All good things must come to an end, I guess, and Peter Fonda’s life was a good thing that ended earlier today. It was too soon. He reached the ripe old age of 79, which is more than most, so in one sense I guess you could say he got his money’s worth. But it would have been better if he could have stayed longer. I liked the guy.
Peter Fonda first entered my life with the release of Easy Rider, a movie that hit the silver screen when I was a goofy teenager. Choppers entered the scene through that movie for me, and Wyatt was a character I think most guys my age wanted to be at one point or another in their lives. Billy, not so much. It was Jack Nicholson’s big break, and the movie put the idea of long distance motorcycle riding in many of our minds. It spawned a cultural and seismic shift in how most folks viewed motorcycles. It launched a motorcycle magazine of the same name where my short stories would later appear (yeah, I wrote short stories for Easy Riders back in the day). Easy Rider, the movie, by any measure was a big deal.
Fast forward a year or two, and it was a 750 Honda for me. I didn’t have the panhead Harley chopper, but I bought me a Captain America helmet and I was (at least in my mind) as cool as Peter Fonda. I wore that helmet on a motorcycle ride to Montreal. It’s all about the look, and I had it.
Fast forward a lot of years, and one day I was leaving Glendale Harley Davidson after stopping there to pick up a part and Peter Fonda was walking up the sidewalk as I was leaving. I said hi and he said How’s it going, man. It was a chance encounter I remember like it happened 10 minutes ago. He would have been in his mid-50s then, and I told everyone I knew for weeks after that I had seen Peter Fonda in person. I like to think that he told everyone he knew for weeks after that he had seen Joe Berk in person, but that was before I started writing the blog so deep in my heart I knew he probably didn’t. But for one brief instant we were equals: Peter Fonda nodded at me and asked How’s it going, man, like he had known me all his life. You can’t put a price on that.
Ride easy, Mr. Fonda. Thanks for the memories. And to answer your question, it’s going well, thank you, in no small part due to the influence you’ve had on many of us.
Lived in Omaha for a few years, on California Street about 4 houses down from where the Fonda family resided. Closest I got
You?? Wrote stories for Easyrider????? OMG!! Thats gotta be several blog posts in and of itself. Tech or fiction? Oh man, I just gotta know!! You have to do some stories on that story, for sure!!
Soon, Grasshopper, soon…
Hey , you weren’t Miraculous Mutha , were you? Everyone’s been trying to figure that one out for years. Or Spider??? That one too. They were institutions at that mag and then just disappeared. You know, like they got a new job at Cycle World or something.
No, and no. I wrote under the name Jack Starbuck for Easy Riders, and Jack Turner for Iron Horse. (It’s a long story.)
Easy Rider gave a lot of people wanderlust. I left home several times before I finally was old enough to make it stick.
When I was very young I left home several times, too. But then I’d get hungry.
Joe,
I just finished the marvelous book you recommended, INDIANAPOLIS. My library didn’t have it, so they borrowed it from another library. Loved it! Every bit as good as you said.
On page 373 was a photo of pilot Adrian Marks, who landed his PBY-5 Catalina in the open sea to rescue Indy survivors. I thought he had a strong resemblance to how you must have looked when you were younger.
Why do you think?
Burton
Burt, I’ll check it when I’m back on the ranch. I remember reading about Marks, and I’m sure I saw his photo, but it didn’t stick in my mind as someone I thought looked like me. Most of the time people tell me I look like di Caprio. I can’t see it, but hey, what do I know? Glad you enjoyed the book.
Joe,
The group of photos are between pages 372 and 373. Your photo I want you to see is facing page 372.
Burton