The Book Shop Lady, the Biker Dude, and the Class of 2018
By Connie Slagle
Returning from a haircut in Hereford, I was looking forward to graduation Friday evening. - My last class before retiring and my daughter’s first time to help present diplomas. I was traveling au natural (wet hair, no curl or color, pretty scary) when I thought I saw an inflated black plastic bag in my lane. As I straddled it, I heard a horrible noise. I would have suspected a blow out, except that I had lived through one of those before, plus there was no alert on my car’s control panel, and it continued. I slowed down and drove very carefully to a turn out on the side of the road. I examined my tires, having ruined one of those expensive boogers before. As I drove further off the road, a black motorcycle helmet fell out from under my car. At least one third of it was shaved off, and I could see its guts.
Within seconds, an authentic looking, fully decked out biker joined me. Traveling with his helmet attached to the back of his Harley – not on his head, he reversed his path looking for it, and saw me driving with it under my car. There was no doubt it was ruined, but he stopped to check on me anyway. I asked him to look under my car and see if there was any damage. In one hundred degree heat, the grey haired, ponytailed man crawled under my car to check. He could barely get back up. Out of breath, he apologized for the incident. I thanked him for his help and asked if he wanted me to wait until he felt better. He didn’t, we shook hands, and I left for home.
I continued to worry the next few miles and decided to wait at Fast Stop until he passed by. I waited ten minutes and still no Biker Dude, so I backtracked to check up on him, ready to call 911. I finally found him traveling down the highway from Black, Texas on his way to Ruidoso. I breathed a sigh of relief, waved and passed on by.
Graduation was a beautiful event with excellent speeches and prayers by everyone. I wasn’t surprised by the Top Ten students and bet there were many possibilities for numbers eleven and twelve. The young scholars gave some good advice to their classmates and I listened intently, occasionally explaining something to my granddaughters. But my mind kept going back to the Biker Dude, wondering how he was doing. There had to be a reason that incident happened on this day.
So here you go, young folks. - Some final non-academic lessons from an old teacher and a Biker Dude. Follow the safety rules you have learned all your life. You can’t reach your goals if you don’t survive. Ask for help when needed, and don’t judge people by appearance only. Take responsibility for your mistakes. You will make them - everyone does. If you regret a decision, turn around and make it right. Say Thank you and I’m sorry. And finally, enjoy the road that lies ahead. It’s a beautiful one. Congratulations to parents, teachers, and the Class of 2018!
