Jason Stratton, a history professor at Bakersfield College, has an interest far from the realm of historical documentation – Stratton has a love for riding motorcycles.
He owns two bikes, a 2005 Kawasaki ZRX 1200, which he rides to campus regularly, and an ’83 Honda Saber that is currently out of commision, but which he plans to get back on the road in the near future.
Stratton recognizes the risks of riding motorcycles but is not intimidated by them.
“Danger is not my middle name, but it is something that does not scare me into avoiding it,” he said.
“It’s something that I approach rationally, and I recognize the worst thing that could happen would not be death, but to be a financial burden to my family.
“I have been hit once. I came into an intensive-care ward. I still don’t remember that accident.”
Stratton was hit in 2002 when someone turned left into an intersection.
“I have no memory of it. I lost three hours of memory that day,” he said.
“I broke my two front teeth and sprained my left wrist to the point where I couldn’t really close my hand for two months effectively.
“But I was in class teaching the next day, because I only lost three hours of memory – I didn’t lose my memory from college.”
There are many reasons Stratton chooses to ride motorcycles instead of a car or SUV.
“It makes me feel connected to the world around me in ways that I think our modern societies are disconnected from,” Stratton said. “I don’t have an air conditioner, I can’t make it warm or cold to suit my taste on a whim. I feel the cross winds, I can smell things as I’m going through the area because I’m not insulated in a nice little sterile cubicle, passing through the universe around me.
“I’m connected to the universe.”
Stratton said that he likes the thrill of the acceleration but that it isn’t the best alternative that riding motorcycles provides, stating, “I have acceleration in my Kawasaki similar to a Corvette, or actually a little faster, from 0-60, and my gas mileage is about 38-44 miles to the gallon.
“So, better than a Honda Civic in terms of gas mileage, with better than a Corvette in terms of acceleration,” he said.
There is one major emotional incident that influenced Stratton to ride motorcycles for the forseeable future.
“My brother taught me to ride, so I feel a connection with him when I ride,” Stratton said. “He passed away a long time ago. I made a promise at his memorial service that I would ride one day just so that he’s constantly present in my life.
“He died when someone ran a red light and hit him with his pickup. We will die, that’s a guarantee,” Stratton said. “I’d rather have a high quality life than be afraid to enjoy a life as long as you do it responsibly. The biggest threat isn’t me on the bike, it’s people in cars who have no clue.
“They’re more of a threat to me than I am in terms of my health and safety.”
Stratton’s passion in history shows in his classroom.
“When you’re doing what you love, you’re constantly up, and therefore, it doesn’t feel old and stale to you,” he said. “You’re always energized to find new ways to understand it, and new ways to explain it to people to try to see the students in the class nodding their heads and smiling.
“The money’s nice, but I teach for that connection with you, that nonverbal interaction, or the verbal. When I ask questions and people are able to answer them, I can lead them to making their own conclusions.”
Stratton credits his teaching method to his education, and keeping up with current news and that he tries “to see interconnections between different areas that some people don’t see as a natural one.”
Stratton also cites honor courses at the University of La Verne where students could take two subjects, such as architecture and history, and how the two would be connected.
“Because of that educational background, because of me being me for whatever reason, when I see things my mind frequently makes connections to other sources, other cultures, other ideas, where I see a similarity and how cultures are approaching an issue. That’s where I make those type of connections.”
During the third grade, Stratton went to three different schools while his family moved from place to place. He credits this to how he first got drawn in to the “faith of history,” as he calls it.
“I remember toward the end of [the third grade] I got tired of making friends and losing them, but we always had the books with us,” he said. “So I figured I wasn’t going to worry about getting close to people. I will make friends, but I’m not going to make my entire life my friends. I will be friends with books as much, because the books always traveled with us.
“By the end of the third grade I remember telling my mom I wanted to be a stunt man one week, another week it was a jet pilot, and the third week it was a history professor, and those have been my goals ever since.”
Stratton’s wife also works at BC.
Their first date was a ride on one of his bikes into the snowing mountains, and as he said, “she still wanted to see me the next day.”