Reminiscing - '78
Yep, That's snow falling again 'bout 8,000 feet. A little late getting out, but still worth the effort for sure. Temp was something like 38° when I got home and getting pretty dark. Next week it will be too dark to ride without lights, so getting time on the trail now is a must. A few spots are getting a little slick and sketchy.
Not sure why, but I got to be thinking of Halloween, '78. My parents had gone to Hawaii for a couple weeks and I had to work almost every night during that time. That is except for Halloween. I was bending tacos for a little joint at the time and felt like I was making it happen. I mean, I wasn't a Rockafeller, but I wasn't hucking newspapers anymore either. Times at TJ's were pretty good. For that matter, everything seemed pretty good - or so I remember.
That night I swung by a little church social with one of my "friends" - that I couldn't tell you his name if my life depended on it. Don't ask why, but I do remember clearly an event that tied back to that previous Saturday, of which I wasn't really paying attention otherwise. Nobody would ever remember this but me, however, I can still tell you of the "Foreigner" 45 RPM disc, song name and all that sticks in my head to this day. I couldn't tell you about anything else from that day, but I remember about ten minutes as though it happened this afternoon. Those two events and a similar time about one year later would come to play an integral part of .............. how I would see things for the rest of my life.
My parents wouldn't be home for more than another week and I would end up missing the Pheasant hunt because of it. Still, when they did get home, I was sitting on a pile of cash from nearly three weeks of straight work - after school of course. A week or so after they got home, I bought new skis and boots, which would prove to be another significant event. My first love was always skiing and buying this gear was like an engagement ring. It was mine, not somebody else's old stuff. I had arrived.
I remember the very moment I heard John Lennon was killed and the events of that evening. I remember exactly where I was when told Ronald Regan had been shot. I clearly remember where I was when somebody told me about the Challenger exploding. Key things that really didn't shape me personally, but were staggering all the same. Yet I remember two events in October 1978 that seemed at the time completely insignificant and one other in the Autumn of 1979 that changed everything for me. At times, it is still what drives me.................................
Man, times where good.
Snow is coming. Ride while you can.
Ride HARD! Here's to the good 'ol boys - Don W.
