Hero Worship
DE
This past week I got a flyer in the mail from a local Harley-Davidson
dealer, Latus Motors. It's got a really cool picture on it. Working from the
background out here's how it's composed: Solid black background. Then a
Stars and Stripes #1 logo, the logo that was created in 1969 to publicize
Mert Lawill's 1969 Grand National Championship. On top of the logo are some
flames. Jumping out of the flames is a bike rider in white. The rider's
white suit has a stars and stripe vee-shaped detail on the front. The bikes
front wheel is foremost and cocked slightly right. On top of all this is a
signature, blue letters with a thin white outline and then a thin red
outline, "Evel Knievel". It's a beautiful graphic work.
The upshot is; Evel Knievel is coming to Portland on July 25 and there will
be a display of his memorabilia and he will sign autographs. I considered
going but rejected the idea for a number of inconsequential reasons.
Let's flashback to 1983. My mother buys a print of an Evel Knievel water
color painting from Evel at Washington Square (a local shopping mall). It's
a 12x16 painting of a man in a small boat on a big river. Numbered 216 of
1000 and signed by the artist in 1978, apparently the date the painting was
done. The date "1983" is also on the print, the year the print was made and
Mom had Evel sign tt again, "To Corky from Evel". Corky is my Dad. The print
hung around the family homestead for years and eventually ended up in my
brother's hands.
Today my brother Kelly calls me up. This past weekend he's taken this old
print to Latus and stood in line for hours to get Evel's signature. Evel
says "Where'd you get this? I haven't seen one of these in years!" And he
signed it "To The Kelly, Evel Knievel"
So there it is. A story I'm proud to tell, a story of hardship, suffering,
and pride. A story of my white trash "Roots".
Russell Watson
wrote:
That's a good story, DE. I'm an unabashed fan, myself. The imprint he
left on me as a child is indelible. Like a lot of larger than life
figures he has some pretty glaring flaws, but then so do a lot of
other people in his position. I've heard a lot made of how he is
supposd to be such a hypocrite for all the years he spent preaching
against illegal drug use while being a drunk himself. He's not the
first and won't be the last to make the distinction between an adult
indulging in legal substance abuse and a kid doing it illegally. His
infusion of red, white and blue patriotism into an era of "tune in,
turn on, and drop out" and "if the US is doing it it must be bad" was
great. I doubt he converted anybody, but he sure bolstered those of us
already felt that way and wondered if maybe we were the only ones. As
long as he was spreading the message you had to figure there were
others out there. If my old man was still alive he and Knievel would
be around the same age. My daddy didn't give a hoot in hell for a
motorcycle, but through me clamoring to see anything Knievel-related
that came on TV he became kind of an admirer himself. On the occasion
of the double decker bus jump at Wembley (which left me crushed
because he declared it was the last) my daddy said "So this is why
you're so crazy about mototcycles?", and told not entirely, but that
it was a lot of it. He said "I kinda understand, now." That helped
grease the skids to me getting my first bike, albeit with the caveat
that both wheels needed to be on the ground at all times (that was my
mama's contribution, needless to say).
'97 FLSTF
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