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Rear-ended by the one-armed man who was rearended by the teey-bopper chick - Fate Fairies - book version
This entry was posted on 12/27/2011 1:45 AM and is filed under Fate Fairies:Fate Fairies - book version.
I have 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 in Madison, 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 at mid-day until the temps dropped 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."
A young girl about 16 years old, hopped out the door of the car a couple back from me. She giggled to the guys in the car which she hit, and in turn had then hit me, "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 the girl 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 car with the crushed rear end - the car that had hit me - hopped out. I realized right away he had a prosthetic arm that apparently had fallen off in the impact. The arrant arm sat in the car by the driver's seat. 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 flexibility of spoked rims. But, the light remains cracked to this day. The old bike is now 35 years old. It sits obediently in my garage.
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? She is most likely totally gray by now.
Note: This blog "Fate Fairies" - book version Category is a work in progress. The original vignettes are being edited for book form. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Fate Fairies Page for an ordered chronology of the book vignettes (chapters).
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