Plan To Go Look At A Wide Glide Tomorrow

(Still have not heard from the seller of this bike. I thought that if somebody wanted to sell something they would answer your emails or phone calls)

I contacted the seller of this 1984 Wide Glide so I can look at it tomorrow. Thing is, the seller has not called me back or answered my email either. This sucks for me because I have the day off and already told the wife I would be going on this search and hopefully retrieval mission.
This WG is one of the early 1984 models, the last of the Shovelheads version. The Evo's came out mid year and many folks think that there were no 84 Shovelheads. I still remember my friend Bill riding up at my home on his brand new 1984 Shovelhead Lowrider that he had saved up and paid $7400 cash for. Just three years later he was married and looking to sell it and made me an offer lower than he had it priced at. I knew the bike and how it had been cared for so the deal was exceptionally good. I had never asked to ride it and he had never offered. But after my Sportster was stolen I had no bike to ride and he was willing to make me a great offer on his. I rode it and it felt good but I didn't buy it. I wanted to bad, it's just thinking about payments made me uneasy. I still kick myself for not getting it.

Bill and I had met in eighth grade homeroom when I was the new kid. We had only been in school a week and I hardly knew anyone except Bill because his desk was next to mine and seeing my motocross shirt he struck up a conversation with me. He was built like a dern bull and had that high and tight blond hair cut. He could literally pick a kid up with one arm, we saw him do it more than once during our High school years when someone had tried him. Usually that's all it took to leave him alone. He had inherited his muscle from his father who was a gentle man but very powerful and over six foot tall. He was a little to citizen looking being one of the few back then to have such short hair. I talked him into growing it out to at least cover his ears.

I remember a Monty Python movie had been on TV and we were laughing about it and I was doing my British accent. Across the room another student who had not been in home room the previous two days kept glowering at me. He said something after awhile but Bill and I didn't catch it, at least I didn't, then he hollered louder across the room at me. I looked over at him and he was telling me to shut up. I looked at Bill then at Mike who I already knew from the neighborhood that summer. I began to talk again and this kid then says "I said shut the fuck up you stupid Limey." I guess my accent must have been pretty good for him to think I was actually British. With that I walked across the room to his desk and he was sitting there looking at me and I asked him what he said...and he said it again. So I picked up this heavy history book off his desk, smacked him in the back of the head while at the same time bringing my knee up under his desk top. His head went forward and the desk top came up and wham, he had a bloody nose. I walked back to my desk and sat down, the class was silent. He cried out that damn it I bloodied his nose. I looked back at him and told him to shut up unless he wanted me to come back over there. He shut up.

I wasn't keen on picking fights and had rather not but this was a tough school and if you didn't stand your ground it would be hell on you. I had been picked on in elementary school and wasn't going to allow it any longer, plus my Pop had taken me down in our basement with the boxing gloves over the summer. He had boxed in the Navy and had the broken nose to show for it. So it was best to nip it in the bud. Besides, one of my brothers would have stomped me for tarnishing his reputation had I not stood up for myself.

So Bill and I had become best of friends back then. We went shooting and hunting together, riding motorcycles and camping, fishing and movies and double dates. I introduced him to his wife too. He knew all about me and was still my friend. I could tell him anything. He was the best man at my wedding. Being two states away we kept in touch by phone but then we drifted apart over time. I've only seen him twice in nineteen years now and the last time seemed strained for some reason.

I know where he lives now, it's on property his father left him in the North Georgia Mountains. My son and I saw his mother two years ago at her home when I found out she had cancer. What a wonderful women she was to all us kids growing up. She was simply the best. When I was a kid I'd do things to make her laugh all the time. She told us that he would have liked seeing us but he was away with his wife buying more horses. Wonder if she is still alive? Actually I'm sorta afraid to find out because I loved her like my own mother and would have hurt anyone who harmed her, plus not knowing lets me keep her the way I knew her.

You Know, I'd love to ride up to his place on the Wide Glide , wearing my leather jacket he was with me when I bought it. My ponytail down my back and road grime on my pants and face. A friend or two or my brothers riding with me just to see the look of surprise on his mug. Seeing him all clean and short haired country boy and me still a little on the outside. I'd offer him the chance to take a ride on the Glide to see if he still remembers how. I'd like to introduce him to my other friend Billy who is the book author and to show him my writings that have been in print. He always encouraged me to write more. I'd like to give his ugly old ass a huge hug, drink a beer together, have a steak, give his wife a kiss and see if I could still make them both laugh either at me or with me. Was a time I could make them stand there with their mouths open and shaking their heads wondering what the heck I'd just done or said.
I used to pull this old dinner joke all the time on her Father.
At dinner when reaching for the last of anything on the table I'd ask her father "Do you want the last of this?" He'd answer yes and then I'd take it anyway.The first time I pulled it he just sat there looking at me confused. The next time a few weeks later when I did it he said "Hey! You asked if I wanted that." And I'd said "Oh. I wasn't going to let you have it, I just wanted to know if you wanted it." Then he waited a few months and pulled it on me catching me off guard.

Since my mother died this year I think a lot about these things. My son is in his last year of High School, he has a job now. He's looking and moving towards his independence. My wife and I are beginning to do things we haven't done in years because of all the time and effort in raising a child and putting ourselves on hold for our son. Raising him, paying for mucho hospital bills for him and doing without things we wanted to do because we had that responsibility.

It's time for a new beginning and my ride with my brothers and friends that we have spoken of for so long. I sure hope this guy with the Wide Glide calls tomorrow.