The Motorcycle Man

I was a nine year old boy growing up on a prairie farm in the 1950s. My mother was sick so my grandmother came to take care of her but she did not have much time for me. My father was a farmer busy trying to get his fields ready and his crops planted so he didn’t have time for me either. I was lonely and scared. I was afraid something terrible was going to happen to my mother and no one would talk to me about it. They all thought I was too young to understand what was going on.

My father decided he needed help on the farm so he placed an ad in the newspaper asking for a hired man. One day, a noisy machine came roaring into the yard. It was large grey Harley Davidson motorcycle with a windshield and a star painted on the gas tank. Two large springs went down on either side of the headlight which looked like a single strange eye. The machine looked very sinister to me.  Astride the bike was a big man wearing an army helmet. He stopped the machine, took off his helmet and stuck out his hand to my father. “My name is Hal and I’m here in answer to your ad for help.” He had dark wavy hair and a big smile. His shirt sleeves were rolled up above his elbows showing his well muscled arms.

He and my dad went off to discuss the possibility of his working here. I sat staring at the now quiet monstrous machine. I had never seen anything like it in my life!

Daddy must have decided that Hal could do the job because the next thing I knew, he was being installed in the granary that had been prepared for the hired man.

One day I was riding my bicycle around in the yard. When I got tired, I sat down on the step to rest. Hal had completed the jobs Dad asked him to do before lunch, so he sat down beside me on the step and began to chat. “I know how you must feel with your mother being sick. My mother was sick too,” he said.

“Is she better now?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied, “She is with Jesus now so she is all better”.

I wasn’t expecting that. It gave me something to think about. Hal went on, “My daddy died a while ago too so I am all alone now. I’m sure you must feel alone sometimes too when your mother is sick and your daddy is so busy.” I nodded and looked at my feet. I didn’t know what to say but he seemed to know exactly how I was feeling.

“Come with me,” Hal said. “I want to show you something.” He took me to a big slough behind the barn. We crept up to a bunch of reeds near the slough. “Look in there”, he whispered. When I looked where he was pointing, I saw a nest with some little balls of fluff. “Baby ducks,” he whispered. We watched them for a few minutes until we saw the mother mallard on her way back to the nest. Then we quietly slipped away.

Another day Hal showed me a den of baby foxes. They were so cute and funny, almost like little puppies but their noses and ears were more pointed. We watched them play fighting and tumbling around like brothers would do. We talked about a lot of different things. It was good to have someone to talk to. “Why do you ride that motorcycle?” I asked him.

“My daddy had it in the war. When he came home I helped him work on it. We spent a lot of time together working on it and repainting it”, he said. “When Daddy died, he left it to me. It’s all I have left of him.” 

The next day Hal asked me if I would like to go for a ride. Daddy gave his permission and although I was a little reluctant, I went.

Was I ever glad. It was exciting! I felt like I was flying. The wind rushed by us and the road disappeared under us! It was magic! It was like nothing I had ever felt before.

 As the summer wore on, Hal and I spent more time together. I helped him do chores in the barn, chicken house, and garden. Hal taught me about feeding animals and watching for sores or other things that didn’t seem right and might indicate that the animal was sick. He taught me which were weeds and which were vegetables in the garden. He would hoe and I would pull weeds in the row and then we would change off. All the time we were working, we would talk. He would tell me about how he grew up and he would ask me questions and actually listen to the answers. I began to feel that maybe I had some value to someone after all.

Hal would also take me on his motorcycle some days. One day, we took a picnic lunch and went for a long ride. He showed me birds and animals and we watched some of them play and some of them hunt and others try to escape from being hunted. Life was good and I was having more fun than I ever had before because I finally had someone who listened to me and understood.

My mother also seemed to be getting better and she would sometimes sit and let me read to her or she would read to me until she got tired and needed to rest.

One Saturday, Daddy asked Hal and me if we would like to go to a Sports Day. Daddy said he was caught up enough to take a day off and he was going to go watch some ball games at the local Sports Day and Hal and I could come too if we would like to. Well, he didn’t need to ask us twice! We both said, “Yes!”

Daddy and Hal and I had a lot of fun. We watched some baseball games, ate hot dogs and generally had a good time. When the day was over we were tired but we had enjoyed the day and each other’s company.

All too soon, it seemed, the summer and fall were over and the time came for Hal to move on. One autumn day when the harvest was done and the weather was much cooler, Hal loaded up the saddle bags on his motorcycle with his belongings and came to say goodbye. Daddy put his arm around my shoulders and thanked Hal for all he had done over the summer. Daddy gave him his last pay cheque and shook his hand. Hal shook hands with me too and promised to keep in touch. When he roared out of the yard and down the road on his motorcycle, I had tears in my eyes. But I knew that Hal had become a very important person in my life and I would never forget how he had changed me by paying attention to me when I needed it most.