In a Universe Far Far Away ...

[Tony Eeds]

If you believe in parallel universes ...

In a universe 40 years distant, a young man is waking up and getting ready for his first day in 10th grade. Known then as High School, he was both excited and scared.

• What would high school be like?
• Would there be a lot of cute girls?
• Would there be lots of bullies like Junior High?
• Would he be able to find the two people he wanted to find from Junior High?
• Would his 1964 Corvair stand out in the crowd of cars in the parking lot? He had been spit shining it for days.

These questions, and many others, surged through his brain as he got ready for the journey into the future. He had practiced driving the route, so as not to become flustered. Driving was still new to this 15 year old kid.

Well I guess he did alright, as the he is me. Arlington Heights High School left its mark on me, as did the events being played out daily around us. Viet Nam, High Powered Hot Rods, Peace Marches, Hippies, Flower Power, Drugs, Sex and Rock and Roll were the influences that colored my high school years. Every single year we has memorials to lost brethren in our High School Annual.

How we made do without a covey of psychologists to help us cope is beyond me.

By the time I graduated in 1969, I had seen so many people die on the battlefields of Viet Nam that I (along with most of the Americans) that the war was not going all that well ... according to Walter Cronkite anyway. Everybody trusted Uncle Walter to give us the straight scoop. We all knew or had older brothers heading to or coming back from the war. They would leave as 19 year old kids and come back in every condition from normal to body bags.

Gas was only $0.25 per gallon and we burned it at a maddening pace. We were racing, to where we had no clue.

They drew my number ... 137 ... (I will never forget that number) ... They had drafted to 262 (or something close) the previous year, so college became the focus ...

Some would say that I threw away my high school years, and in some ways I did. We stayed drunk most every weekend although I avoided the drug scene (it was just arriving in Fort Worth at the time). We swam in Benbrook Lake, ate burgers at the Circle Drive In and drag raced up and down Camp Bowie Boulevard.

Most of us never thought we would ever make it to Thirty.

 

[oldguy]

Being from 3 years behind you I can relate all to well. I agree also that I don't know how I survived this long without a pack of guidance people telling me everything was going to work out just perfectly- In fact all I really ever had were 2 parents that loved me and kicked my @$$ when needed and a whole group of teachers that could have cared less if I didn't want to be there but if I tried they showed me the way.
I always wanted a corvair but could only afford a 1958 VW bug- wish I had that car today. Got to ride a snowmobile to school all winter tho

 

[2-Strokes 4-ever]

Sex, drugs, and rock & roll............know what? The 60's weren't over till the late 70's. Fun memories.......but wouldn't want to do it again.

 

[Chili]

Sex, drugs, and rock & roll............know what? The 60's weren't over till the late 70's. Fun memories.......but wouldn't want to do it again.

And I'm still pissed about that as I was 13 at the end of the 70's. Oh well at least we had big hair and Glam rock in the 80's :bang:

 

[mtk]

You didn't miss it; sex, drugs, and rock & roll are alive and well.... ;)

 

[dales298]

Nixon was my hero when he said he was 'bringing the boys home'. '75 was to be my year to go to the bar on lottery night to either celebrate or drown my sorrows.

Dale

 

[2-Strokes 4-ever]

And I'm still pissed about that as I was 13 at the end of the 70's. Oh well at least we had big hair and Glam rock in the 80's :bang:

Really, don't feel p*ssed or feel like you missed out on something..........we got NOTHING accomplished, just a bunch of "I wanna be different" (noticed) stuff. All in all, it was always selfish and really pointless..........and put a huge heartache/worry on our parents/loved-ones. And now the guilt of all of that, when it comes to raising our own, has made the majority of us a bunch of liberal (it's all ok) knuckleheads that stand for nothing.

 

[motometal]

but dude! your screen name! you had Kawasaki Triples like the H2!

 

[JPIVEY]

Whoa, good stuff Tony, talk about parallel universes ?? change that 64 corvair to a 1960 Karmann Ghia, the graduation date to 1971 and the draft # to 9 and I can relate to most everything else.


All though I felt invincible and would live forever, it was my parents that thought I would never make it to 30, I not only burnt the candle at both ends, but I had the middle over the bunsen burner, but I would not change any of it for the world, it made me who I am, gave me who I'm with and will guide me where were I'll end up

Good stuff Tony :cool:

 

[2-Strokes 4-ever]

but dude! your screen name! you had Kawasaki Triples like the H2!

True........the triples were way cool. Always had a hankerin for one. Still do.

 

[motometal]

 

[RADRick]

but dude! your screen name! you had Kawasaki Triples like the H2!

Man, when I moved to SoCal from Florida in '79 with my Road Runner and Kawi H2 I thought I was in Motor Heaven. Cruising Van Nuys in the RR on Wednesday nights was the best, but after my first ride on the H2 to the Rock Store I knew I needed to get rid of it for a bike that could turn. The triple was a monster in a straight line, but asking it to wind through a curvy CA roadway was never in its repertoire. Now the KZ900LTD that replaced it was a different story. Ah, the memories...

 

[Jaybird]

Good stuff, Tony.

Rick, I think you will find that the KZ900 was a replacement for the Z1900 (circa mid-75)

 

[RADRick]

Good stuff, Tony.

Rick, I think you will find that the KZ900 was a replacement for the Z1900 (circa mid-75)

I was referring to the fact that it replaced my H2. BTW, the KZ900LTD was the fastest production motorcycle at one point in its existence. That was the first really scary-fast motorcycle I ever owned. :laugh:

 

[BSWIFT]

75 H1, lowered, wheelie bar, low profile slick, CO2 shifter, expansion chambers, and stripped clean of anything not needed for speed, 10.5 sec quarter mile. Front tire didn't touch the track till 1/8 mile. Didn't own it but got to run the strip on it, once! Scary, scary fast!

 

[Tony Eeds]

To continue ...

My best friend in high school, Frank Reardon, had attempted to convince me to join the Army upon graduation from high school. It was seriously in the cards, but the recruiter could not get things worked out so I would be able to leave after graduation. The enlistment date was to be the 1st or 2nd week of May, just shy of graduation. I declined and Frank accepted. Boy did our lives go down different paths. Frank became a crew chief on a Huey. He also flew as the door gunner and served three years in Viet Nam, getting wounded 11 times and finally succumbing to heroin addiction. I say succumbing mainly because the last I heard he is still alive, but a mere shell of himself.

The fall of 1969 found me at the University of Texas at Arlington trying to hide from the draft and figure out what in the hell I was doing on earth.

A 1966 Chevy II SS 327ci/350hp 4 speed had become my weapon of choice in the asphalt wars and I had (for a while anyway) one of the top five cars in Fort Worth.

I had a girlfriend and we were hanging out, kinda like meteors in the night. Talk about burning, boy I understand that term. Hard and fast, that was the rule. Alcohol was trying to do to me what it did to my father. It staggered towards success.

At UTA, I flunked everything except PE, dropped out, lost my deferment and go reclassified 1A. Boy did the clock really start clicking at that point.

Suzy and I started getting really serious and ...

The fall of 1970 found me a newlywed and enlisting in the Texas National Guard ... 49th Armor Group, 2nd / 112th Brigade, Headquarters Company. Track and Wheel Vehicle Mechanic was to be my primary MOS and Recovery Specialist my secondary.

Little did I know how things were about to heat up ...

 

[motometal]

as usual, that's great stuff Tony!

The H2 was indeed a relatively poor handler. Mine is a '73...in 1974 they totally changed the bike, much additional bracing on the frame and longer swingarm to prevent those unintended wheelies, handling improved marginally but the bike became much heavier.

I've always thought if you could get a bike to handle like an RD/RZ and go like an H2, that would be where it's at...some have built such bikes, custom. An H2 with new, modern tires, longer shocks, and slightly lowered front end will handle "respectably"...part of the problem was not the chassis, but rather the engine...much like MX bikes, street 2 strokes just aren't as smooth through the corners as 4s...if you are revved enough to have serious power on tap, then you are dangerously close to the "happy" part of the powerband.

For me, it's not about turning corners (we don't have many roads with good corners here anyway). It's about the smell of it, the sound of it, and just having something different.

Oops, sorry...there I go hijacking the thread again...

Tony, do you have any pictures?

 

[RADRick]

For me, it's not about turning corners (we don't have many roads with good corners here anyway). It's about the smell of it, the sound of it, and just having something different.

At the time I was barely 20 and knew that if I didn't get something that handled I was going to kill myself on that bike. I had other considerations, then, as well. The neighbors never appreciated the racket the bike made in the mornings when I left for work or the copious clouds of blue-white smoke the thing belched while warming up in the driveway. The KZ was infinitely more neighbor friendly. :laugh:

 

[Tony Eeds]

Oops, sorry...there I go hijacking the thread again...

Tony, do you have any pictures?

I have long wondered if any will surface, but I suspect not. Back then a camera was a bit of a chore and few of us were really all that interested in documenting our world. Who knows, I have 2~3 boxes of old photos that I need to sort through yet, so maybe one will pop up. Suzy and I have found a few from the era.

The irony was that I "had" to sell the car when gas got too expensive form me to afford to drive it. Premium gas was at $0.38 per gallon when I sold it. It only got 4 MPG the way I drove it though ... I can still hear the 780 Holley moan like an ol' ... uhhhh ... well you know. ;)

I was and am addicted to speed. My current passion is to join the 200MPH (thanks Tater) club at Bonneville. :ohmy:

 

[XRpredator]

. . . My current passion is to join the 200MPG club at Bonneville. :ohmy:

Detroit and the oil companies will buy your technology and bury it just like every other fuel efficient technology.

yes, I know you meant 200 MPH, but I'm ornery like that ;)