Coop's Corner: Sunday's Blind Lizard

Monday, June 17, 2013

Sunday's Blind Lizard

Yes, if you're keeping track, Father's Day weekend was mostly dedicated to things Motorcycle. Saturday's Show at the fairgrounds was phase one, Sunday's event on Nicollet Island right in the heart of Minneapolis was phase two. I hadn't intended on going, but there was going to be a special presentation made that I just didn't want to miss. On top of that, it was an incredibly beautiful day, perfect for a long, sleek black Morphous to once again see some highway miles.

As is my custom, I was early and therefore, one of the first ones there. The Blind Lizard Club was still setting up their tents, the free chili, lemonade and water; the narrow brick streets empty and still quiet.

The first 3 with the food stand and center of activities beyond......

Our friend Jack's Honda, he with his back to us directly beyond the bike. Jack rode one of these to Sturgis from Minneapolis and back again.

Scott, one of our VJMC members showed up with his dog, taking one of the few parking spaces where his ensemble could fit.

Harvey's BSA, Pam's Yamaha.....

The tree-lined, picket fenced neighborhood...

Pins made from melted Honda pistons, or so the story goes.....I got mine a couple of years ago.

One way to look at it......

I wasn't quite this dapper, in fact, I'm never quite this dapper. Pam was discussing something very important with him.

Commerce on one side of the street.....

Mike and his wife Colleen have 100 lapel pins made up every year for the event and sell them street-side for $5 each. Mike comes up with a new design each year (creates ongoing demand). Colleen has them in a cigar box and 'markets' them along the sidewalk until they're gone. Every year, folks seek out the 'Pin Lady' to take advantage of the limited supply.

Regarding that Special Presentation mentioned earlier, unknown to Colleen, last fall, hubby Mike found a beat up old 1958 Lambretta in a garden shed.

All winter and up until just a few days ago, Mike along with a huge amount of help from Bob as well as others, put the finishing touches on the scooter to present it as a surprise to Colleen at the Lizard.

Mike got a friend, another Mike, someone that knows Lambretta's better than the rest of us and whom offered much help as well, to ride the scooter in, park it next to Colleen and present it to her while the rest of us filmed and took photos. She was selling pins and it was very obvious that she had no clue what her dear partner had been up to over the last few months. It was tough because more than one of us almost let the cat out of the bag since we were all busy asking, offering help, checking on the status and so on.

Colleen knows this Mike and only upon hearing it more than once and checking out the personal license plate on the back did it soak in that she's now a scooter owner.

Note the large Wind-up Key on the back, it was actually turning via an electric motor as the scooter made its entrance.

Colleen had to get back to business and continue her marketing of pins.

One of Chip's fantastic Suzuki collection.......

Minneapolis downtown skyline....

22 comments:

Martha June 18, 2013 at 7:29 AM
Why do so many people find so many cool things in old sheds? I have to build a shed so I can find something cool in it, too...

Looks like a great day. Madison surely has a similar event. I should look into that.
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David DrouinJune 18, 2013 at 7:58 AM
That is an amazing restoration job. Where does one learn those skills? It seems beyond me.
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TrobairitzJune 18, 2013 at 10:26 AM
What a nice way to spend a sunny day.

Great job on that Lambretta. Love the paint scheme and Mighty Mouse on the headlight. Awesome that everyone was able to keep the secret too.
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UnknownJune 18, 2013 at 11:16 AM
Coop:

an amazing day to socialize and look at vintage bikes. That Lambretta is a work of art.

bob
Riding the Wet Coast
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DebJune 18, 2013 at 4:37 PM
Neat get together! People up there are into things and enjoy life.

That is good to see, especially around scooters and motorcycles. Pretty cool!

Looks like you all had a lot of fun!

How did the name derive for the event?
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AnonymousJune 18, 2013 at 7:48 PM
Difficult to see... but the state issued lic plate ... " COLLEEN "... Mike was a God.. for about an hour... :o)
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AnonymousJune 19, 2013 at 9:25 PM
The " BRIT " flag is a nod to the " MODS ". British scooterist in the late 50's and early 60's would hang mirrors all over their scooter... paint them with flags...etc etc. Lambretta's, Vespa's... They were called Mods.. I assume a take off of modern. The Mods rivals was the " ROCKERS "... think Marlon Brando in the Wild Ones... or the Fronz... Greasers. The Mods Vs Rockers would clash and full blown fights would result..sometimes with fatalities. Today there are many Mods Vs Rockers events across the country...but they are friendly now. :o)
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Dar June 20, 2013 at 12:03 PM
What an awesome Day! Love the pins they are super cool. I bet she was so excited when she realized it was her scooter. They did a wonderful job, love the winding key, that is just the perfect touch.
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SonjaMJune 20, 2013 at 6:23 PM
What a nice collection. Especially love the scooter. It has a lovely colour scheme.
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayJune 21, 2013 at 7:28 AM
Sonja, that to me has been one of the best parts of BL. Like with so many things we tend to split into factions. Most were well represented Sunday.
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AnonymousJune 21, 2013 at 12:05 PM
Steve Arhelger named the club in about ...oh...the 70s. It was originally for ancient and homebuilt motorcycles, and old racing bicycles (and bicyclists). the founders were afraid old bicycling traditions (from which motorcycling was born) were being forgotten...

a club/event history has yet to be written
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Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)