Born to be wild

Sitting on my couch, watching the NASCAR Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on ESPN. It's Labor Day weekend and therefore I have the day off tomorrow. But this post isn't about Labor Day, nor is it about NASCAR. Back in July, I said that I should perhaps tell the story of how the movie "Easy Rider" had an impact on my life. So here goes.

The movie "Easy Rider" was released in 1969. Directed by Dennis Hopper (1936-2010), and written by Hopper along with Peter Fonda and Terry Southern. I'm not going to summarize the movie, but if you're someone who isn't familiar with it, please go to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064276/.

Now I didn't see it in the movies, as I was eight years old in 1969. I'm not quite sure exactly when I did see it, but I think I was ten or eleven years old (1971 or 1972) at the time. I remember being sick with a cold, flu, or some other ailment. I was having trouble sleeping, and my mom let me stay up in the living room and watch television. "Easy Rider" happened to be the late late movie or something like that, starting at maybe 1:00am or something. As a young boy, seeing the motorcycles on the screen while I was changing channels looking for something to watch, I had stopped searching and took my spot on the couch. I think I caught it right near the beginning. As a young boy I obviously was interested in cars, motorcycles, and anything else with a motor that made noise. :) Sears catalogs would have mini-bikes and go-carts, and like every other boy my age, one or the other would be on my Christmas list every year.

So there I was, feeling under the weather, not being able to sleep, and watching a movie that contained themes and images I didn't quite understand. To me, the stars of the movies were the motorcycles. The big star was the Captain America bike ridden by Peter Fonda. Lots of chrome and the stars and stripes paint job on the gas tank, quite an impression to a young boy. But it wasn't just the motorcycles. I may not have fully understood the scenes depicting drug use and other adult issues, but something inside of me understood the feeling of being out on the road. Something inside my head clicked that night. I started drawing choppers in my school notebooks, and buying the chopper type motorcycle magazines that were allowed to be sold to minors. I knew that when I got older, I would be riding a motorcycle all over this great country.

Time did pass, and I owned a few different motorcycles over the years. And yes, I did ride across the country and through 42 states on my first Harley Davidson. Also, somewhere along the line as I matured I started to appreciate the motorcycle ridden by Dennis Hopper, aka "Billy", in the movie. I think that's common with a lot of fans of the movie who ride. Would I have been this interested in motorcycles (mainly Harleys and Choppers) have I not seen "Easy Rider" that night years ago? I guess we can never know. But I did the see the movie and I believe it had an impact on my life as it is today.

Thank you Dennis Hopper. RIP.

Okay, now that I got that out of the way I can watch the last half of the race still going on. Going to wash the SRT8 tomorrow, and grill up some steak for dinner later in the day. For those of you celebrating the holiday, enjoy it.

Until next time, take care.