Not all Jackets are created equal, they just aren’t; it’s a fact of life. I happen to know this because I own one of the coolest jackets ever; it’s so cool that it was probably the understudy for Luke Skywalker’s jacket at the Yavin awards ceremony in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (I wonder if that got broadcast across the galaxy as”The First Yavin Awards”?) This happens to be a black, red, and white Fox Racing padded leather jacket given to me in college by my father; the first racing jacket he ever owned. He previously tried to give it to my brother, but for some reason the cool factor didn’t hit him the same way. I pull it out every Spring and Fall, never knowing what adventures it might be involved in.
Several years ago, one Spring afternoon in April, this jacket was resting on a post in my dorm room at Cedarville University. The weather was perfect and my brain told me that my Lake Ann Camp polo shirt didn’t need that jacket to tag along to ward off the elements; the elements weren’t the danger, something else was coming. The clock on the wall said I was late for a afternoon class, my last class of the day before my dad was supposed to pick me up for Easter break in Michigan. Exiting the room, I assessed my transportation options: the Revo scooter wasn’t working, so my best option was the navy blue custom tricycle I sometimes called the “FENX II”. Strapping my feet into the pedal locks and adjusting the handlebars, I flew out of the dorm at nearly top speed…right down the paved hill my dorm rested on. Hurtling towards the sidewalk, I didn’t see the motorcycle coming right away; once I did the bigger cycle missed me, but my cycle still flipped over and I was attached to it at the pedals.
