He rode all the way from Kokomo. In the dark!

The first time I saw a kid anywhere close to my age on a motorcycle was in the autumn of 1957.

I was a 7th grader, hanging out with my friends one evening outside Bob’s Cafe on Main Street in Delphi, Ind.

That’s when a high school aged kid rode up on a motorcycle. This was years before the Japanese bikes showed up in the U.S., so it pretty much had to be American or British. Being a Germanophile, I would have remembered if it was a BMW.

It had a big windscreen and I was astonished and unspeakably impressed to learn he had ridden it from Kokomo. That was 35 miles away and it seemed an impossible distance for a kid to ride a motorcycle.

I don’t remember much about the rider except that he struck me as adventurous to the point of being a little scary.

I wonder if I’ve ever left that impression with anyone.