The Ride Home

[BamaRider]

My last tour up the east coast found me stopping by the neighborhood I grew up in the 1960s. The once middle class area has slowly deteroiated the last 40 years, but many memories are still here.

 

Only like minded guys can understand why a guy would want to make a long ride to his old home place.

 

I spent a couple hours of personal time in my old neighborhood. It was great. I think many of my fellow baby boomers can relate, you younger guys are probably gonna be lost.

 

About 3 min long.

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8636292062761313475

[ashleybiker]

Only like minded guys can understand why a guy would want to make a long ride to his old home place.

 

 

Does this bring back a memory?

[BruceWA]

Very touching video Guy! Unlike you my parents still live in the house I was raised in, and my youngest brother lives with them. He has cerebral palsy......have a lot to be thankful for!!

[ESokoloff]

I've gone back several decades later & found it amazing how houses, yards, streets, etc. have shrunk over the years

[BamaRider]

You know that was the one thing that struck me-everything seemed smaller. I use to think it was a long way to the end of my street,(actual distance about .5 mile) and my old backyard seemed as big as a football field when I was 7. Owell.

 

And my Schwin was just like that-except silver.

[eddd]

Very nice job.

 

I get to see "home" on a regular basis. Mom and Dad and five of my six sisters still live in the Milwaukee area. One thing is different...with eight kids we could never afford a fancy bike like your Schwinn, but somehow I survived.

[motorman587]

In the late 60's, I was ...........................................................................................................................

 

 

 

 

 

5

[Calvin (no socks)]

Enjoyed your visit, reminded me of mine.

 

I returned to my old stomping grounds....several years ago... none of it was the same...everyone gone... same houses....some new construction... in the old empty lots we used to call fields... where we played till dark....

 

I stopped by to see relatives....they were older.... cousins had kids....kids had kids...

Next time I see them will be for someones funeral....

 

I am resolved to this viewpoint.... you cant go back, unless it is to refresh your memories....

 

Life is short, make new memories and recount the old ones...and.....don't get caught sleeping at the wheel.

[Mike O]

It certainly "...was a different life." I've done the same. And as someone else pointed out, it sure seems smaller now. And yea, we rode bikes without helmets, drank out of garden hoses and didn't file law suits if we didn't make the baseball team.

 

Who was the musical artist you used for background music?

 

Mike O

[SteveHebert]

Very nice. My mom (dad is no longer with us) still lives in the same house they bought in 1975 when they retired from the Airforce. My entire family except me lives within 1/2 mile of her. There is something magical about it. When I go for runs or walks when I am home, the same older folks that were walking when I was a kid, are still at it and yell out my name. I thought they were really old then, they must have found the fountain of youth! That is the part about small town living that I miss so much, and New England (VT) is built on that.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Bud]

In the late 60's, I was ...........................................................................................................................

 

 

 

 

 

5

 

In the late 60's I was in the Army. But then again, now I'm retired and you have to go to work.

[Chunky]

Oooooh, nastolgia time. Being born in '49 I am pre-plastic, pre-color tv, pre-computer. We had our milk, butter, & cottage cheese delivered to our front door every morning. All it took was a note left in a milk bottle to get what you wanted.

 

I returned home to Illinois a few years ago to the neighborhood that my father built. He built homes using only our family members from the ground up. I almost couldn't find the entrance to my neighborhood. Shopping malls have replaced the boyhood fields where we played ball, built fortresses in Summer & Winter, and ate wheat right from the plant like nuts.

 

I fear it's all gone, just a fond memory of a simpler time. The traffic jams of St. Louis, combined with the poorly maintained roads, don't beckon to me any more. My parents are gone & I never kept touch with boyhood friends. Still, I have those memories.

[BamaRider]

I agree, can't go back, and wouldn't want to. When my family arrived in Alabama, our lives improved 80%. My dad had a higher paying union job, we bought a cafe (my mother always wanted one) and now we ate out a couple nights a week like folks on TV, and I had money in my pocket to buy a Coke ANYTIME I wanted. We bought a house in a shiny new neighborhood. Life was good.

 

But the days around Norfolk are the ones I feel closest to, go figure. Perhaps because of their simplicity.

 

The artist in the video is Bucky Covington, the sound is "Different World."

[Paul_Burkett]

It has been 36 years since I moved away from my parents home in Michigan and seven years since my father died, it was hard to go back into that house after that. My mother remarried and sold the house and moved to Colorado where I go each year, but I haven't gone back to the old house that my parents built with the help of family members, that's how things were done there. Some day, perhaps the time will be right to stir the memories again, to feel the grass and smell the air that I knew so many years ago.

[MrHondamatic]

Thanks Guy, Your videos always hit home in some way.

 

I try to take a solo ride across the state to my boyhood home every once in a while. Even though the wife and I visit that area a few times a year to visit friends, it's the solo trips I take, that re-kindle certain memories. The wife doesn't always understand why I ride past certain places and check things out, so I just take the trip on my own. It's rare that I speak to anyone on those rides, as it's time for me and my memory. Maybe I'll put something up next year after I go again.

[WestTX RT]

Does this bring back a memory?

Does to me. My cousin had an Apple Crate. I'd never ridden a bike with a front hand brake like that before. The was no such thing as a stoppie back then, so the move I made after grabbing a hand full of the that brake we call a "shebap", that's kind of the sound I made when I went over the handlebars. Happened in 1/2 a hearbeat.

[bmweerman]

Cool.

 

As usual you videos are excellent and that particular one was an insight into another world and another time.

 

Loved how you integrated those old movie clips too

 

Thanks for sharing.

[deejones]

Guy, Thanks for the video. Glad you made it home safely. It was nice meeting you in Cruso at Blue Ridge Motorcycle Campground. I'm sure I'll see you on the road someday.

[tobyzusa]

Enjoyed it. Good choice of music.

[AdventurePoser]

Thanks for sharing. I took the Lovely Flame on a long ride to visit the Great Lakes region where I spent my early boyhood. It was a great ride, remembering what was, and what it has become!

 

Cheers,

Steve in So Cal

[Francis]

Guy,

 

Great video and very moving. Unfortunately the California I grew up in no longer exists. Funny though, on a recent visit home the barber shop near my high school is still standing and cutting hair.

 

Francis

[BamaRider]

Barber shop? They still have those? I remember them, now I get my haircut in a "salon," complete with tanning beds, ladies gettin nails done, shiny and bright lights, with the hair style mags on the table. The smell of chemicals in there reminds me of a Dupont factory I rode by out near Galveston.

 

When I was growin up the barber shop was kinda like a "pool hall," my mother made those places sound like as if they were beehives for illicit behavior. So of course that made it all the more important to reach the age where ya could hang out at one.

 

But I have to admit, the "scenery" is much better to look at while I get my haircut now.

 

So why does a guy move from California to NYC??? Ain't that against the trend?

[cherylk]

Oooooh, nastolgia time. Being born in '49 I am pre-plastic, pre-color tv, pre-computer. We had our milk, butter, & cottage cheese delivered to our front door every morning. All it took was a note left in a milk bottle to get what you wanted.

 

I also got milk delivery when I was growing up. It was great getting that little pleasure when we lived in England (Air Force). Love half cream bottles and the truck with only 3 wheels.