Hooky Bobbing

My uncle, Wayne Byer was an amazing skater. He actually started skating “for profit” at seven years old, when he worked at the skating rink. I’m not sure how that worked exactly, with child labor laws, but likely it wasn’t considered a real job, and he was “paid” in free skate time. As he got older, he became an excellent skater, even perfecting the trick of skating so low to the ground, that he could light a match for his cigarette by scraping it on the floor with his teeth. I don’t know how long he worked there, that just the story I was told.

Uncle Wayne was always a trickster, and he loved to pick on the girls. They never really minded it too much. Uncle Wayne was pretty popular with the ladies. One of the things he used to do was to hide in the trees along the route he knew the girls had to walk, so he could scare them. That can be a little disconcerting, of course, because you don’t know if he is there or not. Nevertheless, with his winning smile, they always forgave him.

Another of Uncle Wayne’s escapades was known a “Hooky Bobbing” and involved holding onto a moving vehicle, such as a car or truck, while it is driving on snow or ice. The person doing this gets a free but dangerous ride, often without the motorist’s knowledge. While I’ve seen this, in movies or videos, I think I would be too scared…or maybe the word is wise, to do such a thing. Still, boys being boys, this type of activity was attempted or made a habit of, at least by the gutsy ones. Uncle Wayne was just gutsy and mischievous enough to be one of those boys.

Uncle Wayne was the younger of my grandparents, George and Hattie Byer’s two sons, and his older brother, Larry was the shorter of the two. I don’t know if that really bothered Uncle Larry or not, but at the very least, he pretended that it did. When we had professional family portraits done years ago and the family Christmas party, the nine siblings were lined up in order of birth with Grandma and Grandpa. When you looked at the picture, you saw the mischievous smiles on Uncle Larry and Uncle Wayne’s faces. My mom, Collene Spencer had the dubious honor of standing in the middle of the boys, due to her place of birth. One might think that they were picking on Mom, but the reality was that Uncle Larry had found a small ledge behind them, and was standing up on it so he could look as tall as Uncle Wayne. They both knew what he was doing, and they were both laughing about it. I’m surprised they could keep from laughing outright. They were a couple of characters for sure. Today is my Uncle Wayne’s 87th birthday. Happy birthday Uncle Wayne!! Have a great day!! We love you!!