Dale and Kathy Compton
You always wonder how people get together. Well as for Kathy and me, I bought her at the Stop and Go, at the corner of Walnut and Shiloh in Garland back in 1985.
I came in there one evening as I did almost every day and there she was on the magazine rack. So I got her and have had her ever since. And you may not believe it, but the first time I met her she had a cast on her leg, courtesy of a drunken Harley rider.
At that time I was just a poor dumb country boy in the big city, every evening while I was out messing around I would go by and pester this old ugly Yankee woman at the store. Actually, being the gentleman that I am I would go by and check on her simply because I didn't like the idea of her being there all by herself. Well it turns out that she had brought Kathy there for me. Yes, old and ugly was her mom.
We both had grown up on and around motorcycles, but at the time we met I had been off for a while.
Once we moved to Farmersville and got settled I decided that it was time that I got back on a bike, and devised a plan. As we were sitting around one evening I proposed that we needed to take on a hobby that the both of us could enjoy, and thus spend more time together. The options were either a boat or a motorcycle. Well Kathy quickly agreed to a bike, seeing as how she can't swim and is terrified of the water. And of course I reluctantly agreed. Little did she know that I had already made a deal on the bike, a 1985 Yamaha Virago 1000, and was only waiting for the seller to get it ready.
We did what we thought at the time was a lot of traveling on the bike but our age would really show after one of our short trips. After returning home from a particularly long and rough ride from Northern Oklahoma and Arkansas, I told Kathy that our tripping days were over until we got a bike that was built for long riding.
That is when we bought our first Gold Wing, a 1985 Gold Wing Limited Edition, and since then we have never looked back. We have had so much fun on the Wings and met a lot of people that we would have otherwise never known. Before we ever had any contact with any organized group, Kathy kept talking to a young lady in Farmersville that kept telling us that we should meet her parents, because they were as crazy as we were. Just taking off and riding for hours just for dinner and such. We later found out that her parents were none other than Jerry and Joan Crawford who at the time were the Chapter Directors of Chapter I in Mesquite. So I gave Jerry a call, we talked for almost an hour and we were instant compadre’s. A few days later we went over to their Chapter Meeting, and that is all that it took. We were HOOKED!!
Once we got Chapter G2 going in Greenville, we opened ourselves up to a whole new set of folks that up until now we had not met, and thus started a bunch of new friendships. Isn’t it great that all you have to do is show up on your bike and you are automatically “One of the Family”. Yes life is good!
We never suspected what we were getting into when we joined up with that first GWRRA Chapter. Everyone in the organization has truly became a second family to us. You have been there through all the good times and all the bad. And mercy! it has been a great ride!
Looking back I can't imagine going back to the way we were before we bought that first 1985 Gold Wing. Thanks to you all for your friendship and all the good times. We are looking forward to many more years of this.
Till we see you again. Ride safe and HAVE FUN!