Moped (The Vehicle, Not the Past Tense of "Mope")

Sometime in the mid 1970's I bought a moped. I used it in good weather to go to evening selectmen's meetings with my attache case on the carrier and for errands on the weekends. I'd wear my straw hat in the summer and my felt hat other times. And as I rode around the theme from the third movement, Rondo Alla Polacca, of Weber's Horn Concertino  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmbyBHGLfv8  (the theme I'm talking about begins at 4:02)* would be in my mind — I just felt that happy. Sometimes I'd even try to sing it.

Then in the mid 80's Massachusetts required moped riders to wear helmets, and I stopped using it because I didn't want to wear a helmet instead of my hat. The moped sat in my garage. At one point my cousin wanted it, but I kept it, thinking that sometime I might want to use it. A couple of years ago, the guy who blows the water out of my lawn sprinkler system noticed it and asked if he could have it, and again I refused. But that got me thinking about using it again. I found that it would not start, but I thought that "sometime" I'd take it to the shop where I take my car for repairs and they could get it operational again.

Today he came again for the pre-winter system blowout and again he asked about the moped, suggesting that I'd never use it, but he'd like to have it for his nearly 6 year old son. He wouldn't use it on the roads but in an area near his home. The guy said he builds motorcycles, so he'd be able to repair it and get it into pristine condition. I knew he was probably right that I'd never use it, but I was still reluctant to let it go. Finally I said, "Okay." He was actually surprised that I agreed, but the idea that it would be put to good use by a child (somehow letting it be a toy for an adult didn't have the same appeal) after being idle for about 15 years ultimately convinced me. So he loaded it on the back of his company truck and took it away.

I wonder if what I've been hearing in church all these years — about loving neighbor as oneself, golden rule, what you do for others you do for Jesus, and not being attached to earthly goods — is finally beginning to sink in and take hold. Well, it had cost me about $600 and I used it for 8 or more years, so I had gotten pretty my money's worth, and it would have cost something to get it operable again, so in monetary terms, it wasn't much to give up. But now I know for certain that I'll never ride around on it again with the Weber Horn Concertino running through my mind.

I hope that he kid will be as happy riding it as I was, even if he never thinks of the concertino.


*There's also a spectacular bit of playing two notes at a time just before the Rondo theme. It begins at about 3:14. And if you really like it, you might also want to check out the first part of the piece or performances by Hermann Baumann and Barry Tuckwell.