Lil ninjas

  Here’s Humdinger and I back in the day, doing what we most loved – being ninjas.  Wow, I had dark circles even then.  So how does one become a ninja?  The first step is making swords out of de-bladed indoor hockey sticks that we sanded to a fine point on the sidewalk.  Humdinger is holding one of these bad boys in this pic.  Where did we store these fine weapons?  I’m sure glad you asked.  We made scabbards out of two lengths of red Hot Wheels tracks, taped together.  These scabbards were then strapped to our backs using...wait for it...breakdance laces!  You can make anything with breakdance laces.  The short weapon I’m clutching in this pic is a hand brake from one of my sleds.  Incidentally, ‘Ol Blue’ was her name, and she took me down the hill at King George Park many hundreds of times before plastic fatigue sent her to the land of wind and ghosts forever.

  Now, onto the ninja uniforms.  The only pants a ninja (or BMX rider) should wear are sweatpants, racing stripes optional.  For the shirt, a dark blue v-necked polyester sweater works best, and don’t forget to tuck it into those sweatpants.  If your mother has purple fingerless gloves you can share with your ninja wingman, then good for you.  If the ninja spirits are smiling upon you, the fingers will be rainbow-patterned.  The most important part of the ninja uniform is the neck-warmer.  Without a neck-warmer, you may be many things, but you certainly are no ninja.  The final step is to watch every Sho Kosugi movie ever made, and learn how to climb trees and whip rocks.