In the 1980's I worked for a motorcycle company in San Bruno. They hired me to work the front desk, write contracts, sell insurance, make nice with the clients. I could do the first three things quite fine but the last, making nice with the clients, was beyond me. (Keep in mind that this was when I was in my 30's. Enough said.) You have to understand that the clientele at a Honda/Yamaha motorcycle dealership then was a special group. I don't want to use the term "special needs" but sometimes, they were. At some point I had exhausted my "making nice" quotient and the owner of the shop moved me to the parts department. He could have fired me but he knew I was smart, just not tolerant of idiots. Plus, I was cute then, and that was a good thing in a motorcycle shop.
I knew nothing about motorcycles or their parts but in the parts department I organized the supervisor's desk, his in- and-out basket, the orders coming and going and I got to be involved with the ordering software they used. And this led me to the motorcycle software company that eventually liked me enough to hire me to be their West Coast liaison person. And it is in this realm that my story begins.
My territory for this company was the West Coast. From Southern California to northern Washington, I got to travel around and visit motorcycle dealerships. Mostly Honda but it became increasingly obvious that Harley Davidson had a strong interest in the software, so I got to know a lot of HD dealerships as well. My favorite was in SF, Dudley Perkins Harley Davidson, which was the most professional of all motorcycle dealerships ever. Dudley and his sons were stellar, they wore ties, the man who ran the office was Tom, a true gentleman, the parts department was spotless and they took me out to lunch at Hayes Street Grill whenever I was there. I loved those guys. I installed their computer with a Swiss Army knife, I made the electrical connections with a 24 bit squeezey thing, I ran wires, I made it happen hardware-wise. And then I trained them all on the software. They offered me the family discount on a bike. To this day, I regret that I didn't take them up on their offer. I did get to take a Harley out for a ride, solo, around the block.... and can we talk about the vibration....well, let's just say it was really, really nice.
I also did computer installation and training at Bob Dron HD in Oakland. This was still in the mid 1980's and that dealership was a rough place. The guys from Dudley Perkins HD warned me about working there, they were a bit nervous for me. But the main guy I worked with was named Conrad, he was the parts guy, a total Hells Angel but smart and kind and funny. The Oakland Hells Angels were legendary then, and not necessarily in a good legend way. But most everyone there was nice to me, I was the cute girl training them on software they needed. The kick for me was that Sonny Barger, the guy who started the Oakland chapter of Hells Angels, came into the Bob Dron store often. He had already had the laryngectomy and could only talk through a hole in his throat. He was pretty much on his way to prison for blowing up some other Hells Angels clubhouse. I have to say, he was a bit scary. I didn't like him, he and the hole in his throat creeped me out. (Barger and his crew were the guys responsible for knifing someone at the Altamont Music Festival in 1969, something most people have now forgotten.) Now he's an old guy, in his 70's, and when I see him on TV he looks ordinary. He was anything but ordinary in 1985. Even Hells Angels were wary of him.
All this is just casting back into the past, brought on by seeing Sonny Barger in an episode of "Sons of Anarchy." The motorcycle days were good, in a way. Bad in some ways as well, but, hey. We all have that. Good, bad, up, down. We learn, we move on.
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