My Woody Woodpecker Album

This past weekend, I was suddenly reunited with the only record other than Michael Jackson’s Thriller that I used to play on a daily basis as a kid: Woody Woodpecker! Don’t ask me what the songs sound like, because I really can’t remember. While visiting my sister this weekend, I instantly recognized the album at first sight, as you can tell from the above photo of me embracing it. I put that photo up for two reasons:

1. It’s funny.
2. Woody Woodpecker saved my life.    

The funny part is obvious, considering I’m a grown man hugging a children’s record. However, Woody Woodpecker may have indirectly saved my life. One day back in my youth, my friends Pay-Pay and Rodney came by the house and asked me to come outside and play Transformers with them. I said “Not now. I want to watch Woody Woodpecker.” My mom didn’t like nor trust Pay-Pay or Rodney, so since I was not allowed to let them in the house, they left. In the middle of Woody Woodpecker, a drunk/high/whatever the hell he was on driver crashed into a tree in our front yard, and the path his car took went right through the area where Pay-Pay, Rodney and I used to have G.I. Joe and Transformer battles.

See what I’m saying? That cartoon bird with the irritating laugh may have rescued me from becoming a curly haired hood ornament. Thanks, Woody!