Fond Memories...Then and Now

Tom Hotaling

 

My dad, amongst other things, at one time  "Flat-Track" raced motorcycles.  He stopped when a good friend of his died racing.  But the motorcycle gets into your blood and so he continued to ride with my mom holding on as they road everywhere.  As my brother got older (three years older then me) he too enjoyed the freedom of two wheels.  Scott's first bike was a BSA 250 that he bought when he turned sixteen.   He and I were not only brothers, but yet best of friends.

I learned to ride on that BSA.  My dad and seven others were founding members of the Ravena-Coeymans Yacht Club, in Coeymans (which is just north of Yannis).  The club was an island with a road around it.  That is where I learned to ride.  Scott kept the BSA for about a year.  Then he bought a Honda 305 Super Hawk.

I can to this day remember him saying, "One day I am going to work for this Honda company."  Some time passed and Scott worked for a Honda dealership in Coxsackie,  Sacks.  That is where I bought my first motorcycle, a Honda CB360T.  Scott and I road a lot with dad tagging along on his full dressed Harley.  One day Scott smiled telling me he had just interviewed and was offered a job with Honda in New Jersey.  This job was as an instructor teaching dealership mechanics the ins and outs of how to turn, rebuild, etc. Honda motorcycles. I found out later of just how well liked and smart Scott was.  Dad and I still road together.

The week before the Indy 500, Scott and a friend of his, Mike, went to the time trials and when on their way home he and Mike hit the bottom of an over-turned semi on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  I won't go into detail what bones were broke, but the only one that didn't was Scott's back.  He lived three weeks and in June 1977 Scott died at the age of 30.  At the funeral I learned from some Honda big wigs of what they thought of Scott.  They told me stories of how he taught the classes, some ideas he had given to the engineering department, etc.  After his death, my mom put her foot down and put it down hard.  That day, dad and I stopped riding.  Selling our motorcycles put an end to our road trips.  I did purchase an off-road Honda 250cc but just not the same.  I sold it also.  As I said it gets into your blood.

I joined the Troopers and had a good 32 years with them.  Shot at once, some accidents with one being a head-on with the guy on radar at 64 mph when we hit, all good and was able to go home at the end of my shift.  When I retired, my mom, said I have something want to do.  With that she gave me as a retirement gift, the bike you see in the picture (right), a VTX 1300 Honda.  It didn't come from Sacks, but my son-in-law did sell it to me, well mom, when he worked for a Honda dealership out this way.  Here is the neat thing.  My oldest daughter, Jennifer, and her husband bought the Honda dealership in Coxsackie where my brother Scott worked back in the mid 70's before he went to work for Honda Motorcycle Company in New Jersey.

People to this day, when they find out Scott was Jennifer's uncle, will tell her stories and how he touched their life.  My youngest Kelly rides with me when she is home on her Honda 750 Shadow which did come from Matts Honda (formerly Sacks).

See more pictures from Tom at Alumni Albums --> Favorite Snapshots

Read more about Tom's daughter and son-in-law's business -- Matts Cycle Center, Coxsackie, NY

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