I Missed the Boat Twice in my Lifetime

The first time I was in high school. I was in a gift shop in the Smokey Mountains and I was looking at some Gawd Awful Looking Dolls called Cabbage Patch Kids. They were pretty realistic looking for the 70's and I had never seen anything like them. They were complete with birth certificates.

I know you are going to say, "so what, there were millions of Cabbage Patch Kids sold." The difference is that the ones I saw were the ORIGINAL CABBAGE PATCH KIDS that Mattel bought the patent from. One month later the Mattel dolls hit the shelves and dolly history was made. The value of the original dolls shot up from between $50 to $100 to thousands of dollars each.

The next time I missed the boat I lived in Florida. I was looking in one of those weekend entertainment papers for local entertainment in the area. I saw an ad for a band called "Hootie and the Blowfish." I thought to myself, "who would want to go see a band called Hootie and the Blowfish."

ONE WEEK LATER THEY WERE THE BIGGEST HIT IN AMERICA

Oh, and did I mention that when I was in high school I threw away my entire Cincinnati Reds baseball card collection. Complete with Johnny Bench and Pete Rose Rookie Cards.