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TOPIC: GoldStar Kickstand Rescued By Dairy Farmer, part 2

GoldStar Kickstand Rescued By Dairy Farmer, part 2 8 years 8 months ago #1228

  • unkilmal
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So I'm out there in that winter playground of "68/'69 where the snow laden trees and the snow covered ground heighten the three dimensional qualities of the frozen landscape around me. Every rotation of my 400x19 trials tire is waffling the packing snow. I am spacing out on the pattern the Gold Star is making and I am spacing out on the shadows created by the deepening snow around me. Then I run out of gas! It was only about 6PM and getting harder to see anything around me. I had taken a back road on my way home from the shop to enjoy the countryside and the snow. Today now, unless you can get far away from the pace of modern traffic to the Wind River or the Yukon, the salt and the pace of the traffic will shout "NO!" to such winter wandering as I was doing that evening!.

So I start pushing the bike and peering through the increasing darkness for any sign of human habitation. I'm still enjoying the situation and even the effort of moving the big hunk of iron through the 6 or 7 inches of snow. Maybe I was like one of those sled dogs back then. Finally I spied a light coming through the falling flakes of snow. There was a long and low structure at the origin of the ray of light that cut through the increasingly heavy snow now falling. The atmosphere created by all of this was surreal, like a movie scene. I was too enthralled to be worried about my situation. Also, I wondered what was going on out here in this place at this time? Moonshiners? Counterfeiters? I was generating spook factor for my own entertainment. Why else would I be out here off the beaten path on my way home from work with insufficient gasoline?

I opened a door and entered. Way down at the end of a long row of cows two humans were moving around the cows: Farmers,not moonshiners. Oh well, that would do! One stood out in the walkway by the cow being milked while the second, his back to me, attended to the milking. I stood there warming up, taking it all in and waiting for them to see me. I didn't want to startle them by coming up on them too quickly. After what seemed a long time the one standing looked my way and stared at me for another, what seemed like, long time. Then this farmer touched the shoulder of the one milking and who turned his head my way and also stared for, what seemed like this time an incredible long time. I got nervous waiting for them to say something...to move, do anything. They just stared frozen, in place, at me.

So finally I spoke, "I ran out of gas. Could you spare a little bit?" Still no reply. They're still frozen in place. So I spoke louder, " I ran out of gas on my motorcycle. Could you spare some. It won't take much?" Now they unfroze, started moving around, looking at each other. I moved down the walk past the stalls now confidant that they wouldn't be startled. "Oh, so you're on a motorcycle...[ in this weather--they're thinking]. We thought you were an ALIEN...[ as in spacecraft. This was 1968]." All was smiles as they happily got me a can of gas and seemed to enjoy the...need I say...unexpected break in their chores. I also was happy to have gotten successfully through our awkward introduction and to find out that the farmer who first spied me was not a stranger to me at all. This farmer turned out to be the farmer's daughter and I had double-dated with her the year before. I decided right then and there to take this route more often and maybe learn about dairy farming, at least some remote aspects of it.

When I returned to the barn with the empty gas can and my huge THANKS to the generous dairy farmers we had a little discussion about the appropriateness of my choice of transportation on such a slippery evening. Turns out Mr.Dairy Farmer had a snowmobile and was very enthusiastic about the abilities of it. Snowmobiles were rare in 1968. I,also, was enthusiastic about motorcycles and their abilities, even in snow. What could be a better way to get back to the farmer's daughter that to engage with the farmer. I proposed a race between his sled and my BSA 500. I'd be back tomorrow after work and we'd see. I was very confident that I could beat his sled, but he wouldn't agree to it. "You don't have a chance! Why bother?", was his attitude. I never got a chance to race one of those early sleds. Of course I'd have no chance against the modern sleds, but back then, who knows. I know anything was possible: I knew my bike, I knew the terrain and I was like a sled dog. I challenged one other snowmobiler back then and he also dismissed it like I was crazy to suggest it. Maybe I was a little. We will never know what that outcome might have been.

It's just fun to think about such situations. There was another possibility I like to ponder only with some regret. My friend Homer built a super sized Wall of Death in Freedom,Pa. and I had an invitation to try it on the Gold Star. After he broke his ankle on it he dismantled it and there went my chance. Was I chicken or just a procrastinator? Maybe I really did try it out, fell and bumped my head. That's it! Temporary amnesia. It's starting to come back to me.

I didn't go back to the dairy farm and those possibilities, but I did have an insight about that night in 1968. I saw "Star Wars" in 1977 and Darth Vader's ominous black mask reminded me of that German ice racing mask I was wearing the night I stood silently at the far end of that long dairy barn waiting for the earthlings to see me.
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GoldStar Kickstand Rescued By Dairy Farmer, part 2 3 years 11 months ago #1621

  • clarkthespark
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Great story. How did it end?
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