Bill Moeller Commentary: Considering Motorized Scooters and Making Molehills Out of Mountains

Posted

I suspect that there are those people among us to whom keeping track of random thoughts is a worthwhile way to spend an hour or two every now and then.

For me, some things have a sort of importance all on their own. Such is the case in “The Mystery of the Vanishing Motor Scooter.”

That thought came to me a while ago at an intersection right here within the confines of our city of Centralia. A motorized scooter crossed the road and I recognized what it was immediately because I had once been the owner and caretaker of one such device myself several years ago.

My acquisition of that motor scooter was due to two factors: One was that I wished to travel short distances in our city at an inexpensive rate and the other was that it was becoming increasingly difficult to swing my leg over the seat of my bicycle.

The solution was to purchase a motor scooter here locally at Powersports Northwest in Centralia.

But let’s get back to the actual sighting mentioned earlier. It was at an intersection, as I noted, although the actual location has been lost in the confines of my tiny little gray cells, often mentioned by Agatha Christie's detective, Hercules Perot. I have never seen it (or any other such device) again.

What’s happened to them? 

They furnish an answer to the need for short trips at a reduced cost of gasoline.

True, it’s difficult to find a parking space that is guaranteed to provide protection from a driver in a larger vehicle who wishes to occupy the same space, but problems such as that never occurred when I was at the controls of “my runabout.”

You know, I don’t think I ever named my two wheel companion as I have done with a few other vehicles.

The only real problem I encountered was the Washington state ruling that the operator of such transportation has to pass the same driving tests as the owner of a Harley Davidson motorcycle and, believe it or not, some of those tests are more difficult to do with a small, light vehicle than with a Harley.



And the driver of such a device also has to be more on the alert for other drivers who aren’t paying attention to small, unexpected modes of transportation.

So my main question remains — why aren’t there more “scooters” being used? 

Is it because we’re afraid that someone might see us saving gas instead of sitting behind the wheel of some $65,000 method of transportation? Or, maybe, being in the Northwest, raindrops falling on our heads may not be enticing? 

Anyway, with that question in mind, I stopped by Powersports Northwest on South Tower Avenue and asked if they’d sold more than that single one I mentioned at the beginning of this column.

They had only one in stock — that I could see — and it had a sign on it that a purchase for it was in progress.

Come to think of it, the one on the showroom floor looked very much like the one I had seen and which started this column!  And I received no real answer to a question as to whether or not interest in such vehicles was slipping away while at the same time I noted that their stock on hand was far below what it usually had been in the past.

Perhaps another example of how the recent — and still current — pandemic has kept our spending centered on necessities, not dreams.

By the way, I eventually sold mine to a young lady who was going to take it with her when she started college in Eastern Washington. I have my doubts that she rode it all the way there — not a lot of storage space for luggage!

•••

Bill Moeller is a former entertainer, mayor, bookstore owner, city council member, paratrooper and pilot living in Centralia. He can be reached at bookmaven321@comcast.net.