Howard the Duck

Sometimes someone will mention a movie or a song and it will remind you of someone or something from your past. You can not mention the movie Howard the Duck around me, without the following story popping back into my consciousness like it happened yesterday.

It was I believe my junior year of high school. My friend Zar and I used to get a ride everyday to Argo from our friend Chris Dusza. Neither one of us had our drivers license yet. Well one morning Dusza picks me and Zar up and it is raining cats and dogs. We get to the viaduct on 63^rd and Archer that we took to get to Argo and it is flooded. There is no way his 1984 Blue Ford Escort wagon is going to make it. So, we turn around. Dusza drops me and Zar off at my house. My Mom had still not left for work. She was cool enough to call in for me.

Zar, then got on the phone, called his Mom and she called in for him. Dusza went home so he could meet up with his girlfriend. That left me and Zar at my house with no car. We entertained ourselves for about an hour with bad TV but we got bored pretty quick. Then Zar got a bright idea. He suggested we ride our ten speeds to Chicago Ridge Mall.

Being young, careless, and bored in the suburbs in 1986 meant that you went to the mall to relieve that boredom. Normally that is no big deal, but like I said it was really raining outside. Basically, it was ark weather but we were not to be deterred. Zar lived relatively close to me so, he walked home and grabbed his bike and rode it back over to my house. We then went from my house to our friend Mike Doyle’s house as he was off from school as well.

According to Mapquest it is 4.14 miles from where Doyle lived to that mall. Let me tell you it poured rain on us the entire way. Being young and stupid none of us had a hat or rain coat on. So, by the time we got to the mall we were beyond drenched. (A real good look for when you are trying to troll teen mall ass.) But, we had made it to our destination.

Of course once we got there we basically had no plan of what to do or where to go. We headed over to Sbarro and grabbed a slice. While we were eating Zar suggested we go see a movie. We went up to the ticket booth to see what was playing. After looking over the titles, Zar suggested we go see Howard the Duck.

For those who have not seen this cinematic classic, basically it is about a Duck who arrives from another planet where he has to stop an evil alien invader. He can talk, he can rock and roll and can seduce Lea Thompson. Make sure you put it in your Netflix queue right away. It is in the team photo for worst movies I have ever paid to see in the theatre.

When the movie ends, it finally hits me. We had a free day off of school. How did the three geeks spend it? We basically rode our teen asses through a torrential rainstorm to go see Howard the Duck and grab a shitty piece of pizza. We got on our bikes to go home and it was still raining. As we biked home all we could do was laugh at the situation. Looking back it is one of those memories that I guess I will have for the rest of my life.