I was at a friends place a few days ago. He had a couple of friends there I did not know, and the conversation turned to gremlin bells. They talked for a few minutes about the where and the whats about one of these things and I was at a loss to what they were discussing, and finally I said “what the hell are you talking about?”

Someone pulled one out of their pocket for me to look over, and I tried and probably not too well, to hide my skepticism which was probably oozing from my pores, as I looked it over. I was able to muster something along the lines of “that’s cute.” Then my friend pointed to the one hanging from his Harley Davidson, and while I have looked at the bike a few times, I never noticed the little bell thingy hanging from the bottom of it. Sure enough he had a gremlin bell in the shape of a tiny hand grenade hanging there.

So, my obvious question was “what the heck are they for?” I was informed in short order about gremlin bells. I was told they keep the road gremlins from causing equipment malfunctions and other road hazards… I tried and not too well, to feign a mild interest in the subject, and all the while was a little dumbfounded upon the whole topic. I honestly don’t know the religious leanings of this person and his wife, they don’t have obvious religious symbols decorating their surroundings, and the topic of religion has yet to come up, which in my opinion is a good thing. So I have assumed that they are only slightly religious, if that. And I have seen no need to bring it up and possibly ruin my association with them. In other words, what I don’t know can’t hurt me. And I’d rather keep it that way. The thing is though…

You just never know what kind of weird little superstitious oddities might jump up and bite you in the ass when you are out there among the people you might know. I kept having the insane urge to ask them if any of them had ever actually seen a road gremlin, but managed to keep my ornery-ness in check. At least it turned out to be good blog fodder. I will leave it at that.

So, you think I’m crazy?

http://www.gremlin-bells.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=20

Click to access Legend%20Of%20The%20Gremlin%20Bell.pdf

What do you think now? Looks to me like a good story to sell gremlin bells to superstitious monkeys. Sometimes you just have to roll with it and hope it doesn’t come up again…