A funny memory. When I took my safety class one of the instructor's names was Popeye. I noticed he walked with a little swagger which I thought was all a part of his bikerness. To be fair, the guy was as genuine as can be. No act there, just a real cool dude.
Popeye is in his 60s and as the class went on he started to share his road stories. He had lost his thumb crashing into the side of a mountain. One of his feet was amputated from diabetes. He lost sight in one eye - either a rock or something had hit him in the face. I know he was missing a few chompers but that was just "one of those things". He had his other hand in a brace. Apparently he left the parking lot of the riding school three weeks before with his kickstand down and wiped out. Yup, this was our instructor.
Our class was just 3 guys because I took it the week of Thanksgiving. Perfect timing. 3 students, 2 instructors. Man it was the best. One of the guys had been riding for 7 years and never got his license. He was a mid 20s speed bike guy. Told me that he was glad he took the class because he learned a few things like to keep the bike in 1st at stops. The other guy was a bar owner who was given a bike by his daughter. They had to stop the class once and told him they were going to kick him out if he didn't look through the damn turns. I got the name "Slacker" in class because I kept trying to start the dang thing in first.
Our other instructor, Robert I remember most for the following bit of advice. "I'm gonna tell you one thing about 18-wheelers - stay the fuck away from em!" Always rode with a lit cigar through the training course. Tall mofo and still wore boots with about 2 inches of sole, no shit.
Anyway, Popeye would tell me, "Slacker, look up so you can see all that p*ssy on the sidewalks. They will be looking at you when you roll by." Since it was just the 3 guys there were off color jokes a plenty.
At the end he gave us all a business card and invited us to check out one of his club's many functions throughout the year. Having a card actually isn't a bad idea. You tend to meet a lot of cool folks out in the streets, cycle shops, fundraisers. The back of his card said, "Popeye - keeping one eye on the road." Hell, if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? I think my card will say, "Slacker - still looking up after all these years".
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