Old Pictures

This is framed and hangs on the wall in my room. I always thought it was really cool. Andy V. drew it and I think it was in his first 'Idiot Eyes' zine he used to hand out every couple months. It makes so much sense to me. V and I go way back. We live about a mile apart, met each other in our first year or two skateboarding and have been friends since. He's the most real person I know.

When I was in 10th grade I took some old skateboarding pictures, merged them together in photoshop and hung it on my bedroom wall. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. That was 7 years ago, right before or around when Po opened up Homebase Skateshop.

The top picture is an old Hometeam picture. This was before Homebase opened. I remember Po calling me that day to meet up at the library to take some photo. I wanted to go but I couldn't make it because I had to work. I was 16 and I got my first job at Valley Farmers Market, working behind the meat counter. I remember thinking, "I can't get fired, I have to go to work." Unfortunately, I remember that day so vividly. What happened was the girl Tana who got my hired was getting harassed by this older dude people used to call J-Bones. They called him J-Bones because he was like 300 lbs, like Juice-Bones. I got the shit kicked out of me that day. I told J-Bones to leave her alone and once he told me I was a bitch I told him he had bigger tits than my mom. Last thing I remember was him strangling me, bashing my head against a concrete wall, and trying to sand my face down in an electric knife sharpening machine. I blacked out from shock and woke up to a bunch of people standing around me. I had black and blue bruises around my neck and my head was ringing like hell. I told the store manager and he told me I shouldn't talk shit to someone older than me. My parents wanted to sue the store but I convinced them not to because I was so scared the dude was going to kill me. A week later I quit that job. Two weeks later J-Bones got fired for stealing an ice cream cake.

The bottom left photo is a photo my friend Adam Lechzenco took of myself doing a crooked grind-shov-it on this yellow ledge in Pembrooke. I remember all these little kids running around on the ledges mocking me. They were yelling, "Tony Hawk, Tony Hawk!" That was the first trick I ever got a photo of and filmed at the same time. Po filmed it and put it in the credits of "City without Spots", the first original Hometeam video. I was so psyched at the time.

The bottom right photo was also shot by Adam. It's a photo of Eric Potts doing a back smith on this shelf or something we found under the Fahey bridge before Starters Riverport opened. I remember Po, Adam, Eric, Dustin Martinez and Phil Ballins being there. I think that was one of the last times I skated with Potts. He used to take me to the Easton park all the time and drop me off at home. He's a homie.