The Penultimate Step by Vanessa Bucklin

Author:Vanessa Bucklin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2020-10-20T14:42:01+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

SHANE

“I took the easy way, and to an extent I regret that. Still though, the way we did it was honest. We played it and sang it the way we felt it, and there’s a lot to be said for that.”

– Johnny Cash24

One of my most vivid memories of my brother, Shane, was waking up to the famous guitar riff of “Iron Man” by Ozzy Osbourne. It was the summer of 1995, and I was working and coaching at the swimming pool. Shane was 14 years old and had discovered his love for the guitar. Our dad had taken him to private lessons in Great Falls (120 miles round trip) for several years at that point, and Shane dedicated much of his time to studying both the acoustic and electric guitar.

Ozzy was one of his favorites, but his true hero was Slash of Guns N’ Roses. I had introduced Shane to heavy metal and the Appetite for Destruction album on our summer vacation to the Oregon Coast. I was 16, Shane 12, and Callie 8 when my parents loaded up the family in our red-and-tan Suburban to head to the Yeager family reunion at Sea Side, Oregon.

Back then we didn’t need seatbelts, and parents were very lenient about travel arrangements, just trying to pass the hours without going insane. Dad folded down the entire back seat for us to use as a rec room of sorts, and we played cards and games and listened to music on my bright yellow Walkman. Sporadically and enthusiastically our dad would yell, “Look out the window kids, it’s the Columbia!”

I had just purchased the Appetite cassette and was excited to share my discovery of big-hair heavy metal with Shane. As he listened to “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” I could see the twinkle in his eye. He fell in love with the guitar riffs immediately, and the rest is history.

It was on that trip that Shane received his official stamp as a “bad boy.” My dad is the oldest of four children and was always seen as the maverick in his family. Shane was ready to follow in his footsteps, and what better time than the brink of adolescence to earn that label in a predominantly Mormon family? We have eighteen first cousins on my dad’s side of the family because the Mormon religion teaches that having more children will get you to a higher level of heaven,25 so Shane had plenty of young eyes to impress at this reunion, and he was eager to take advantage of a captive audience and solidify his reputation.

My grandparents had converted to the Mormon religion when my father was in high school. They aggressively practiced their newfound faith, and my grandpa even became the Bishop of the Mormon Church in Conrad. After graduation, my dad was expected to go on a mission (a two-year assignment to another city, often in another country, to invest your time and talent in spreading the good word of the gospel—or Book of Mormon in this case).

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