Super Laze

December 04, 2001

If you ask any relative or family friend about my early childhood, they won't mention a "security blanket" or a favorite stuffed animal that I carried everywhere. They'll mention a cape.

When I was three or four I went to a day camp during the summer at a local elementary school. Miss Judy was my group's leader. Though I don't have many memories of her, I do specifically her taking me into the women's bathroom to wash a cut or to get me stop crying. And I remember when she gave me "the cape."

"The cape" was really nothing more than a red scarf made of a very thin fabric. But when it was connected my neck with a safety pin, it became Superman's cape. I wore that cape everywhere...


August 1979, Super Laze relaxing with dad and Dutchess in front of the TV.		August 1979, Could I have been more super? With the cape and sitting behind the Superman pillow, I was ready to leap tall buildings.

Everything I did, I had to be wearing that cape. And I'd even make my stuffed animals wear a cape: by putting a white handkerchief transforming Sylvester the Cat into Super Sylvester...


October 1979, Celebrating a birthday with my cape and a Spiderman cake.		October 1979, Surprise! I was Superman for Halloween. And Sylvester was ready to fly, too.

If that cape was in the wash, a dishtowel would do. And I was also fortunate enough to have several pairs of pajamas with capes that would work, in a pinch...

Christmas 1979, Wearing my Superman pajamas mismatched with my Battlestar Galactica cape.

"Give my my presents or I'll burn a hole through you with my laser vision!"

I must have worn that cape for another year or two, because I specifically remember playing with my sister (who was born just before the last picture above was taken) acting as Clark Kent (without the cape) and reappearing as Superman (with the cape) seconds later. Though I would occasionally pose as other superheroes (I would use a mesh-like blanket, yelling "wae-hee-hee, wae-hee-hee" to imitate the noise of Spiderman casting his web), but deep down inside, I knew I was really the Man of Steel.

Rest assured: I still have the cape. And it still fits. Up, up, and away!