14 Survival Skateboarding. Song: “Heaven Forever & The Feeling Within” (2 Original Songs)
“Forevertide”. Photo: My old Grosse Pointe skateboard, and the “music room” now, and as it was in 1965 when I wrote many of my original songs. Also, an overhead internet photo showing the Moross road hill, and the Grosse Pointe Farms Pier where my new lady friend and I took out her brother’s small boat on Lake St. Clair (explained one story ago). I was allowed take a few pictures when went back for my high school reunion, and visited our old house.
“Forever Tide” by Douglas Dover
Walking on a sandy beach, feeling the summer tide melt slowly round your feet. Walkin’ hand in hand, walkin’ in the sand. Remember hello, remember goodbye, We walked in the sea. (two minute instrumental riff symbolizing the waves, and the tides of the sea)… And the tide rolled back, and the god he laughed, he was pleasing, he was leaving. And the sorrow that was cast was finally surpassed by the ‘morrow, by the ‘morrow. Come with me we’ll dream together, things that will be all of ever. Don’t you know the after-tide of things will surely be the way it is with you and me… forever. (La la la la’s to end)
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Story: It was always fun skateboarding down to the pier in the summer, especially on the way, where it was downhill. At the Grosse Pointe Farms, MI Pier, you could play tether ball near the concession stand, walk over to the little beach they had made with imported sand, read, or swim at the pier and/or pool. At the end of a day, in order to avoid having to walk up the long hill which started just across the street from the pier, I would try to “hitch” a ride home… from the bottom of Moross Road where it started from the pier, (shown in the photo from off the internet). You can see all of the small boat slips too. I’d only try to hitch a ride from the bottom of that hill, and only for the duration of one or two light changes, because it wasn’t too much of a long walk home. From that light at the bottom of Moross road and Lakeshore Drive, sometimes I got a ride quickly, but way more often, I’d just run up the long gentle hill, and skate board the rest of the way home.
One day while standing at that light at the bottom of the hill, I saw an old-fashioned red truck, with a bunch of golf course type cutting mowers on a trailer hooked up to the back of it, stopped at that light. I assumed that they had either finished their long day of cutting grass for the many homes along Lakeshore Drive or, more likely, that they were the Grosse Pointe country club crew, since the club golf course was so close, and all three men crammed into the old fashioned truck were wearing the same color uniform. Whatever the case, I knew that my rubber skateboard wheels (see photo above) wouldn’t make any noise and, if I stayed low, they couldn’t see me, so they wouldn’t even know, let alone mind, that I grabbed onto the lowest back rail of that wooden trailer full of lawn mowers, and when the light turned green, got pulled for a short ride. I did so, and made it a significant way up the hill, being pulled on my skateboard, but I had to let go as soon as they picked up too much speed where the road started leveling off near the top.
By the end of the summer, I realized that they would be at that light around that same time everyday, and when they happened to be there at the same time as I was, I tried it a second time. This time, I stood up enough after establishing my hold and stance, to purposely let the two passenger workers see me, in order for me to get a feel about whether they were cool, about me hanging on, and when they looked and saw, they just turned around and ignored me, so I stayed in a much more comfortable riding position in the middle of the rear of the trailer, and I reached even closer to the top of the hill before letting go.
Then, a week or so later, on my third try, they stayed going at a perfect speed for me, all the way up the entire hill, but when the road leveled off, and they started going much faster, I had to let go. However, this time, since I had reached the very top where the road leveled off, I wasn’t on an uphill incline, so there wasn’t anything to slow me down, so when I let go carefully, I continued sailing, effortlessly, on my wide rubber wheeled skateboard, with my arms stretched out for balance, at about the speed of a very fast bicycle – way too fast to jump off my board, but with the burst of adrenaline it elicited, with knowing that it saved so much time, and energy, I thought doing that was just GREAT! I sure wanted to try THAT again!
It was tricky doing this because it lunged forward when they changed the gears, because it was a stick shift truck. It was scary holding on when they changed gears at the higher speed, because if I let go at their higher speed, I could easily fall, being off-balanced. Because I knew that my weight added to all of the weight of those numerous heavy mowers, I feared that if the driver was the one in charge (and knew that usually they are) and if he ever saw me, he might very likely be mad, because he was already pulling with all of the load his old little truck could handle. But, they had always kept their speed just right for me, all the way up to the top of the hill, so I gathered that it was okay, and it sure was awesome sailing effortlessly for another 50 to 80 yards going really fast. It was very scary, and took a lot of nerves going even that fast, and I assumed, incorrectly, that because they pulled me all the way to the top at the perfect speed, that the next time(s) would be the same way from then on. Now, I would wait much longer waiting for a ride at that light at the bottom of Moross and Lakeshore Blvd. in Grosse Pointe MI, because my chances at catching became better at that time of day.
On my next, and FINAL attempt at doing this, they seemed more in a hurry to get somewhere fast, than to continue being entertained by some “punk “Pointe” kid”. On this last time, I could see exactly when the driver realized what it was that had been slowing down his ascent up that hill, and in my teenage mind, I was expecting that he too, would “help” me going up the hill. Not! He looked and saw me on the second gear change, which was at the higher speed, and this time he floored it. Since I had no chance at letting go at that speed, without falling off my board, I pressed against the trailer tighter, looking straight into what I hadn’t noticed before, on any of my previous rides. I was looking into several recently sharpened shiny “greens-type” lawnmower blades. They were parked inches away from my face, and had been re-arranged right on the other side of the wooden rails, so my only options were to either let go, and most likely fall at high speed, or release my skateboard, and jump into those shiny sharp blades.
So, instead of the usual, slow, steady, end of the day, lackadaisical, uphill climb,, he floored it, and I realized that this truck was perfectly capable of hauling all that weight, AND more! And, I knew that I had to either hold on until he ever slowed down, or that I had to let go while going WAY TOO FAST TO LET GO! I knew, and so did the driver(?), that my only choice was to try to jump onto the truck and on top of, or into, the mower blades. But, if I plopped over the trailer rails and into the trailer, I would easily land mangled on top of those mower blades. And, I very likely would have had to ride clear through the next two lights and, if they were both green, it would mean having to ride clear down many more miles over Mack Ave. into Detroit, at Seven Mile Road (which is called Moross in GP. What had started as my lackadaisical “hang a short ride” up the long little hill, had now become a death defying act of desperately hanging on for dear life, and having to choose between falling on pavement at high speed, or jumping into razor sharp large mower blades. This definitely became their joke on me. Because of their high rate of speed, I feared for my life to let go, so I chose to just hang on all the way to the top of the hill, regardless of how fast they went, which was, unfortunately 35-40 mph as they reached where it became level at the top. As I stood on my skate board clutching the rear railing of the trailer, I could clearly see that all three of those men were laughing their heads off hysterically. They were being entertained, seeing me in my predicament, through their rear truck window, knowing I was 100%petrified and, to them, it was only funnier, the faster they went. I also realized that this time, they were definitely making sure I got the message… this would officially be the last time that they would haul me up that hill. I also felt that they really didn’t care if I lived or died. Lesson learned!
When I reached the top of the hill at this high speed, I knew that I would have to let go, and I knew that the truck would be going even FASTER as the road leveled off! It reached the top, the pavement leveled off, and I decisively, gingerly, and extremely cautiously, released my “death grip” from the trailer’s rear railing and, still petrified, continued on my hair-raising journey homeward, sailing at around 40 MPH or more, on my rubber-wheeled skateboard which I still have (the one in the photo!). I went zipping quietly along on my rubber wheels, smoothly, well over 100 more yards, past the water plant, then clear through the first T/intersection at Moross at Kerchevel, (with no thru traffic, thank God), and continued on my own, onward, for the length of another football field.
Just as I had the thought that I had them, the system, and the whole world beat, I saw it. I was heading straight for it. It was a large MANHOLE COVER with the familiar black steel lip which I had known to steer clear of, at all costs, whenever skate boarding on any street. I also knew that at my straight line of travel, at high speed, there would be no possible way to go around it. In the next split-second, I hit that manhole cover, and it stopped my skateboard as they say, “dead on a dime”, but not my body, which continued flying through the air. I dove into the blacktop, and scraped the skin on the palms of both my bare hands, and rolled. These days, there are laws which require wearing the proper safety equipment, like gloves, a helmet, knee, and elbow pads.