Family Treasures – My Father’s First Motorcycle

While visiting with my parents over the weekend, my dad who is now 70 told me a story about himself that I’d never heard before. As the two of us sat sipping sodas at my parent’s kitchen table, he told me of how he’d come to get his first motorcycle when he was just a young man in high school.

One day after returning home from school, my Gramma said to him, Butch, why don’t you come on with us? We’re gonna run on over to so-and-so’s place for a minute.

Okay, ma, he said and bounded up the stairs to change out of his good school duds.

In less than five minutes he was back down the stairs and they were on their way.

When they’d arrived, parked outside sat this gorgeous, black Harley Davidson. It glistened with chrome, he said. I could hear the deliciousness of memory in his voice as he spoke of it like a first love.

Well, Butch? What do you think of that? my Gramma asked.

Oh, Mama, it’s beautiful, he said.

Well… It’s yours, she said to him.

At a time in our country’s history when people just weren’t frivolous, my dad’s first motorcycle was a surprise from his mother. This gift went on to shape a young man’s life, carrying him on his own adventures through sun and rain, through the wind and under the stars. This moment in time lit the torch that was ultimately passed on to me and one day maybe to my daughter.

After the initial surprise simmered down, not yet knowing how to ride my pop quietly asked the man whom they bought it from if he would ride him home on the back of it, which he did. And let me tell you, the way that the 50+ year old memory of that first ride home on the back of his new motorcycle sounded in my dad’s raspy voice, it almost felt like we were watching it in a black and white movie that he knew the secret happy ending to. I could tell that he still had the power to relish that long ago moment in time.

Photograph of my father in his motorcycle jacket nearly 50 years ago

My pop, nearly 50 years ago.

Fuzzygalore

Rachael is the whimsical writer behind the 20+ year old Girlie Motorcycle Blog. As a freelance blogger, she is on a mission to inspire laughter, self-examination, curiosity, and human connection. Girlie Motorcycle Blog can be found on several Best Motorcycle Blog lists.

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10 Responses

  1. OG says:

    What a really great story….thanks for sharing

  2. novos says:

    That’s so awesome 🙂

    Your pop was a rocker? How cool

  3. Lifeon2whls says:

    Awesome story…I hope my kids can tell someone about how I pulled my first bike out of a trash pile…well then again )

  4. Joe says:

    That picture of your dad is super! Fifty years ago? I’d not have thought somebody could have looked so cool back then when I was born!

  5. wendy says:

    What a great photo and and awesome story 🙂

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  8. BikerSwag says:

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  1. December 27, 2009

    […] love of motorcycles seems to have passed on to my from my dad. I love hearing stories about his youth. Having photographs of him from that time are priceless to […]

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