Make Somebody Snicker this Weekend

Manner again, in what looks like one other lifetime, I used to be a highschool trainer. In case you haven’t heard, highschool academics don’t make a ton of cash, so I, like so many others earlier than and since, needed to have a facet hustle or two to make ends meet.

As I’ve talked about quite a lot of instances right here, I spent my summers as a biking tour information in Europe, however that was removed from profitable; my monetary aim throughout the summers was to come back shut to breaking even. Given my crushing pupil debt (or at the very least it felt so on the time), I additionally wanted a solution to complement my revenue throughout the college 12 months and as such, I labored half time in native bike outlets.

Whereas instructing at Marin Academy in San Rafael, California, I spent most of my weekends and at the very least a couple of weeknights promoting and, often, repairing bikes at Sausalito Cyclery, as soon as owned by the Purple Rocker himself, Sammy Haggar (it’s now a part of the Mike’s Bikes empire, which when you stay within the Bay Space, you recognize what I imply).

On the time, Sausalito Cyclery was one of many two greatest outlets in all of Marin County and benefitted vastly from its location: it sat proper at the start of the bike path that linked Sausalito to the remainder of the county, together with Tiburon. The “Tiburon loop” was (and is) one of many extra well-liked rides for denizens of San Francisco, simply to the south.

In case you are a bike owner and you haven’t but ridden the Tiburon loop beginning in San Francisco (and thus crossing the Golden Gate bridge twice), you should instantly put it atop your bucket checklist.

In the summertime, it was simple to inform which cyclists had been Marinites and which had come from “the town” because the latter had been dressed head to toe as if a snow squall had been anticipated to blow in at any second.

It additionally afforded us many visits by native and nationwide celebrities and I did fairly nicely promoting high-end bikes to the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Madonna (fairly the mountain biker), and Sean Penn to call a couple of (OK, I offered the bike to Sean Penn’s supervisor, however that garnered me an invitation to a celebration at Sean Penn’s home, who was married to Robin Wright on the time, however that story must wait).

Simply, although, essentially the most frequent A-lister that got here into the store was Robin Williams. He should have are available at the very least a dozen instances throughout my time on the store and every encounter was eerily comparable. Regardless of the recognition of the store, he would all the time seem when there was actually nobody else there, not a single different buyer. He was virtually all the time along with his driving buddy, a former Cat 2 racer (whose identify I overlook at this level).

When he would are available, it was fairly clear that he was a somewhat shy and reserved individual. I do know that sounds loopy given his public persona, however had I not identified who he was (I imply, it was Robin Williams for chrissakes), he would have been another bike nerd, desirous to see the newest know-how or perhaps chat a bit about bike racing (which meant Lance Armstrong on the time).

That will all change, nonetheless, if one other buyer would enter the shop and acknowledge him. Straight away, he would swap from being the shy bike nerd to the whirling dervish of his standup routine. We might all be laughing hysterically in a matter of seconds however earlier than anybody might beg for extra, he can be hopping again on his bike, little doubt preferring the relative solitude of the Marin shoreline to the shortly growing horde of admirers.

Over the course of a handful of years, I offered Robin a couple of bikes, nevertheless it was not like he wanted them: he as soon as instructed me that he had over fifty top-end (at the very least when he purchased them) racing bikes (that quantity had reached 87 on the time of his demise). He had so many, the truth is, that his brother as soon as requested him if he might, like, you recognize, have one which he wasn’t utilizing? Robin apparently declined giving up one among his flock, as an alternative, he despatched his brother into the store and instructed me that he would pay for no matter bike he wished.

Each time he was taking pictures an image within the Bay Space, we’d have a reasonably regular stream of oldsters from the manufacturing crew move by way of the store at his route to get a motorbike; it appears he unfold the gospel of biking virtually as a lot as he made us chuckle.

On one random afternoon, Robin got here in (once more, with nobody else within the store) and whereas exhibiting him the newest carbon body, he appeared to note my top for the primary time (I’m 6’4″ and he was a mere 5’7″). “You actually are a tall one”, he mentioned, “did you ever play basketball?” I instructed him I performed in school and that was just about the tip of it. I believed.

The subsequent day, his manufacturing assistant got here into the store and requested if I wished to be in Robin’s new film. Huh? Apparently, he was taking pictures a number of scenes that concerned basketball gamers and he thought I might be good. Nicely, that didn’t work out ultimately, which was in all probability for one of the best; the film was Flubber and given its detrimental evaluations from practically each critic, it will have possible ended my display screen profession.

Why do I point out all of this now? A number of years after I had moved again to the East Coast, I heard the unhappy information that Robin Williams had taken his personal life after years of struggling with Lewy physique dementia.

Sunday, August eleventh, marks the tenth anniversary of his passing and whereas I’m on no account making an attempt to fake that we had been in any method nice mates, I plan on going for a journey this weekend. And to make my youngsters chuckle.