Barney Rubble is a symbol of hope and success.

Yes, the best friend of Fred Flintstone and loving husband of Betty is my new symbol of hope and success.

You see, it all started with a trip to the mall...

Saturday, June 16, 2007 -- I was at the mall with my dad and brother and sister, spending a typical rainy day in the comfort of department stores and people looking for last minute Father’s Day presents. As we headed back to the car we noticed one of those coin-operated crane game machines where you can win prizes for as little as $1.00 -- as long as you can master the crane well enough to lift out your prize. This machine was split into two halves -- one half contained prizes you could win for $1.00 (aka the lame prizes) and enabled you to try as many times as you wish until you won and the second half of the machine contained prizes you could win for $2.00 (aka the nice prizes) but the catch was you had only one try at that.

Barney Rubble, my friends -- was laying right against the glass on the $1.00 side. “This was it!” I thought. Our lucky day! So, my dad gave my sister four quarters to go exchange for a loonie so we could play the game and then my brother inserted the loonie as I took control of the crane... Barney was right against the glass in front of us... Piece of cake, right?

Wrong.

The crane could only go so far before the glass would get in the way... Damn. But we didn’t give up because every time I tried to grab Barney he would shift a little inwards and as long as I kept doing that, I could shift him enough to win him. Now, the problem was -- he was shifting about 1/10th of a mm each time and sometimes he would even shift backwards.

Didn’t matter -- I wanted to win Barney to prove to my family and the grandma and grandson and the little girl watching and cheering me on that if you wanted something bad enough -- you could achieve it.

“Patience” “Persistence” “Don’t give up” “You can do it” are some of the words I heard from behind me as I fought for ownership of Barney. Barney was always my favorite character on the Flintstones (he always seemed more at peace with the world than Fred and in my mind he was married to the hotter woman) and I wanted to win him...

45 mins later and Barney was pretty much in the same spot that he began in. Hope was dwindling... The crowd dissipated... My family was getting tired... I was getting tired...

“Just go for the pink elephant” “It’s okay, at least you tried” “It was too good to be true” -- these were the words I was hearing now. Maybe they are right, I should just stop trying... BUT THEN!

Barney spun a full 180 degrees inward... there was a chance! I don’t know how it happened -- but he just moved...

“Go for it!” my family yelled.

I went for it. The crane went for the kill... Barney slipped again -- but this time it placed him into an even more perfect position for grabbing. Barney was upside down and my crane could grab onto his legs and torso... and it did !!!

I pulled him out of the machine and we all jumped up and down like we had just won the Stanley Cup or something...

My dad looked at me like he has never looked at me before and my brother and sister were in awe... I had just proved to them and myself that anything can happen if you put your mind and heart into it...