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Date with fate - post 23 - rear-ended by the one armed man who was rearended by teeny-bopper chick
This entry was posted on 9/1/2010 1:13 AM and is filed under Motorcycles, Fate Fairies.
I told this story in Seventeenth Job of Bob Part V ...but, it deserves a stand-alone nod. And, I can't believe I never put it in the Fate Fairies Category before.
I had always had a motorcycle going way back to the 1960s. The pre-crotch-rocket 1977, 750cc Kawasaki I had before I got married and then brought down to Texas was in disrepair. It sat in the barn at our little farm presentation out in New Glarus, Wisconsin. Once I started working in the auto shop at the farm store I had a bit of extra cash to get it rebuilt. Also, working in a mechanic shop inspired me to tinker again. A fellow south of Madison specialized in old Japanese motorcycles. He doted over it and made it rideable again. I had brought it in to him over the winter so it would be ready in the spring. On a sunny early February day, I nursed it home about 35 miles an hour in the 35 degree air. I had about an hour of time to work with until the temps droped exponentially. Wisconsin people will understand the concept.
I remember itching to get on that Kawi' again. I dawned a snowmobile suit and rode it out of the village in late February. The snow still lined the roads. I made it the seven miles to Dayton. That one-horse village still had one bar at that time. I remember stopping there to warm up.
It was about the second time I rode my refurbished machine and with the new found relationship with my old mechanical love, I dawned the snowmobile suit again and took it to work in the yet still cold spring. It was a two-cylinder and a racing machine in its day in 1977 - but now it was 1995. Anyway, at 10:00 p.m. in the cool evening I was heading home from the auto shop back to our little farm house in New Glarus. At the last stop-and-go-light south of Madison before my stretch of country ride to the farm house, I heard a loud screech. That stretch of road had been under construction for a year - the infamous Verona Bypass.
"Damn," I thought, "Sounds like someone is going to get hit."
About that time, I felt a jolt and began to be pushed into the intersection. In front of me was a dump truck. I came closer and closer to its tailgate. The truck finally began to move forward at the green light. About an inch from the truck the pushing stopped. I hopped off my cycle and threw down my helmet.
"Damn," I said, "I just got this damn bike fixed."
As it turned out a young girl about 16 years old, had plowed her car into the car behind me. She hopped out and giggled to the guys in the car she hit, "You guys ok, hee, hee, hee?"
Cell phones were still in their infancy then, but, none-the-less, it soon became evident her young mom somehow got word of the crash and came to the scene. The mom looked at the crushed car teeny-bopper chick was driving, then she looked at the crushed rear end of the car she had hit, then she looked at my motorcycle which was stuck to the bumper of said second car. You could pick up from her expression that her heart was sinking. Then the kid driving the second crushed car hopped out. I realized right away he had a prosthetic arm that apparently had fallen off in the impact. But the mom did not pick up on that nuance and abruptly fainted when she mistakenly assumed her daughter had cut this guy's arm off.
As it turned out only my tail light was cracked. The one-armed kid's bumper had only impacted my rear tire and it had absorbed all the force without damage. Me and the cop on scene rocked the bike tire out from under one-arm dude's bumper. Remarkably, nothing on my wheel got bent. It speaks to the flexability of spoke rims. But, the light remains cracked to this day. The old bike is now 33 years old.
Teeny-bopper chick's insurance company must have called me 20 times. I never asked for money for the tail light. They finally gave up. You see, in those days, being so poor, I had no insurance on the motorcycle. I did not want to open up that can of worms regarding a crash incident.
The then young mom...is most likely totally gray by now.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army Corporal Kenneth Cross, 21, of Superior, Wisconsin, died Sunday, August 27, 2006, in Baghdad, Iraq. He was killed during combat operations when his Stryker Vehicle was attacked by enemy forces using an improvised explosive device and small arms fire. Corporal Cross was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), out of Fort Lewis, Washington. He was one of two soldiers killed in the attack during the combat operation. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned Cross wanted to follow a family tradition of military service citing his desire to drive a tank like his World War II veteran grandfather. Cross' father was a Vietnam Veteran. His mom's dad had been a Marine stationed in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on December 7, 1941. Kenneth married in April of 2006 in Washington state. He met his wife, Heidi, on the Internet while stationed at Fort Lewis. He was shipped out to Iraq two months after the marriage. Cross planned to buy a home and start a family after he returned home from Iraq. He left Superior High School during his senior year so he could join the Army, earning his GED at a local vocational school. He enjoyed deer hunting, and driving snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles. The Journal Sentinel went on to say, Kenneth is remembered for his affection for mischief. The Website komonews.com notes Cross and his wife lived in Steilacoom, Washington. He had served one year in the U.S. Army before his death. A Stars and Strips article posted on strykernews.com mentions Cross' Army roommate was also killed in the attack. Private First Class Daniel Dolan was 19 years old. They were members of 3rd Platoon, Company C of the unit mentioned above. Both soldiers were posthumously promoted - Cross to corporal, Dolan to specialist. They were the first casualties for the battalion since it arrived in Iraq in early August of 2006 to participate in Operation Together Forward, a mission to reduce sectarian violence in Baghdad. Cross was known for knowing everything about a Stryker vehicle there was to know, and would spend his free time reading notoriously boring Army technical manuals. But Army friends noted Kenneth also had a lively side as well. At the time of his death Cross was survived by his mother Betty Cross; five older brothers and a younger sister; and, articles did not mention if Kenneth's father was still alive. Corporal Kenneth Cross was the 61st Wisconsin military service person killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
97,568 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,654 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,421 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1269 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
788 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,929 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
7,820 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
20 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
142 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
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