June, phone call, I'm in Italy!! My sister calls me... She never calls me. "what's wrong" I answered the call. "It's ok, she said, "Dads had a bump on his bike, an we think he's hurt his ankle"! That was a nightmare remark, as 6 years ago I had to make the same call to her, to explain our young brother had been killed on his bike whilst out with my Dad and myself. I tried to get some info from the hospital in Bangor N.Wales, all to no avail. I made some more calls, via my contacts with the Police, and was sort of reassured that it was not looking too serious. At 2am I'm still waiting for a call from my sister, when she knew more she'd ring. It came!!! His badly smashed and dislocated his ankle, fractured his eye socket, broken his thumb, broke his shoulder, broke his back, and his Neck!!! Holy feck, I get a plane from Milan 10am that morning. Arrive at hospital, 6.30pm, Dads just coming out of surgery. The surgeon tells me, we only took him on to re-locate his ankle, but we've managed to fix it!! Great news I thought! At least he can have both slippers on in his wheelchair eh!! I'm going to skip a lot here because I can! My Blade is sat in his garage and Dad phoned me on Sat, "I've started the bike this morning he says", oh says I! Ok is it? Yeah fine. "An you? How are u doing? "I'm fine why?" And that is my Dad in a nutshell right there!! "Why" So, the fabulous news in all this is my Dad is making an amazing recovery, from plaster casts and neck and body braces, he now only has the body brace on, an should be off in a few weeks. His bike a GSXR1000K8 is gone, no more bikes I'm afraid, mum putting her foot firmly down!! He has no memory of accident which happened near Betws-y-coed, at all. It was a head on collision with a car. Police are charging car driver, a woman with 2 children in it with due care!! I think I may need to hide my keys from him.. Been a rough couple of months. But, he's still with us, an so fecking tough!! I love my Dad to bits, and thankfully I can't still tell the old bar steward that!! Sweet
Nice story mate glad he's ok, me and my old man live together and are very a like not a good thing, the last gen are a tough bunch IMO, my old man had his leg ripped off when he was 30 by a winch cable here in our yard his scream was so loud he burst a lung but he still went on to run the yard each day like normal and still does crazy stuff with the machines! Now 80 and working as hard as ever.....me I struggle to keep focused and motivated... Good on your Dad!
On the mend great stuff , no more bikes for your dad ? Think you better carry your keys with you at all times lol All the best
Cheers guys! True about made from stronger stuff in that gen tho!! Theres a certain irony about this whole story in so much that 30 years ago, riding to work he was knocked off his bike and he hit a concrete post. Guess what he did??? Yep, broke his back, and shoulder! My old man, was and still is the only rider I've ever been out for a blast or as pillion, who I can honestly say I trust 100%. He's a fast little fecker, but very safe! And it pisses me off it had to end on these terms and not him calling it a day! It will never leave him tho, that's a cert. In ya blood!!! Think I might get that tattoo'd!! Cos it's friggin true, u may have left the bikes, but they will Never Leave You
It's true. When I come across people who do the 'never had a bike, never wanted one, never seen the point of them' I don't even bother any more. If they don't get it immediately, then I'm nowhere near articulate enough to make them understand. But in the days when I used to try there would always be someone in the corner, gently nodding at the conversation, and I'd know he was a biker, ex or otherwise. There'd be no real need for explanation, just mutual understanding.
Great news after such a bad time, they don't make em like they used to!!! Is it just me or ate their a sever lack of life's characters now !!!
Not full details about crash, other than Dad was on his side of road on a left hander coming thru the winding section of road leaving betws towards Ruthin. Woman came round on his side an hit him head on. Tbh, I'm glad he has no recollection of it. I was involved in a car accident, front seat passenger when I was 17, fractured my neck(which was only discovered 6 years ago), crushed both feet. Wheelchair for six months, an very lucky to be alive let alone walk again. I couldn't remember anything apart from being out of the car and screaming in pain. I was sat watching tv about 10 years ago with Mrs, an the spookiest thing in my life happened, as I had a new memory all of a sudden. I remembered I climbed thru the window and tried to stand up... On 9 crushed toes!! I had also got myself out of the car. This might not seem to hard a thing, but the fact that one of my trainers I was wearing was still stuck in the floor where my feet were! All my Dad saw was the heel of it when he went to see it! My feet were crushed, and stuck there, yet I did not know that!! Apparently we all have this super strength and the fire chef who lived next door to us, explained that he'd only ever seen it once before in his career. Our minds ate amazing, but like I said, for his sake, I hope that memory stays away!!
If it has to be explained to anyone, it's useless. They would never understand, and will eventually shuffle off this mortal coil poorer for it.
Bugger, got side tracked. Yep, your old mans a mans man alright. Tough as old boots in them there days. Glad he's ok mate. My old man nearly pegged it a couple month back. Had a triple bypass, pigs valve and some fuel lines taken out of his chest and grafted to his pump. 10 hr op and the dozy twot nearly forgot to wake up. Looks like i'll have to wait for my inheritance......if the cnut hasn't blown it all by then.
Dad's are often legends, but seldom get told it be the people who should be telling them. I didn’t like my old man much when i was a teenager, thought he was just an old duffer who understood nothing about me and it wasn’t until my marriage imploded in my mid forties when he was the first one to call me and say, you need a home, you have one here. You need money, just ask. You need anything, I am here for you son. I moved in with my old folks for "a couple of weeks" which turned into a couple of months and during that time we sat in the garden drinking beers and smoking cigarettes that I discovered things about him that I never knew and it rocked my world. He was not the man I thought he was, I was amazed at his stories from when he was young, meet my mother, went to war, about a brother he had that died that I never knew existed, his other brother being captured my the Japanese in Burma and returning after the war with no teeth, finger or toe nails have had them all ripped out during interrogation. How he built his businesses and nearly went to prison for tax evasion. He also told me things I could never tell my mother. But above all that I realised that he knew me better then I know myself. It was jaw dropping stuff. In short he was a legend. But did I tell him that, no. He had a massive stroke and died a couple of years ago and now I will never have the chance. My mother, now on her own and slowly but surely loosing her marbles is a proper pain in the ass, but I take great care never to get cross with her, be patent and let her know that I love and respect her. I think what I am trying to say in a round about way is. No matter what we think about our old folks, we should let them know that we appreciate them before its to late.
You know what, my old man squeals like a girl if he gets a splinter in his finger, reacts to trapped wind like he's having a stroke but the truth is he's 76, is as punchy as he was when he was 16, growing up in the docks of Hull after being bombed out three times (Goering didn't like him much either), he's suffered from Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy since the late 1950's, which stops him lifting his upper arms above shoulder height, is diabetic, has had a heart attack and three stents inserted, has been hospitalised three times in the last two years with kidney stones, is annoyingly deaf but refuses to wear his hearing aids because he thinks they look stupid and apart from his heart attack has never, never had more time than a fortnight's holiday off work since he came out of his national service in 1955. "Why don't you retire dad?" "What and spend all day stuck home with your mother? Fuck off!"
Don’t you just love old people’s conversations? During the time I stayed with them I used to listen to them constantly bicker like children, on and on and on, it used to make me laugh out at times especially when my mother went into another room and talked to herself about what a pain in the arse my dad was thinking no one could hear her, but when he was in hospital on his last legs she was all over him, she loved him so much yet they hardly spoke a civil word to each other. Nowt queer as folk.
When I was a kid, I used to so look forward to the time when I would be accepted into adult conversation as an equal. Anyway, I must have blinked and missed it cos at some point as my attitudes and outlook on life grew more mature, theirs grew less and less so and we passed each other on the maturity scale. Now they bicker like kids all the time and were all telling them that if they don't shut up they'll be separated. I don't like kids, never really have, even when I was one. I deal with being in their company by talking to them, not at them, trying to trick myself into feeling I'm conversing with an adult. Big mistake. It's like cats jumping up on people who are afraid of them and the little trust suckers follow me around like disciples. My hat goes off to all you parents. How you bear having them in your house, touching your stuff and shit. That's real heroism.
