My first PTA meeting - Mike Felder Insurance

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CYCLING THROUGH THE UNIVERSE by Mike Felder YOU KNOW YOUR LIFESTYLE IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT WHEN... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I was a kid, I could have sworn that everybody grew up like Beaver Cleaver. After all, I had an older brother, mom always had milk and cookies ready for me after school, and dad always came home after work with every hair still perfectly combed. (The fact that he had very little hair at that time is immaterial! After all, this is my fantasy and I don't want it confused with facts!!) Well, here it is, a quarter of a century later. There must have been a turn off in the road of life somewhere that wasn't marked clearly enough. Don't get me wrong. I am not complaining about my life in the motorcycle business. Matter of fact I am kinda real happy about it. But every now and then, something comes up that doesn't quite fit into that old "Cleaver" image of family. My ten year old daughter, Jennifer, had the blessing of being the first grandchild. In most families this is a guarantee second to none that she will be showered with gifts, presents, special favors, and what-nots beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Well, such is the case with Jennifer. My father-in-law has agreed to pay for her schooling at whatever school my wife wants. And my wife has utilized this fully. Having never attended a Parent-Teacher conference, I was looking forward to my first one last month. I even made a point, at my wife's strong recommendation, to brush the dust off the sport jacket and see if I could still fit into it. It still fit. So here we are, my wife and I, driving off to the conference beaming with pride about all the great things my daughter must have accomplished and so on. The teacher ran through all sorts of charts, test results, skill levels, and apptitude tests. As a final note, she turned to me and said that my daughter had a very, very vivid imagination. Being a little surprised by that statement, I asked what made her say that. She responded that Jennifer told her this "story" about a party she went to. "What party was that?," I asked. "Jennifer told me that she went to a party that had almost two thousand Harley cycles. She also said that they partied for three days. And that several people with all sorts of tatoos were tossing her back and forth like a volleyball in the pool. And when the party was over, a friend of hers placed her on their cycle, tied her to the backrest with his belt, and then rode off in a group of sixty cycles into the sunset." "Gee Mrs. Oldcrow," I said, "I see what you mean about her imagination. I don't think there were more than 30 of us on the ride back home." Mrs. Oldcrow looked at me with utter disbelief. Then mustered up the strength to ask if this was actually a true story. I told her that every year, the Harley Owners Group has a Regional Rally of some sort and we usually make a practice of attending them as a family. Mrs. Oldcrow then went on to tell us about how other families spend their vacation time at Disneyland. She then looked at her watch and said something about how fast time goes by and how she had several other families to speak with that night. On the way home, my wife and I started joking about the whole thing. We started wondering how Mrs. Oldcrow would have reacted if Jennifer would have told her how mom placed second in the weenie bite contest. The laughter was creating tears in our eyes. My wife wondered if we were destined to go through the same thing with our son when he came of school age. But I was already lost in old flashbacks. And I couldn't help but think that Ward and June never had to go through something like that with the Beaver's teachers.

Information in this article is probably correct as of the date it was written. Please check with your insurance agent or call Mike at 800-729-2537 before you make any life changing decisions based on what you read here. Comments are always welcome.