Coop's Corner: 2 Bikes 2 Brothers

Sunday, November 13, 2016

2 Bikes 2 Brothers

Anxious to sneak in (at least) one more ride this year, we had promised each other that we'd get out and go somewhere together and it seems that it took until a warmish day in November to make it happen.

I met Kev and June in Prescott at noon.....

The River Road, Wisconsin Hwy 35 was running anecdotally at 50% of the number of bikes that we'd have seen on a Fall Flood Run. We all were appreciating another fantastic riding weather day but we were headed another, quieter direction.

We stopped on 90th St for a stretch......

After a coffee stop in Glenwood City the plan was to ride through Boardman and to run the 2nd Rustic Road of the day near Hudson but we ran out of time so whipped down to Roberts and I-94 where we split up.

Through River Falls on my way home, I was convinced that as long as the sun was still out the temp was actually climbing. Such a nice afternoon and an almost winter sky as the sun was going down , I decided to take one more ride up to Memorial Park before the road closes for winter.

President Eisenhower commemorated this bridge over the main river channel and now they're telling us that it's time for replacement.

Speaking of brothers, yesterday while going through one of the archive piles at mom's place, I came across this folded over letter. Many paper items have been tossed, almost as many have been read or at least glanced at to determine 'value' but this one was a no-brainer; it went directly in to the Keeper Pile.

Both sides of our family were letter writers; they wrote hard and often. Mom's side did long hand, both dad and Gramp did all of their correspondence with typed letters, both gentlemen accomplished typists. One of my graduation presents was a typewriter and from that point on, my longhand stopped and the keys flew. Seeing this note, I knew immediately that it was Gramp's 'writer and his style.

So I had to open it. Dated May 7, 1973, I was 18+ and my little brother was almost 17.

Dear Folks,

"........Doug was to the farm all weekend and Kev was down Sat on his Titan then yesterday Kev, Berdy (our mom) and I went to Stanchfield for motocross and didn't get into any rain until just south of Cambridge so good thing we took the car. The whole weekend looked like rain and a lot of it was promised but we were lucky it didn't rain all the time.

We are going to band concert tonight in which Dougs band plays but not Kev's. We have been doing jobs around here in yard etc.

Kev went down to Burnsville to try a racing Yamaha 250 and guess they usually don't let kids try them without a parent along but they asked him how long he had rode and he told them since he was nine so the guy said he could. He rode it in the field a few times taking it easy and the guy told him to dial it on if he liked and Kev did, said it really had a lot of power. He designed a tuned expansion chamber - tuner combination for Dougs bike using formulas and made it part of which he had up there a couple of trips ago. Doug was afraid to let him try it on his bike but he did let him and it worked great. They said it made a 175 out of his 125 with lots of low end torque. They brought it home and painted it all up looks like a factory job........."

Gramp did the underlining in pen, something he always did when his typing needed extra emphasis. Kev bought an MX250 if not from the Burnsville mega-dealer then from someone else. I know that he bought his Norton from them. I shopped there a lot but never bought any bikes from them.

4 comments:

TrobairitzNovember 15, 2016 at 1:38 PM
So much good stuff in this post.

I don't know which I like better the view from the park or the old letter.

Thanks for sharing.
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motormikeNovember 15, 2016 at 7:56 PM
... good thing Kev got the big bore kit to keep pace with the Helix... :)
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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)