Studly kept me busy Friday afternoon taking apart a 1976 Honda GL 1000. I’m not sure I was much help, but I had a lot of fun.
After we removed the Corbin seat, the pipes and a few other choice bits, we loaded the frame, along with a variety of other pieces and parts onto Studly Doright’s motorcycle trailer and drove over to a salvage yard in Tallahasse.
Now, Studly has a fondness for places that deal in salvage. His grandad, Benjamin Bernard Noyes (aka Papaw), owned a salvage yard in Hereford, Texas, and Studly spent hour upon hour there from the time he was a small child on into his teens. Papaw put him to work getting the copper, brass, and aluminum out of the pumps and motors that came into the yard. For his efforts Studly was paid enough to keep him in spending money. That yard was his world.
When we drove through the gates of Leon Iron & Metal and saw the towering piles of scrap iron, I could feel his excitement. I have to admit, it got me pumped up, too. I cannot explain the beauty of the place, so I took photos. 
The little scooter in the bottom right was something we added to the pile.
Mr. Claw was ready!
The little splash of yellow and the tire are what’s left of our old GL 1000.
The two photos above made me think APOCALYPSE!
We had to remove any batteries from the scrap, so they could be weighed and disposed of safely:
Signs, signs, everywhere a sign…
As we left the salvage yard, savoring the hefty pile of cash we’d earned from our afternoon of hard labor (okay, it was $30), I had just one question for Studly:
“What else can we take apart?”
He just laughed, but I swear I noticed a little gleam in his eye.
Peace, and junk, people!
Praying for Eyebrowz 
Ooooo..
Yes, a scene from the Walking Dead popped into my head.
Also, cool job for a kid and teen to separate out the precious medals. 🙂
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Definitely Walking Dead-ish. And I believe that my husband wouldn’t be the Studly Doright he is today had it not been for his early experiences working in that yard. When he was younger he was possibly a strong as anyone that age could be and he said it was all due to the hammering and lifting and junking. He’s still a strong man, but he’s 62 now, so he won’t be lifting many cars.
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I just love that image of kids rummaging, exploring. Things like this don’t happen as often anymore. I grew up wandering, in forests, by creeks, through towns, in cemeteries…not the same thing but sort of the same thing. Freedom to explore and learn uninhibited.
Physical labour today comes from organized sports. There needs to be more freedom in childhood again.
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I was talking to my daughter about this. We lived in small towns during most of their childhoods. They played ice hockey (with a biscuit for a puck) on the frozen river by our home in Linton, North Dakota, rode their bikes all over Claude, Texas, and generally had tons of freedom, their kids are much more “inside” kids.
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OOOH, you had a good time x
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It was a nice departure from our usual “ he works in the garage, she works in the house” scenario. Much needed couple time.
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I thought it was quietly brilliant actually xxxxx
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Thank you!
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It was more horrid to imagine all this crap ending up in a landfill or just dumped in some forested area of the county! At least here there’s a chance some of this can be useful again.
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That is hopeful!
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Writer of words childhood sounds like mine, we never feared wandering 14 acres of woods. We did hear odd stories of drunk hunters or folks wondering about but in a small town, we knew who to watch for as we heard about them.
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I love that junk can be reused especially in art pieces. I remember as a kid, going to the “dump” and picking out stuff so that we can tote it back to our tree house.
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You had a cool childhood!
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Yes I did! My sister is 4 years younger than me and all my cousins around my age were boys. Had to keep up with them. 👌
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Fun!
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