Monday, March 04, 2013

1940 Cyclists in Melbourne

What a full weekend - My father is still with us until Tuesday and we are off to the top end of Tassie the following day.
We'll be posting daily while down there so keep tuned.
I have to say that Jack has taken up all our time and he's really enjoyed being here and what we do together has been a personal joy.
His life has been  is dominated by our sport of cycling. Jack brought down a photo of him and his cycling buddies riding back from a training ride through Melbourne CBD in 1940. After their training ride thay would stop somewhere in Swanston Street for Malted Milk shakes.
In those days we had two defined racing seasons - winter for road racing and track racing in summer.
You may notice from the photo that the "boys" were riding their track bikes - no brakes, no helmets and definately no LYCRA back then.

Jack is in the second row to the right in this photo - his brother Les, my uncle to Dad's left.
Now tell me, what chance did I have of not being engrossed by the sport?

Like Jack, the sport has given us many experiences and friends - last Saturday night I took him to the indoor velodrome for the last big meeting of the season - he loved it and was reunited with the many people who know him.
He flys out Tuesday to the Gold Coast, Queensland - in 4 weeks he celebrates his 92nd birthday.

That's Jack second row to the right in the photo - He's still got a great head of hair at 91.

I've been asked by our good friends in the Loire about "Wednesdays in France" and I can tell you that its still ongoing - I have a post prepared but with the "Old Fella" staying and work, I'm lagging behind.

1 comment:

  1. What a great photo. We have made some great friends through cycling. It has been a long winter here and we are both looking forward to getting back on our bikes. Problem though Nigel seems to have a knee injury. He is back and forth to the physio at the moment :-( Feet and knee could well be a big problem but I hope not. Take care all of you. Diane

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