You Might Be A Geezer If
- Thread starter Michigan Mike
- Start date
Write what you think and write about what you know. Don't plan your story, just let it happen as you write. The rest comes easy. 
Tom
Tom
My ol' brother and I were talking about some of our greater moments and I was thinking I'd through one of my better oh sh8t moments and see if anybody wanted to share thiers.
I had a couple of English hill climb/scrambler motorcycles. They both had Villiers 2 stoke 198 cc engines and were out of the very early 50s. One would start if you just nudged it.
The other was a nasty,mean spirited thing that would only run on the 4th day of any month ending in H.
We locked horns one Saturday morning and it was run or your gone. I set everything upon the bike and pushed it up to the side street and started pushing. Leap on and the the sweet exhaust purr of a motor that wouldn't start. Push, leap ,purrrrr.
One last time and I'm sending it on to a new owner. Push open the throttle and that thing took off in a wheel standing blaze of glory and me hot footing it as fast as I have ever gone. We are talking bear snapping at your tail end fast.
Can't let go because someone on the street is having a party. Cars on both sides and that nasty bit of English engineering and I are pick up speed at an ever impressive rate.
Don't know who's car is going to get hit but I'm letting go and aiming it at a cheap one.
Bang! The damd thing stops running, front wheel hits the ground and I haven't slowed up.
I belly flop on it with my head and chest over the bars and a major bumper to bumper street is comming up , fast. Can't steer because I'm lying over the bars and can't reach back,,can't stop because I can't move my arms or I tip the bike and 30 ft. away are cars moving at a fast rate.
Leaned hard to the left and as luck would have it I made the corner rolled down 4 driveways sat up turned in to my buddys drive way rolled up to the garage and calmly asked if he still wanted to buy the bike.
Freakin cheap!!
I had that money out of his hand so fast it took two week for the burn marks to heal.
Don't know if he ever got it running because he stopped talking to me, but it didn't look good.
Steve
I had a couple of English hill climb/scrambler motorcycles. They both had Villiers 2 stoke 198 cc engines and were out of the very early 50s. One would start if you just nudged it.
The other was a nasty,mean spirited thing that would only run on the 4th day of any month ending in H.
We locked horns one Saturday morning and it was run or your gone. I set everything upon the bike and pushed it up to the side street and started pushing. Leap on and the the sweet exhaust purr of a motor that wouldn't start. Push, leap ,purrrrr.
One last time and I'm sending it on to a new owner. Push open the throttle and that thing took off in a wheel standing blaze of glory and me hot footing it as fast as I have ever gone. We are talking bear snapping at your tail end fast.
Can't let go because someone on the street is having a party. Cars on both sides and that nasty bit of English engineering and I are pick up speed at an ever impressive rate.
Don't know who's car is going to get hit but I'm letting go and aiming it at a cheap one.
Bang! The damd thing stops running, front wheel hits the ground and I haven't slowed up.
I belly flop on it with my head and chest over the bars and a major bumper to bumper street is comming up , fast. Can't steer because I'm lying over the bars and can't reach back,,can't stop because I can't move my arms or I tip the bike and 30 ft. away are cars moving at a fast rate.
Leaned hard to the left and as luck would have it I made the corner rolled down 4 driveways sat up turned in to my buddys drive way rolled up to the garage and calmly asked if he still wanted to buy the bike.
Freakin cheap!!
I had that money out of his hand so fast it took two week for the burn marks to heal.
Don't know if he ever got it running because he stopped talking to me, but it didn't look good.
Steve
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About writing ... can't remember who said it but a well known author once said he starts with "one true sentence".
If I wasn't such a geezer I could probably remember the rest of the quote and who said it!
.
If I wasn't such a geezer I could probably remember the rest of the quote and who said it!
.there are old youngsters and young oldsters, what do i wanna be when i grow up? i dont think im gonna live that long
I didn't know just what I would do when the shroud of gezzerdom was pulled over me.
As a young man I swore it would never happen now I'm kind of enjoying it since the odd old friend calls to say remember when? I had some friends that were pretty odd growing up..
The fly in that ointment is that, it's remember you said after you drank the 2 6 packs you were going to ride the horse and if you had looked closer you would have noticed the horns. The only defense is that it was 2am on a country road and it was dark.
It was funny at the time except for the barb wire fence.
A real plus was the ability to heal fast.
I like using the maps on the computer to visit places that I've been. One town I lived in on Lake Huron had a river that was a mad torrent year round. Now the river is a rock bed
with a trickle of water here and there. The town dock where the fish boats tied up for the winter are high and dry and in places don't have water closer than 10 feet away.
Went back 48 years ago and visited all the haunts of boy hood. Horse Killer Hill where we spent countless hrs sledding had lost it's loftiness over a few years and was reduced a mere pimple.
The town gave up trying to sand HKH and blocked it off. They put stop signs on the road that crossed the bottom of the hill and 50 kids stopped bringing bucket of water to ice it down after it was sanded.
Those my friends were the golden years.
Steve.
As a young man I swore it would never happen now I'm kind of enjoying it since the odd old friend calls to say remember when? I had some friends that were pretty odd growing up..
The fly in that ointment is that, it's remember you said after you drank the 2 6 packs you were going to ride the horse and if you had looked closer you would have noticed the horns. The only defense is that it was 2am on a country road and it was dark.
It was funny at the time except for the barb wire fence.
A real plus was the ability to heal fast.
I like using the maps on the computer to visit places that I've been. One town I lived in on Lake Huron had a river that was a mad torrent year round. Now the river is a rock bed
with a trickle of water here and there. The town dock where the fish boats tied up for the winter are high and dry and in places don't have water closer than 10 feet away.
Went back 48 years ago and visited all the haunts of boy hood. Horse Killer Hill where we spent countless hrs sledding had lost it's loftiness over a few years and was reduced a mere pimple.
The town gave up trying to sand HKH and blocked it off. They put stop signs on the road that crossed the bottom of the hill and 50 kids stopped bringing bucket of water to ice it down after it was sanded.
Those my friends were the golden years.
Steve.
The video below is only about ten minutes long. I've watched it three or four times ... just something about it that I like. Maybe it's the pleasure of seeing how things used to be. Revisiting simpler times ... a favorite geezer pastime. Maybe it takes more than one look to see everything.
Ted Baryluk's Grocery by John Paskievich, Michael Mirus, - NFB
Ted Baryluk's Grocery by John Paskievich, Michael Mirus, - NFB
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Michigan Mike, that was a trip down memory lane. I can remember the time that every other corner had a store just like that.
Thank you.
Steve.
Thank you.
Steve.
Hey Steve,
I remember that too. Seems like the neighborhood stores were no more than about 1/2 mile apart. I'm glad we have a WallyWorld (Wal-mart) and some other big chains nearby to help stretch the budget money but I do miss the corner store.
.
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Mike, do you remember the candy stores and having cashed in some pop bottles you stood at the show case trying to figure out just what you wanted.
We had to go home and wash them if they were dirtry. When you lived in a small town they were hard to find.
Yes, thank goodness for the box stores but we saw gold as kids.
Steve
We had to go home and wash them if they were dirtry. When you lived in a small town they were hard to find.
Yes, thank goodness for the box stores but we saw gold as kids.
Steve
Steve,
Sure, I remember cashing in pop bottles ... milk bottles too (Twin Pines Dairy and Borden's in my neck of the woods). Yes, they had to be good and clean or the store owners wouldn't take them. Like you said, there weren't many bottles out there back then. We had to really scrounge the weeds and bushes and sometimes do some digging to get the half-burried bottles. Cleaning could be a job ... but, hey, 2-cents was 2-cents back then! (That was the return rate in the 1950's.)
.
Sure, I remember cashing in pop bottles ... milk bottles too (Twin Pines Dairy and Borden's in my neck of the woods). Yes, they had to be good and clean or the store owners wouldn't take them. Like you said, there weren't many bottles out there back then. We had to really scrounge the weeds and bushes and sometimes do some digging to get the half-burried bottles. Cleaning could be a job ... but, hey, 2-cents was 2-cents back then! (That was the return rate in the 1950's.)
.
You drive from Maine to Florida with your left turn signal on.
Your idea of a perfect day includes at least one nap.
Your rocking chair has a seat belt on it.
.
Your idea of a perfect day includes at least one nap.
Your rocking chair has a seat belt on it.
.Just got up from a 3hr nap. lol lol.
It was a beauty except for the dog licking my face so I'd wake up and pet her.
Steve
It was a beauty except for the dog licking my face so I'd wake up and pet her.
Steve
That explains it! I've been an old mutt for years. Now if I could just remember where the front porch is.
Steve.
Steve.
Steve,
It's on the opposite end of the house from where they put you to go potty.
Tom
Thanks Tom.Mystery solved.
Now, if that one eyed orange SOB of a tom cat from next door would be cutting through the yard, this day would be complete.
arf arf
Now, if that one eyed orange SOB of a tom cat from next door would be cutting through the yard, this day would be complete.
arf arf
The Corner Grocery. I Was Around 10 Yrs Old. My Dad Took Me Squirrel Hunting About 20 Miles Out In The Wisconsin Farm Land. Lots On Leaves Still On The Trees, Difficult Hunt. But The One Thing I Often Think Of. We Stopped At This Small Country Store.. It Was On The Corner Of State Hy 27 And A Dirt Side Rd. The Owner Was A Retired Farmer. His Farm Was On The Dirt Rd At The Top Of A Hill About 3 Blocks Behind The Store. It Was Noon, Along Came His Collie Dog With The Handle Of A Lunch Bucket In His Mouth (they Had The Handle Padded For The Dogs Comfort). It Had His And The Dogs Lunch, From The Farm House. That Was 60 Yrs Ago. Ron
way, way OT but that would make a great book "Dogs I have known" "Penelope" in Mystic hated to be touched but would follow the mailman threw town, If another mailman was across the st and she preferred him/her, she would cross and follow them.
I forget the dogs name but on Long Island, a man sold a bar but every day at 3, his dog walked the 2 miles to the bar. They would pour a can of Budweiser in a dish. After he had his 1 beer, he walked home. (Musta lost his driver's licence but I never saw him drunk)
Gotta love the puppys. They are crazy and smell bad. Just like us only on all 4s
I forget the dogs name but on Long Island, a man sold a bar but every day at 3, his dog walked the 2 miles to the bar. They would pour a can of Budweiser in a dish. After he had his 1 beer, he walked home. (Musta lost his driver's licence but I never saw him drunk)
Gotta love the puppys. They are crazy and smell bad. Just like us only on all 4s
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