Marked.
2016-09-14
Personal grooming mishaps happen from time to time. The question becomes how to deal with them. Shave it all off and start from scratch? Or look like a doofus for a week until it grows in sufficiently to not be noticeable. Thankfully I am a hermit and therefore can get away with looking dumb for a week (just a week? ZING!)
The seed for this story can be traced waaaaaaaay back to Halloween of 1989. I was 10 years old, as was my friend and classmate Andrew. We were both huge Trekkies, Star Trek: The Next Generation having arrived on Television two years previously.
This particular Halloween, Andrew’s mother had made for him a very cool Starfleet uniform. He was going to be Riker for Halloween. Unfortunately, the previous season Riker had started sporting a beard. Once at school, Andrew decided to upgrade his costume from “Sweet” to “Epic” by using a brown crayola marker to draw a beard onto his face.
The best part was the he didn’t just scrub the beard on, oh no. Andrew was an artist. He decided to go for a more realistic look by trying to draw the individual hairs. Thus his face was covered in brown dashes. His mother was furious. It remains one of my fondest memories. Don’t worry Andrew, I thought your beard was radical.
Star Trek was the bedrock of Andrew and mine’s friendship. We watched it at each other’s houses. We played with the toys. We discussed it endlessly. I still have the phaser toy I bought from Andrew, though I cannot recall the circumstances under which he felt compelled to sell me such a treasure. Never the less, it has remained in my protective care for the past 27 years.
Now’s as good a time as any to mention to those of you who don’t know, Nonstop Pop! also produces a Star Trek podcast every Friday. If you love Star Trek The Next Generation, go check out the Diecast Enterprise!