I Was Busy Revving Up The Powerful Mach 5

When I was a kid, I wanted to be Speed Racer.

I mean, I wanted to be a lot of other things, too – a baseball player, a fireman, a member of the Brady Bunch – but I really wanted to BE Speed Racer. The opening of the cartoon would come on and I would just lean forward, consumed by Speed’s world. Here, watch:

It’s still awesome. I know that song by heart. And I still lean forward.

And now they are making a live-action version of Speed, that, I have to admit, looks pretty freaking cool:

I wanted a car like the Mach 5. I wanted that blue shirt. I wanted a pet monkey. I wanted an older brother like Racer X. I wanted to be Speed. (Granted, I had no idea that this was originally a Japanese cartoon that was then dubbed into English – that might’ve taken away some of the magic.) So I’d run around the house, pretending to be driving my Mach 5, looking behind me, trying to figure out a way to beat Snake Oiler and SAVE THE WORLD.

I think I can directly trace my roots as a writer to things like that. It was wish fulfillment, getting to be an imaginary character that you think is totally awesome. You get to be someone you want to be in a world you want to live in. We do the same thing when we write fiction. You get lost in a world of your own choosing.

Who did you want to be when you were a kid?
Jeff

Comments

[R.J. Mangahas]

I remember always wanted to be a member of the G.I. Joe team. (Snake-eyes was one of my favorites)

[J.D. Rhoades]

Do you still do that bizarre pose at the end of the cartoon intro?

I wanted to be Keith Moon.

[Patti Abbott]

I doubt that there are too many women on here who didn't want to be Nancy Drew.

[Patti Abbott]

I doubt that there are too many women on here who didn't want to be Nancy Drew.

[AlisonGaylin]

Speed Racer always bugged me because you could see people's uvulas whenever they talked. I wanted to be Jeannie. I really, really wanted to live in that bottle.

[jen of a2eatwrite]

I wanted to be Speed Racer and Underdog. Go, Speed Racer, Gooooo!

Oh, and Kimba the Lion.

[Lori G. Armstrong]

I wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder. And Nancy Drew. Go figure I write a detective series set in South Dakota.

Oh, and for a while there, I wanted to be Isis. Still working on that book and concept :)

[Karen Olson]

I wanted to be Harriet the Spy.

This Speed Racer thing, well, it's such a boy thing.

[Bryon Quertermous]

I bet Jeff wanted to be Nancy Drew.

[Bryon Quertermous]

I bet Jeff wanted to be Nancy Drew.

[Bryon Quertermous]

I bet Jeff wanted to be Nancy Drew.

[David Terrenoire]

I wanted to be one of the kids on the Jets cereal commercial. They could fly.

I ate hundreds of bowls of that cereal and I still couldn't fly.

Fucking bastards.

[John S]

I wanted to be a cartoonist. I thought Charles Schulz had the best job in the world.

[Acomplia]

Thanks for sharing!