In about September of 1983, I was taken by my father as a very eager 12-year-old to the World of Wheels at Edmonton's Northlands AgriCom to see K.I.T.T, the original Knight Rider Trans Am, live and in person, as it were. After waiting about 45 minutes for the so-thick-the-car-was-invisible crowd to thin out, Dad paid ten bucks (I shudder to think what it would cost now!) and I bent down, faced forward...
And banged my head on KITT's roof. Hard.
I wondered, if David Hasselhoff is over six feet, how the hell was he able to get in flawlessly every time? Or did some of those entrances require multiple takes?
I cleared my head, and KITT's dashboard unfolded before me, just like on TV. The screens were on but were blank and snowy, waiting for Universal's optical effects team to fill them. But everything else was lit up and blinking as it should. Seeing my eyes dart toward the Turbo Boost button, the car's handler good-naturedly warned me not to press anything, because "we don't know what will happen". As the photographer positioned himself outside the driver's side door, I smiled my widest smile.
That Polaroid has unfortunately been lost to the sands of time. But the total experience will remain on my onboard camera for all time.
MTMG
No comments:
Post a Comment