Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?
Being on this bike in the summer of 1967 was the thrill of a lifetime. Even now, thinking back to the first moment I set my eyes on it, the first thing that came to my 13-year-old mind was “freedom!”
Now I could escape! Now I could ride with the wind! Now I could be with my friends 20 miles away without asking for a lift into town! What joy! What ecstasy! Just the thought of it now brings goose bumps on my arms.
I can feel the vibration of the motor when it starts on the first kick. The pulsing of the blood through my veins as I “Head out on the highway, looking for adventure, in whatever comes our way” (Steppenwolf 1968 – Born to Be Wild).
None of this would have been possible without my mother. She had tricked me into going outside to feed our pet chicken (don’t ask), which resided in our tiny one car garage. Then lo and behold, there in front of my eyes was this shiny new motorcycle, exactly like the one in this photograph.
I’ve often wished I still owned this bike. So what happened to it? Along my life-path my mother died tragically in an automobile accident. We lost her too soon. Eventually my dad remarried. Then as things go, the new couple moved, and certain items had to go. My dad saw no need to keep the bike, so he either sold it or gave it away, I don’t really know which, that was never clear.
It hurt when I found out and had no recourse to pursue the bike. For a while I was angry, but in those days I was probably angry about a lot of things with my dad, but those are stories for another time.
The connection to this bike was not with my dad, but with my mom. She made dad buy it. She wanted me to have the freedom she had lost, by having 4 kids, and cancer. She survived the cancer and the 4 kids, only to graduate to heaven before we were all ready for her to go.
I don’t need to “see” the bike in my garage to be on it again. I don’t have to feed the chicken to see the huge smile on my mother’s face when I came running back in the house to thank her. All I have to do is close my eyes. And there I am.
That smile, so warm and forgiving…
The wind blowing in my face as I race toward freedom…
It’s all still here, vivid and clear as the first ride around the block to test out the bike.
It’s all still very much alive and well in my memories of then…
(If any of my blog posts touch you, and you want to tell your friends, here’s the link)
As I was saying... 