Punkintown Road,Honda 50s and my best good friends.....

           I got bored the other day and went on a little excursion . I ended up on Punkintown Rd. which turned into "Memory Lane". I didn't realize that it had been closed off so I turned around hit a piece of wood lost my centercap (Nissan if you find one) and detoured around to Fouts Mill Rd . Memories of probably the most carefree days of my life flooded into my consciousness .
           In 1971 at the age of 9 I got my first bike, it was a Honda 50 (blue) . That is where the fun began .
Now one of the first times I rode that little bike I hit the house . Then I found the brakes,but that did not stop me from crashing probably hundreds of times. As a later in life riding buddy always said , " you never know how fast you can go until you crash ". Anyway my dad was my first riding buddy and my first and best " Best Friend ". I remember going to the old Dog River motocross track and him and me both on that little 50 riding up and down that road , falling over in mudholes and laughing hysterically . It didn't take long and Pop caught the bug . He got a Honda SL 125 and it was on . We would start out on Saturday mornings at our house in Westmoreland and go out Beardon Ln. to Ridge Way . From there we hit King's Hwy . to Punkintown Rd.
People who rode back then in this area know that was one way to get on the Gas-Line . That is before all the land grabbing motorcycle hating commies started closing trails . The gas-line was probably one of the greatest places to ride ever . It had hill after creek crossing after hill for miles . I did some of my best crashing
on this stretch of tail . One of my first best friends in Georgia ,Curt, got a Honda CT 70 and our little gang saw it's beginnings . We spent days riding up and down power lines, gas lines, dirt roads and trails . Curt's brother Jeff had a bike also and we three started making trails and riding all over their family land .It was so much fun camping out in their fort (thanks Jeff for bringing the smokes)and riding .
           Well I eventually outgrew the 50...which I still have by the way... and in 1974 Pop got me a bike that would "keep up with his" . Well what he got me was a TM 125 Suzuki which Pop called a "fast mother", and "too dang loud ". One day our neighbor was riding with us and I blasted by on this dirt road .I waited at the next crossing and he came up with a rock the size of a baseball that was he said, "heading right at my head". Oops. Well after I finally got better on that bike and quit falling over for no good reason , I think Pop and our neighbor figured out that I was crazy and liked to go "too fast". I have that extra tendon in my throttle hand .
Slow was not fast enough . Well Pop and the neighbor started going on grown up rides that required a DRIVERS LICENSE . Alas, poor me was left to my own devices . Which consisted of terrorizing everyone between my house and Curts house .See Curt had graduated up to "Big boy Motorcycles also".  We would fly down Kings Hwy with our head on a swivel looking for police cars . We would head to Barrys the newest member of our gang . Barry had some most excellent trails and easy access to the famed gas line . We would ride and camp in Barry's fort with cold hot dogs and the occasional bottle of MD 20/20.Uggh...Thanks Jeff . HeeHee...Anyway we would ride until our gas supply was almost exausted , go back to Barrys , fill up and take off again . Now some of our other gang members were with us sometimes . You know who you are Quicksdraw and Mike . I remember going all the way down to the old iron bridge on Dog River . Which was apparently against the wishes of some land grabbing commies .Someone had cut down a huge tree across the gas line .So we did what any young , daring , and imaginative houligans would do . We ignored the signs and dragged our bikes over and under said tree . I only remember getting caught one time . "By the cops of course". Everybody was over the tree except me and I think Mike . I'm not sure how that all ended but I seem to remember a flat bed truck and hauling the bikes out .Or maybe we said that was what we would do and waited for the cop to leave and then dragged our bikes over the huge tree and took off . Like I say I don't really remember . Surely we did what the law said .
           We really had some great times back then . The bonds I formed with Pop and my friends are everlasting . I stay in touch with ol' Curt . Saw him the other day as a matter of fact . Everytime I glance over in the corner at that little 50 the memories are still there in the dings and scars on the both of us .I remember Barry's Mom repairing "Gravel Rash " on me once . Rest in Peace Mrs. F... sweet lady I mean it . Well we inevitably got older and didn't ride much together in our High School years .Dang girls became important and mucked everything up . Riding didn't stop there . The gang just changed and took on a more serious nature,( no not the Hell's Angels or Outlaws). It just got faster and more serious in every way .People who know me know what I'm talking about . You know... Ducati..130 mph ...ditch... broken ...stuff.....
I'm gonna save that one for a later date. It makes my back hurt....