Eddie opened a box labeled Quisp Cereal Company and sure enough, the construction helmet with the headlight attached was there in all its glory. It was his most precious possession and Eddie felt untouchable when he put it on. However, his belief that the helmet could withstand any outside force only lead to that fateful day when he tried to truly test the limitations of hard plastic.

Eddie was so convinced by Quisp's false advertising in relation to the helmet's unbreakable exterior that he decided to prove its strength to his friends by having someone drop a rock on his head. The lucky man for the job was my father who also believed in the durability of the hard hat and never anticipated the ugly result. Neighborhood kids gathered round and prepared to watch this historic event unfold. Prior to show time, my Dad faintly whispered to Eddie, "Are you sure you are not going to get hurt?" At this point, Eddie was on Cloud 9 and replied over-confidently, "With this construction hat on, nothing in the world could possibly injure me."

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