Sunday morning, 7:30. Most sane people are still in bed, but not us.
About 100 excited kids, nearly as many sleepwalking parents, and
assorted instructors and directors, are milling around behind the King
Philip High school, waiting for the busses to arrive. The kids were
heading for Marchng Band camp, to prepare for the fall season. One of
the dads wandered up to me and asked if I was the fellow he saw in the
Tiger last fall. He said he had two Tigers many years back, intending to
build one good one out of the collection of parts. Never completed. He
sold the works to a fellow with more spare time, who had visited me in
the completed Tiger in 1991. Yadda yadda yadda for a few minutes, then
he said it.
He was cleaning out his storage garage a few weeks back, and he found
one of the mag wheels he was going to put on his car. He remembered
that I had mags on mine, so would I be interested, or know someone who
wants one? Good condition, he said. A LAT-70 perhaps? No, it had the
name "Western" on it. BOINGGG!!! I have 4 Western "Minilite clones" on
my Tiger. Could it be?
I think I did a good job of remaining casual. Yeah, I said, maybe I'll
stop by and take a look some night this week.
So tonight was it. What I found was a Western, same size, same style as
mine! Only thing was he was wrong about the condition. It wasn't
good. What he showed me was a dusty, PERFECT, SHINY, NEVER MOUNTED,
NEVER HAD A TIRE ON IT, wheel sitting on the shelf. Time machine
stuff. It had never been out of the original shipping box, execpt the
box fell to bits over the years. I measured, held it up next to mine,
etc. A match. The price? His first offer was the number I was
thinking of. Deal. I have a spare!
So I guess that it is worth getting up early on some Sunday mornings.
Stu
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