Chapter 16

Steve

Still Saturday

We had just purchased mass quantities of safety gear for a bunch of kids to begin training to motocross. They had insisted on wearing their gear to ride home.

Back at home, the kids had to show off all of their new gear. The boys of course had to show their mom's their cups. They walked around knocking on the cups that were in place. The moms just rolled their eyes, while the girls didn't think it fair that the guys got something extra.

Kevin called all the kids together and said, "I'm going to teach you all how to ride and how to ride safely. First thing today is a couple of movies. The first one is an introduction to motocross. The second is a series of movies of actual races. The third is a true safety movie. Listen and watch closely. There will be a test on this. We're going to do this just like school. We'll do it right. Here's one of my teachers, you all know my son, Dennis."

Dennis waved and smiled, then said, "I will be with you today while we watch these movies. Let's get settled down and I'll put it on the big TV. We'll take a little break between each movie, and have lunch when we're done."

While Dennis took over the class, Kevin said, "Let's go look at the area where the track is going to be one more time."

Bart was standing with us and I asked, "Want to ride along to see where your kids are going to break arms and legs?"

He groaned and said, "Sure, let me ride along. That's what I was saying about the insurance."

I told him, "You'll be taken care of now, so don't worry. I take it you passed the drug test; you still have your balls and can walk."

"That lady, Hannah, said that if I didn't pass the test, Sue would probably cut em off." We all laughed as we rode in Kevin's cart out to the back of the big park property.

Way back behind the last building, almost out of sight of even the clothing company buildings, there were groups of stakes, driven in rows and in a manner of circles. There appeared to be four groups, or four tracks, that wiggled around within each group of stakes.

They went from fairly short to very long. Kevin said, "I had Don Koss come out and help lay this out. We figured to have beginners through to nearly professionals. We'll build some jumps later, but these tracks will be perfect to start with. There's a good road for us to get back here if we need an ambulance." Bart and I shuddered.

Kevin looked around, "Now, we need a secure building out here to store and maintain the bikes. We'll also need power and water back here."

I pointed at a power pole with a small shed near it. "We're in luck. This is where Nelda's place used to be. There's a good well and power. We'll just build our storage barn right here. I think we can probably get a pre-made general steel building for what we need. Let's see if the power is still on."

We walked over to the power pole and it looked like the breaker was in the on position. I went to the shed and opened a valve sticking out of the shed. Water blasted out, and after a minute or so, the pump turned on. I cupped my hands and tasted the water. "Good stuff. This is good water, just like in the park."

The other two guys tasted the water, and when I shut the valve, the pressure built up and the motor stopped. Kevin said, "I guess that takes care of it. We're going to have a great training track. We need to post our rules and make sure the kids know that there's no hard riding without supervision. They're all young enough right now that they need supervision whenever they're on a bike."

Bart said, "I feel a lot better about this whole thing now that I see it's being handled with safety in mind. I have to tell you, I was especially worried when my little girl wanted to do this."

I said, "Well, all of mine are going to do this too, so you know I'm going to try to keep it safe."

We headed back to the patio to kick back a little as lunch should be ready soon.

When the last movie was over, Dennis said, "We'll watch this again next week and probably a couple of more times. Safety is very important and you have to do what that movie says, every time you ride. Maybe by next week, we can begin learning to ride."

There was some "Yeahs" by the kids, before Dennis said, "Go wash your hands and get ready for lunch. Help get it on the table."

There was the mad scramble of kids heading out to do as they were told. Kids were soon carrying bowls and flatware out to the tables.

Bart said, "I guess we should head home for lunch."

I said, "Are you kidding. You have to eat here. The kids are having too good a time to quit now. Come on, Saturday is chili and sandwiches. If you want, we can have a beer with our chili. We'll eat at one of tables over by the bar."

Juanita came out of the house with three bowls of chili and asked me, "Where are you going to eat, Honey?"

I pointed at a table near the bar and Juanita put the bowls down, then pulled napkins and flatware out of her apron pocket. She said, "I'll be back with some sandwiches for you guys." She got a kiss and went toward the kitchen.

Motioning toward Kevin, I asked, "Want a beer? How about you, Bart?"

I had begun pulling one into a frosty mug for me, when Kevin said, "Yeah, one for me."

With a smile, Bart said, "Why not, it's Saturday."

Within a few minutes, the patio was filling up with people. Wes and Bear joined us, and before long, the tables away from the kids were full of folks chatting and eating.

Star was with us and was talking about some tool orders. She said, "I have a real question for you, Boss, or perhaps this is in Tiny's or Henry's domain. I have two very good special tools that are made for working on sewing machines. As soon as we advertised them in a trade magazine, we have been bombarded with orders. These two tools could even be sold to and used by consumers, so they are going to be very profitable. So the big question is, who gets the profit? Does this benefit Quality Wear or does it go to S&S. The originator gets his royalty, but who gets the profit?"

Kevin said, "If S&S didn't hire you to hunt up the tools, have them made, and market them, there wouldn't be any profit. S&S may owe Quality a royalty of some sort, but that would be all."

Sue was sitting at an adjoining table and asked, "Are we talking big bucks here or just a couple of hundred thousand."

Star laughed and said, "Right now, we're talking less than a thousand in real profit. But these two items will be popular and will have a very long sales life. We can probably license it to the machine manufacturers as well. I'd say we might do close to a million in the first five years."

Sue said, "Figure a way we can get a royalty so we can show our people that profits are going into their 401K plans. They might come up with some more tools."

Star said, "I'll send a note to Tiny."

Bart asked, "Does everyone here work for you?"

I said, "No, not all. Most do because we share that as more common ground. You met Charlie this morning, he doesn't, and Hannah's husband doesn't either. See that cop over there, she doesn't."

Mickey turned toward me with a scowl, "I'm not a cop, I'm a Deputy Sheriff. Show me some respect when I have to wear this monkey suit."

I explained, "Mickey is a forensics specialist and usually doesn't pull patrol duty. I guess they were short today."

Mickey said, "It's part of the new program to save on overtime. They screwed up the schedule so bad that they had to pull me in on overtime to cover the minimum daytime patrol today. I think dad is going to be in a bad mood trying to figure this all out."

I explained to Bart, "Mickey's dad is the Major over the district out here. He's a great guy, you would like him."

The kids wanted to run a little after they finished lunch,. They headed out to the ball fields after being told to be back in an hour. Mercy said, "In an hour, they will all be ready for a nap. At least the younger ones will. The kids are having their guitar lesson late today, then Bonita has one of her special lessons. By tonight, she'll be dead tired."

Kathy said, "She always is on Saturdays. With motocross too, she's really going to be tired. I'll have to try to do some rescheduling."

Bart said, "I'll go down to the park and watch the kids. Someone should be with them."

Kathy said, "Let's see, Martin, Glenda, and Juanita, and where's Hannah, and I saw Debbie head that way. Never fear, Bart, wherever the kids are, we are too. There's enough of us to handle it though, so we all don't have to be running off to watch them."

I said, "Well, I need to run down to the shop to check on how the show is coming. I need to ride the shovel anyway, so this will give me a chance. Bart, we have an evening gathering starting around five through supper time. Come join us, all of you, and remember breakfast, especially tomorrow. You'll enjoy the view."

Sue, Mercy, and Kathy gave me a kiss as I went out to get my bike from the shed. The shovelhead is such a showpiece; it's almost a show bike only, not a riding bike.

At the shop, the teams were winding up their seminars and were having a catered lunch. Phil, the field salesmen, and the race day teams were enjoying visiting with the people they usually only saw under the strain of broken or blown parts. Sandy and Mandy were there, in their shop uniforms, scheduling consulting times. Robert and Roberta were there with them, also in shop coats, as they were going to help in the field. This consulting was bigger than I thought it was going to be.

Gene and his wife came by to thank me for the great time they had the night before. Gene said, "Your friends, Chuck and Lisa, are some really good musicians. I'd love to have a recording of just what they did last night. It was really good and I like the way they had both jazz and blues. I was amazed how well the two styles of music fit together."

Gene's wife said, "You've really done it up nice, Steve. This is the way to get even more business from these guys. Your road salesmen have been asking about every one of our vendors. I was concerned until one of them said, 'We need to be wholesaling to your vendors. We need to be in your supply chain.' That is really smart."

Shawna had shown up and brought out a couple of her bikes that she had made for some of the team members. She told me she had picked up five more orders. I guess there is still some money out there, even with the recession.

I was watching Phil say goodbye to one of the last teams and went to all the sales people and congratulated them for a good job. I told them that their numbers would show the success of this show very soon. I said goodbye to Phil and Tiny and headed back home with a stop at the gas station.

At home, I checked out and cleaned up the big bike. As I was wiping off the last of the fingerprints, Chuck came riding up with Lisa. I asked, "Where are your other women? Don't any want to ride with us?"

He said, "The five want to visit with parents tonight. Lena and Tina are running down to Sarasota, and little Tina is already out here. She's riding behind Sandy or Mandy." Kathy came out and took Lisa away. Chuck said, "How about a beer? We can probably safely have a couple and eat before we leave. The others should be bringing their bikes up pretty soon."

Hap came riding up with Margie, and Crystal came in riding Bear's bike, with Bear riding the bitch seat. When he got off, he growled, "You never saw that, it never happened."

Crystal said, "I ordered myself a new bike to be delivered to me in Hawaii. I need some riding here though, and it's too expensive to rent a bike. I talked him into letting me ride him from our place to here."

Hap was grinning, but didn't say a word. We were all distracted as Hank came riding up, while Debbie was walking with their kids. Two bikes came roaring up to the parking area. It was Shawna, riding a fancy new chopper I had not seen before. With her were Robert and Roberta, on what looked like a just finished custom chopper.

Shawna said, "Will you look at the ride Robert and Roberta put together. Robert said he couldn't stand it when he kept seeing us ride, so he decided to get a bike. He didn't want something stock so he started from scratch and this is the result. Can you believe it? It's a real showpiece."

"Where did you get what you're riding?" I asked Shawna, walking over to look at the chopper she rode in.

"This is Stump's surprise. I've been collecting parts for a while and put this one together so he could ride around on something special for a while. He'll end up selling it and riding his old bike. He loves that thing, but will ride this for a while."

Shawna's bike showed an S&S logo sort of hidden, and when I looked, Robert's and Roberta's had one too. I asked, "How come you have an S&S logo on your bike? You built it."

Roberta said, "Yep, we did it but we did do some of the work on your benches and we did use some of your equipment for some things. We had the frame built by your guys, and they did the handle bars and the sheet metal. It has our name on it as built by, but it really is an S&S bike. One of these days people from all over the country are going to be coming here for bikes. We'll build 'em."

Sandy and Mandy rode up, then we heard Jim coming with another bike in the background, probably Charlie. Both of the guys rode up and put their kickstands down. Charlie said to Shawna, "By the time you pour me a beer, I'll be showered and dressed."

Jim gave Hannah a kiss and said, "Ditto."