The Saga of Sunny the Go Kart

When my son Clay was about nine, he landed the role of Creed Allen in the TV series Christy, being filmed in the mountains of east Tennessee. As the series progressed, so did his role in the show. We saved most of the money he earned working at this young age to apply toward his college fund.

We did, however, allow him one significant purchase. An older boy not far from our neighborhood in Clarksville wanted to sell his go kart, and Clay wanted to buy it. After some debate and a lot of rules, we allowed the purchase of the go kart, Sunny.

The previous owner had painted Sunny a few times, and you could still see some red paint bleeding through the topcoat of blue. This only added to his charm. The brakes were worn out, and the connecting rod missing. This did not keep Clay off the machine, but it added to the rules! It also provided opportunities for Clay and his dad to expand their mechanical skills.

Clay and his best friend Brian soon graduated from driving it in the grass to begging to take it on the road. Reluctantly we agreed, and soon they were taking turns zipping around our neighborhood.

One day a policeman appears at our front door in Clarksville. A sheepish Clay and Sunny watched from our driveway.

“Is this your son?”

I nodded.

“Did you know it’s against the law for him to take his go kart on the street?”

I wasn’t actually familiar with the laws about go karts, and the internet had not yet become my source of information. I shook my head.

“Well, it is. So, keep it off the street in the future, son.” He patted Clay on the shoulder.

We also took Sunny to our lake cottage, where both Clay and Sunny loved the scenic maze of roads.

Although Sunny spent more time alone after Clay entered high school, he was still a beloved member of our family. When Clay graduated from film school at USC and embarked on his first project, he wanted Sunny to be in it.

Austin Vickers, cast as Jimmy in Clay’s short film, “Five Dollars,” was about the age Clay had been when he met Sunny. Austen loved Sunny almost as much as Clay did.
In the film, Jimmy wanted nothing more than to get his beloved go kart in running condition with a full tank of gas. But money was short for Jimmy and his daddy. When Jimmy’s daddy finally got Sunny running, he treated himself to the first ride and wrecked Sunny before Jimmy got his turn.

In one of the scenes in “Five Dollars,” Jimmy’s sitting on Sunny watching an older boy zoom past on a motorcycle. Because Sunny is not in working order, Jimmy can only fantasize and improvise his ride, his riding gloves, the sounds, and the speed, which he does with great pizzazz.

Now, several years later, Sunny has been passed to Clay’s nephew Finn. Finn can hardly wait to get on Sunny when he gets home from school each day. He and his dad have given Sunny a new heart (i.e. motor) and replaced the rotted seat with soft new clothes.

Finn wakes each morning thinking of Sunny. “I can’t wait…”

“You’ll have to,” his mother says. “And if you give me any grief about getting up and ready for school, there will be no Sunny when you get home either.”

Who knew Sunny would work like a charm for bribery? Oh, well, a little bribe now and then makes for good parenting. Don’t you think?

To read more about Clay’s exploits on the set of Christy, see my book, The Past Ever Present.