Page 40 - Panama City Living July-August 2019

HOW WE ROLL
analyst. Other local riders include Mary Youngblood, a bus driver; Kathy Greenwood, a corporate field rep; Deborah Fretwell, a retired shipping coordinator; Debbie Cuthbert, an IT specialist; and Skeets Roche, a retired IRS agent. The list goes on and one remarkable lady, Jane Stafford, a truck driver and accomplished motorcycle instructor from Palmetto, Florida, is a silver life member of the Motor Maids, celebrating 40 years with the organization.
BOTH TILLER AND JONES SEE THEMSELVES RIDING FOR YEARS TO COME.
Riders come together for parades and social gatherings, and stand by each other during life-changing events. “When my mother died, the Motor Maids escorted her to the cemetery, in full uniform,” says Tiller. “We all share that bond,” Jones adds. “[When you ride,] Politics go out the window, your aches and pains seem to go away; your worries, too.” For her, the group is about the awareness for women as riders and their shared love of the same passion.
Wearing white gloves was meaningful since the beginning. The original founders of the Motor Maids felt that female riders needed to show they were ladies. This is only one of quite a few rules and goals of the Motor Maids as an organization. Jones and Tiller say new recruits figure out pretty fast if they fit in or not.
The proud owner of five motorcycles, Jones likes to have extras for friends to ride when they visit. One of her bikes, with a vintage sidecar, is her “grocery bike.” She smiles and says, “Having motorcycles is kind of like having shoes.”
Both Tiller and Jones see themselves riding for years to come. They are making plans for buying yet more bikes. “When we get to a point where we can’t handle the big bikes, we plan to move to three-wheeled motorcycles.” Tiller has her eye on a Spider, while Jones says, “I’d like to get one of those old Meter Maid trikes. I can see myself on one of those.”
No matter what they ride, they plan on doing it in Motor Maid blue. With white gloves, of course.
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40 • July–August 2019 • www.PanamaCityLiving.com
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