SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey, and welcome to Boomers on the Edge. Some guys in their 60s who still think they're 60. Your hosts, Kat and Ron. Let's get started. So uh all of us ride motorcycles or have, or you know, all terrain vehicles.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

I've I've got a big background in uh ATV and uh I did a little ATCing with you guys, all terrain cycling three-wheeler. Yes. Onto ATC 90s, and then I have my own ATV.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

And and along with that comes accidents. But uh, we were gonna talk today. Ken asked me to tell a kind of a legendary family story about my dad and uh him having an A TV accident.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

And should we mention a little bit about your dad's personality?

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Yeah, no, yeah, thanks for bringing that up. So my dad's one of these guys, uh God love him and everything. But he's got a flair for the dramatic. He he has a reputation for flair for the dramatic. Yeah, so I would say the joke in the family would be, you know, if he if he stubs his toe in the night at the home, then you knew about it. Like, you know, there was quite the fallover, and you know, the whole, you know, you'd think he had died or something. So given that background, I want everyone to understand that he called he, if you know the story, kids, of uh crying wolf, uh this story is about crying wolf. Okay. We go on a trip up into northern Michigan, and uh we're riding some uh old Honda ATC 90s, which are three-wheelers. I think we talked about them in some other episodes. And they were pretty fun. They were fun. They you know they wouldn't go real fast, uh, but uh they were eventually outlawed because so many people got hurt on them and couldn't control them.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

So if I remember correctly, you guys liked to try to drive those on two wheels. Yes, well, we could as much as you could.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

I could spin them, I could put them on two wheels, I could do okay. I I started riding on those when I was 12. So, anyway, uh we take them up north. It was uh, I think it was just my mom and I and my wife. I I think we weren't married yet, we were dating or something. So my dad and I are riding in the woods. You know, when you ride in the woods, we're on a fire trail. We're not on a narrow trail, we're on a road, but we're on a forest road. You know, you know, when you're driving fairly fast, you on a any kind of vehicle, a TV motorcycle, you want to kind of stick to the right, you know, you don't want to be riding over to the left.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Someone might be coming out. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

A tra a car with a trailer comes towards you guys. We turn we're making, I think it was a left, and all of a sudden there it is. Okay, it's there. So my dad, he shoots from that left position he's in across, but he he's going so fast and he can't control it. And you know how the the side of the forest road has sometimes an embankment that's two or three, you know, like where it got dug in by the plows or something. And so he hits that thing at almost like full blast, and he goes airborne, goes airborne. All I see is him flying in the air, and unfortunately, wait, were you thinking how cool he was it this? It looked pretty cool. Okay, I tell you what, I will call it what even is even cooler when he down that embankment, it went downhill. It wasn't level, yeah. It went downhill and it had been uh forested forested so there were clear cuts. So if you can believe this, so now the bike is rolling. I don't know where he goes, but the bike is tumbling, hits these things, flies in the air, and hits it again and flies in the air. That was even more exciting than the original jump. It was very, very exciting. So he ends up somehow at the down at the bottom of this gully, and the bike's God knows all destroyed and everything. I get down there, but you know, let's remember what I told earlier on the story, okay? So he's laying there and he can hardly move, he can't really move. And and I'm like, What are you right? What's going on? He's like, uh, uh, and I'm like, okay, like, how bad is it? You know, and I know I've seen many people have accidents and crashes, and they look worse than they are, okay? He's there, and uh, of course, the people come down and everything, you know, who cut him off, and you know, everybody's looking at him and everything. He's like, he says he he's saying that he can't move. Now, I will admit I didn't believe him. Okay. It looked bad, but even though I was because he has a flair and a history for the dramatic, okay, I was like, okay, because he always likes to tell this story that you know, but I may not have believed him, but I did everything the same that I would have if I did believe him. I ended up having there was no cell phones, because this is a pre-cell phone story. And I went and got the police, I got the ambulance, I got everything. I did everything, but I I had to leave him with some of the people I had to, because I went and there was no phone coverage to there was no cell phone. So there is one part I have to add to the story. Do tell, do tell. Because I told my dad the other day I was gonna put this on the podcast and he's he's cool with it, except he said that there's part that I didn't know. And I says, What's the part? He goes, Well, when you went off to to the uh ambulance, because I had to ride on the other three wheeler and go get there was no phones or anything, and and people were there looking over 'em. Right, they called the uh local paramedics. And I guess in those days they would do it on CB or whatever, and Citizen citizens band radio there for the kids. And so I guess uh the local paramedic that responded in the local area that was the closest that could be there fastest was a lady who was like outside cutting wood. Oh an outdoors woman. And apparently, according to my dad's story, the woman shows up with a tank top on, and she's very attractive, very buxome, and he's on the ground and he's laying there, and he looks up and she bends over and he opens his eyes because she's looking at him, you know, trying to check him. She's a paramedic, except she's came right off of her, you know, right off of her uh her property.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

And she he's he looks up and he sees these two beautiful breasts right in front of him, and he says, I guess I've gone to heaven. Oh, you gotta love that. And she goes, You're just fine. And you wanted that added he he was he said, You're missing the whole best part. So I I guess he realized he wasn't completely dead at that moment, but uh it was a nice thing to kind of bring him back, you know, to reality.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

It's a nice mem memory when he when he uh thinks back to that day.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Yeah, so I I had to make sure I added that piece. Hope he likes it. We get the ambulance there and everything was handled. I never didn't move him or anything stupid. So they get him in the ambulance. They took him to Potoski, I think. Okay. That's a cruise. Like a cruise, but they needed to take him to a real hospital because it was serious. So he goes down. Anyway, so we take him to Potoski. So they we did everything right, even though honestly I wasn't sure what I believed. And it gets even worse because of his history. We we go there and they say, Looks good, everything's fine. Like, what do you mean he's fine? Well, you know, he's gonna have some bruises and bangs, but nothing's broken. This is at Potoski, which is like a better hospital in the northern Michigan. Now, did they do an x-ray? Yes, that's what I'm getting at. So they x-ray him and they said everything's fine. And so we're like, No broken ribs, no nothing. No broken ribs, no nothing. You're fine. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

So but this is kind of supporting what you thought about your well, I'm yeah, so I'm thinking, oh, here he is, you know, doing his same old bit.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Can we say embellish? Embellish and everything, you know. So this story is family, everybody knows lore. Lore. So we I end up having to drive the whole rig and everything to travel trailer and everything. I have to do everything because he can't really move that much and take everything home. Right, right. Yeah. So anyway.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

You did the hook of that trailer.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

As luck would have it, literally the next day, my mother had had a a uh medical situation that she um stubbed. No, no, no, no. It was serious, like something for her intestines, and and she had uh, it was like she had scheduled it six months out, and it was scheduled for literally that Monday. He's like, Well, I want to go. And I'm like, You can't go, you're saying you're all sore and everything. Because he kept complaining. He decides to go with us. If anybody's ever been, it was at University of Michigan Hospital, and if every anybody's ever been in Ann Arbor where the what are they, cobblestone roads or whatever they have over there? Like a brick paved paved road. If anybody's not been there, they have some of those roads, yeah. Picture this. My mom and I are in the front seat, we're trying to find the place. He's in the back seat complaining about how much he hurts, and he's got these pillows. He's got like five pillows around him. He's like in a pillow cooking. Yeah, he's like, he's like, I'm not feeling good. I'm not feeling good. And my mom and I, because they've been told us he's fine, they told us I want to keep saying this. They told us he was absolutely fine. So he's in the back. We're going over these cobblestone roads like boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. I'm going like two miles an hour, okay?

SPEAKER_01 10:35

And he's saying, Ronnie, slow this thing down. I wish you could see the face.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

You can't see it on video. And my mom, my mom is laughing because we think he's faking it. Like, yeah, laughing out loud. Almost. Okay. We're looking at each other like, has anyone ever faked it more than this? And he's like back there, like, we're cracking.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Now in retrospect in retrospect, it's not funny.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

It's we think it's so funny, we're almost crying. Okay. My mother and I never had so much fun together laughing about it because we thought he was doing his normal. Okay. This is for the kids out there, you don't cry wolf all the time because then when the day comes, no one will believe you, okay? Exactly. So he goes to the thing, he's and and and so like he's so bad, like he's at the house, he's like practically walking just to go to the restroom or something. Like and so it's like, so finally he insists on us taking him to uh the hospital here in uh Detroit area, Beaumont. Okay. Well, it was a little different story. Yeah, apparently Potoski screwed up and uh he had a broken intern. He had a broken sternum. Oh, the breastbone. Yeah. Yeah. And they, you know, they can't do a whole lot. They have to tape you up or something. I don't remember exactly. Immobilize you. But for so, so the cry wolf boy, he actually was hurt. Oh we did you guys feel bad then? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

I can tell.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

I gotta be honest with you, it's probably the funnest time I ever had with my mom in my life because we never laughed so hard in our lives.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

We probably laughed afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

We thought he laughs. He he's gonna hear this story and he's gonna laugh because it's like legend. No one believed him. And my mom, I don't think I ever had more fun with my mom in a day. Uh uh laughing. I don't think I ever laughed that hard with my mom. And this could almost be you know related to a public service announcement about well, safety gear, don't ride in the left lane, okay, when you're on a dirt road with oncoming traffic, going full blast, and don't cry wolf. Because meaning if you go through your whole life all the time telling everybody everything's so bad, everything's so bad, then when you finally have an emergency, no one's gonna believe you.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

You know, yeah, that's a great lesson to know about.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

I don't remember, I know I think it took a long time to heal his defense. Obviously, he wasn't faking it, and obviously we shouldn't have been laughing at him. You feel bad now? No, because again, he laughs. He laughs about this story. He does laugh because uh we this story's been told one billion times in front of him, and he still laughs because it was all about his history and so forth, and as it turned out, right, he was uh and we learned what not to do from that whole episode.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Oh, true. Yeah, so there was some positivity. Okay. Well, thanks for listening. Thanks for sharing that.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Yeah, well, yeah, that was uh requested by Ken and Family Heirloom story, so to speak. Hey, thanks for joining us here on Boomers on the Edge. We hope you'll join us again. And until then, have a great time. Thank you.