I went to my dad's house last Wednesday, my mom gives me a rare picture of me in my hack. ( I hated pics back in the day) Picture was taken about 25 years ago
Coincidentaly, over the last year or so, I have been e-mailing my old friend, sidehack pilot and former great racer Mike Hardaway. Mike goes way back to the old Covina early BMX days.
I used to run around with a couple of goofballs that were also into BMX, one day we met this other group of kids who amazingly enough shared our passion for the sport at the local park
We were from different parts of town, and the usual suspicions arose. Once we figured out it was about the bikes, not what neignborhood we were from, we jumped and raced and rode through this duck-poop infested lake that was part of the park (how we didn't catch some horrible disease, I'll never know)
We became good friends and ended up at the same junior high after my family moved into the same neighborhood as Mike. We rode motorcycles, hung out and most importanly, raced breathed and lived BMX.
Mike in addition of being a great pilot, was very talented and would haveten beat Eddy King, Shawn texas and other well known racers back in the day.
Before last year, I had not seen him for nearly 20 years. We hung out briefly last year but due to time constraints, the time was limited. I finally had the pleasure of hanging out with him at his house for a few hours last Thursday. I was very glad to see Mike has done well for himself and runs a very succesful business. I also had the pleasure of meeting his wife and family
Time and success have not changed Mike; he is still a great guy and still goofier than hell.
One of the best memories of Mike was of a race years ago. As I have mentioned before, I was a lousy racer and getting a trophy was a rare thing. When I did get my first trophy, mike was there. He came running over and was more excited and happy about it than me.
I'll never forget that as that showed true friendship. I have known Mike now for almost 30 years now. And that little incident way back when will always be remembered.
You done good Hardy...
