One afternoon in early 1965 I was with Elvis in his bathroom at his home on Purguia Drive in Bel-Air as I was blow drying his hair Billy Smith poked his head into the room and said, “Hey Elvis, they’re here.” Elvis smiled and told me he had a surprise. After I completed my work we walked outside to the car compound with the rest of the guys. A large truck (from then Bill Robertsons motorcycles) was being unloaded with 12 brand-new Harley Davidson bikes 650cc – six blue, six red. Elvis told us it was his gift to us and that we should pick out the one we wanted.
After we selected one there was still one bike left. Outside the gates as usual there was a crowd of fans and tourists. There was one boy about 16 standing apart from the others and looking wistfully as we were revving up on our new bikes. Elvis asked me to follow him to the gate, where the boy was leaning. “Those are nice bikes aren’t they?” Well the kid almost freaked out that Elvis spoke to him. Stuttering and trying to get it out, he said, “Yeah, yeah, they sure are.” Elvis asked him if he owned a bike and the boy said no. Elvis laughed and put his arm around the boy and told him, “You do now.”
The boy was frozen in his tracks! Elvis said, “Come on man, I mean it and take your bike.” Elvis and I walked away and watched him rev up his new bike. Elvis said to me, “Larry when I saw that look in that kid’s eyes I just had to give him one. When I was his age, we were so poor I was lucky to have shoes.”
