fuck ok ive been sitting on this since i first heard it way back when because i knew that id wanna draw it out but didnt have the ability and i still really dont but
here we go
some background
the first job i ever had was a government sponsored youth program back in 2010 for kids aged 16-19, who couldnt get Real Actual jobs and lived in a couple specific oregon counties - it was funded by the NORTHWEST YOUTH CORPS ( and if you go here and scroll down to the one about coos bay, thats it, thats the one i was in, dug that up just for this )
basically for about a month, a handful of 12 or so kids would all pile into a van and go do manual labor in the woods - ours was building a hiking trail between two camping sites, and was overseen by the team leaders john and mary jane ( and i took a bunch of fuckin pictures because i was a camera goblin )
at the very end of it a handful of people had quit and the people who were left were kinda close, and we ended the final day at a beach with a bonfire with everybody started telling stories
i dont remember what anybody else said, or even what i said, but john gave us a memory from his past that i will absolutely remember until i die. theres no way for me to verify if any of its true, or if he just made it all up on the spot, but i dont care, and here it is
john told us he grew up in florida, and so what he and his friends did for fun was walk around in the swamps near his house at night, looking for things
one night he and his buddy walked a little further out than they usually do and eventually saw a break in the trees that they didnt recognize
it opened out to a flat dirt road. the path stretched out of sight in either direction, with the tree cover blocking out the stars so you couldnt see the end of it no matter which way you were facing. instead it just cut out into darkness
john and his friend started walking along it.
after several minutes, one of them noticed a weird shape in the distance, along the edge of the dirt where the road turned into woods
shining the light on it, they saw it was a wooden cross, about waist height. on top of the cross jammed over the post was the white glove hamburger helper mascot. written on the middle bar was one word, in all capital letters
THUNDERDOME
they came back a few days later in the daytime and they found the cross… but the glove ………………was gone