Childhood Memories of Dad

A memento is a reminder of the past, a keepsake. They come in many shapes and sizes. People save objects for many diverse reasons. In my case, I will forever keep and pass on my keepsake to my children because of the many good and bad memories it evokes from my childhood and about my father. It is a lime green 1976 KX250 dirt bike that my father had given to me as a child to restore and was exactly the same as the one he had bought as a teen. It is all black with a lime green gas tank that says Kawasaki and has two large knobby tires. It is one of the first race models that was produced for use on motocross dirt tracks and also the same as the first bike I would ever ride. The bike that would bring my father and I close together, and the bike that would make me love riding off road vehicles forever.

I was only knee-high to a grasshopper when I first felt the wail of a two stroke engine underneath me. The noise that bike made was like a mother’s soft voice to a crying baby. I would usually just be sitting inside my grandparent’s house playing video games when I would here the loud purr of the motorcycle’s engine. I would light up with total excitement and usually run to the door to see if my Dad was going to take me for a ride. Most of the time I would end up in sheer joy, but occasionally, I would just get a feeling of disappointment. It’s the good times that I remember the best. I would put my worst clothes on because I knew I was going to get dirty. Then I would run outside to see my Dad putting his helmet on and revving the lime green bike up, while light blue smoke seeped from the exhaust pipe, which ran underneath the black engine.

After I was done putting on the shiny new helmet and goggles that my Dad had bought me, he would pick me up and place me right in front of him, between him and the gas tank, so I could hold on to the crossbar on the handlebars. Then as he let the aluminum clutch lever out easy and gradually twisted the throttle, we would speed off around the gate and down the dirt road behind the house.