The Preacher's Kid: 2

By Donnie "Zig Zag" Owens

My name is Donald Vivian Owens III (aka Zig Zag), born Oct. 10, 1951. Born in East Texas, I was a country boy raised by a stay-at-home mom and Baptist Preacher father. Then when I was 20 years old, moved to Dallas joined an outlaw motorcycle club known today as Scorpions M/C.

I have been a member of the Scorpion Motorcycle club now for 42 years and now Chaplain.

My first book took you through the series of events that ultimately ended with my spending 7 years in a federal prison. I shared with you my experiences and the transformations I experienced both during and after my served time.

Now let me share with you more about me as an individual. Take a look at my life as a child, a young adult and an adult, along with personal encounters and how they shaped me into who I am today.

These are my memoirs

• Language: English
• Publisher: Donnie "Zig Zag" Owens
• Release date: Aug 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310213519

Donnie "Zig Zag" Owens

My name is Donald Vivian Owens III (aka Zig Zag), born Oct. 10, 1951. Born in East Texas, I was country boy raised by a stay-at-home mom and Baptist Preacher father. Then when I was 20 years old, moved to Dallas joined an outlaw motorcycle club known today as Scorpions M/C.

Book preview

Chapter 13– Page 80

Chapter 14– Page 84

Chapter 15– Page 89

Chapter 16 – Page 96

Chapter 17 – Page 101

Chapter 18 – Page 107

Chapter 19 – Page 110

Chapter 20 – Page 116

Chapter 21 – Page 123

Chapter 22 – Page 129

Chapter 23 – Page 134

Chapter 24 – Page 140

Chapter 25 – Page 144

Chapter 26 – Page 149

Chapter 27 – Page 153

Chapter 28 – Page 159

Chapter 29 – Page 165

Chapter 30 – Page 170

Chapter 1

I came home from a club meeting (Scorpions M/C Gun Barrel chapter in Texas) the other night and got to ride with one of my club brother’s to Mesquite TX where I live.

I don’t get to ride much with the guys as I use to because I stay so busy now. The last couple of meetings I got to ride back beside two of my brothers; one was Rick and the other brother was Wood. When I was riding with them back, I would look over at them and thought how good it felt to ride with my brothers, to hear the sound of the bikes and see the club patch in lights of the cars and buildings. It’s a proud feeling knowing that these have been my brothers for over 42 years. These two guys I am talking about have only been in a few years but that does not matter how long they have been in, they are brothers.

I got tickled at myself a few weeks back; I was riding down the road on my bike thinking about the old days when we rode choppers and I had long hair and I looked like a bad ass. When I got home I looked at the reflection in the glass on the garage door. What I seen was a friendly old man looking back at me. Well that burst my little bubble.

Old picture of me smiling

My daughter, she is 13, her name is Bianca. Sometimes I give her a hard time and tell her I am going to spank her or something like that. She will say you don’t scare me. I tell her I can beat up small children and small dogs so be afraid. There was a time when I could strike fear in people just by the way I looked, plus by my size; I have always been pretty big. Just look at the picture on the book. One thing I have learned after letting God in to your heart you start looking at things in a different way. There is a saying, you can see the soul of a man though his eyes. So now, I really don’t want to intimidate people; it’s a whole new ball game.

My Old Pan Head

Before I went to prison I was boss of the club. That means you are president of a chapter that you belong to. At one time I was Sergeant of Arms; that was in the 70’s. But when I was boss, I did not like to stand in front of people and speak; I would get nervous. We had church on Friday nights (that’s a name we use to have meetings). This was in about 1979 or 1980. What I would do is when I get off work I would hit the bars drinking; by the time the meeting would start I would be pretty much drunk by then. I would have no problem speaking then.

In 1990, a friend of mine in Seagoville (FCI Federal Correction Institution) name Tom Scott he walked up to me and told me he was planning to start a class in public specking and thought I would be interested in it. I wondered why he thought that. I asked him what it was all about he explained it to me. I thought, Why not. It would get me out of work a couple hours a week. To tell you the truth, it was the best thing that I had ever done. The first speech you give is called an impromptu speech. It’s a five min speech in which you tell something about yourself. Each speech is graded by how well you perform, how you stand, eye contact and your delivery of the speech. They also counted your aww’s. My first speech I had 52 aww’s and I shook so hard I could feel my shirt moving. I was hooked after that. I had something I had to overcome, so I set my mind to doing just that. For the next two years I stayed in that class. Some of my best times were in public speaking class. It taught me to make eye contact, have proper body movement, timing, and keeping people interested in what the topic was on. How much time do you have to keep people’s attention? The time is about 20 min, after that, you lose them. I watch so many people trying to impress folks by showing how long they can talk. But if you start to look around you will see people falling asleep. This happens a lot in churches. If I see I’m losing them I will stop and say, That’s it, I have lost you. Or I will yell or make some load noise to draw them back to me.

One thing I would like to pull off at church just one time is to find someone who is a sleep and have all the people get up quietly and leave the room. When everyone has gone wake him up and when he looks around and asked, Where is everybody? I will say, I don’t know, everyone disappeared in a flash. I will say, My God! The rapture happened and you and I are the only ones left! That would be priceless. I know that’s bad but it would be fun to do.

People who meet me now don’t believe this but I use to be really shy. I would hardly talk to anybody. That was one of the reasons I would have to get drunk to talk in front of the guys. When I first got to hang out with my daughter, she was 18 when I first found her; she would go with me to places like the store Wal-Mart and places like that. One day she asked, Dad do you know all these people you talk to?

I answered, No, never meet them.

She said, You talk to them like you have known them for a long time. She asked me, Have you always been that way?

I said, No, there was a time I thought everybody was a cop or Feds so I would not talk to them. Now I have don’t have anything to hide so I don’t have to worry about hiding anything. When you change your life, you don’t have to worry about what people think of you. I act straight up goofy at times.

I tell people to be themselves, don’t try to be someone you think people want to be. Trust me, people can see though that. That’s the way I preach, I won’t even keep notes on what I preach because God shows me something new every time I teach on something. This may sound crazy to some. But when I am standing there and preaching, the Holy Spirit will tell me what to say. Not with words but with that little thought you did not even think that you would say or plain to say. I try to pray every time just before I stand up to speak. I say, Lord, give me the words you want me to say and not what I want to. I don’t try to be anybody but myself when I speak; people hear things when it comes from the heart.

Chapter 2

Ever since I can remember, I have loved motor cycles. When I was a kid, I would draw plans on how to put motors on bicycles. I can remember when I was real young, I had an uncle named Uncle Garland and he had a Harley; this was back in the 50’s. I remember him coming to visit us and take us for rides on his bike. I think that’s when I fell in love with Harleys. His was a Pan Head but back then I didn’t know that, I just knew I wanted one when I grew up.

My first motorcycle was an Alstate moped. It had peddles and you could ride it like a bicycle if you ran out of gas. When we lived in Jenkins TX, there was a hill I would lay down on it and hold it wide open, it would get up to 45 mile an hour. I thought I was flying. One day I was riding in the front yard and all of a sudden the peddle starts jerking back and forth and it started going backwards; man that was crazy. Someone asked me how that happened but I can’t remember.

I believe God gives us a passion when we are born and you take that with you through your whole life. It has been a part of my life riding motor cycles. I have had all types of bikes. But the one which held my heart was Harley Davidson. I got my first Harley at the age of 18. I traded a 58 Chevy Impala. It was black and had a three speed hurst shifter on the floor accompanied by a 348 motor, roll pelted seat covers, and a hollow four barrel carburetor. I