Why 7-Eleven Day is Special to Me

7-Eleven Day

For at least the last three years I have posted something here about  7-Eleven Day or as I like to call it - Free Slurpee Day. It occurred to me this morning as my wife, +Stacey Gonzalez and I were enjoying brunch at our local hangout, Mom's Cafe, I have never quite articulated why I like this day. Here it is. It reminds me of the greatest summer I ever had with my brother, Demetrio who I had for some reasons no one knows, nicknamed NuNu. 

Summer Break

I don't remember exactly how old we were, but we were probably either in middle school or about to be in middle school. That summer the local Putt Putt golf course was offering one free game a day for students during their Summer Break. Every morning around 11AM or so, NuNu and I would get on our bikes and head down to the Putt Putt course. I want to say it was about 1.5 miles away from our house. We were so serious we convinced our dad to let us use his two putters from his regular golf bag. I am sure we were a sight – two boys riding their bikes with golf putters along the top of our handlebars.

Geometry Lessons

If my memory serves me we had played part of the summer before and got hooked. We started watching the Putt Putt pro tour on TV early on Saturday mornings. (Check out the pro tour video below). We were determined to get as good as the pros who often would 1-hole each of the holes. I am not sure we fully realized it at the time, but we were studying geometry on the putt putt course. We would estimate angles and hitting points to ricochet shots over bumps and down slopes. By the end of the summer I was losing regularly to my younger brother because he had developed a knack for banking shots at just the right angle and speed. He was scoring consistently in the low 20's on the 18 hole course. Somewhere in some old pencil box I bet all those score cards are still bound by a newspaper rubber band.

Slurpees and Comic Books

At the end of each round of putt putt – sometimes an hour or so later because the manager got to know us and let us play additional games – we'd go get a Slurpee at the 7-Eleven that was just down the street from the Putt Putt course. There, we would cool off, drink our Slurpees and check out the latest Marvel and DC comics that had come in. One of the reasons this summer also stands out is that we were just old enough to get around by ourselves, but not too old to enjoy fun outdoors things like riding our bikes. I think it was the following year that the 7-Eleven got its first video game, either Space Invaders or Asteroids. After that, the summers were never the same, but man that summer, I played Putt Putt with my little brother who was as good as the pros!