I was shocked today to hear of his death at the age of 69 ... part of me kind of assumed he would never die ... he hadn't been able to kill himself yet ...Guess his number finally came up though ... He left a helluva legacy though ...
I can't even begin to count the number of hours spent in my childhood watching his jumps and stunts on tv. He was the hero of our neighbourhood ... even after he wiped out, the next month was spent on Burritt street with ramps and bikes emulating his stunt riding on a smaller scale.
In fact I still have the scar on my lower lip where my teeth split it wide open doing my own down scale version of jumping the Snake River Canyon ... In my case it was a ditch, and I was about as successful as The Man himself was: My lime green CCM Mustang with the banana seat failed me and at full speed it ploughed into the ditch, and I ploughed into it ... it wasn't pretty!! But like Evel - I survived to jump another day !!
Oh the memories !!! He lived life with the throttle wide open, and left us many memories of his death defying antics ... unfortunately, like the rest of us it turns our Evel Knievel was merely a mortal and could only cheat death for so long ... but OH what a ride he took us on in his prime.
Rest in Peace Evel!!
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