Brown took home a new Harley trike Wednesday, the latest in a long line of motorcycles he’s owned over the years.
“I’ve been riding since the ’40s” proclaimed the 84-year-old.
Brown still remembers his first motorcycle.
“It was an old clunker,” he said.
Brown had worked at a grocery store plucking chicken feathers to earn enough money to buy it and recalls getting the license.
“I went to the drugstore and got the license for a quarter,” he said, adding jokingly, “you can’t do that now.”
Brown took a brief break from riding following his grocery job and worked on a tugboat on the river that took him to such cities as New Orleans, St. Paul and Pittsburgh.
Brown continued his career on the water and enlisted in the Navy at age 17. But once back on shore at the base, he continued to ride motorcycles.
After leaving the Navy, Brown was able to continue his passion for motorcycles, riding for the police department in Fort Worth, Texas, for four years.
“I could teach these kids a lot about riding,” he said of the experience.
Brown estimates he’s had eight or nine motorcycles in his years of riding, and they all have been Harleys except for one.
“I had an Indian for a while, but it had too heavy of a torque for me,” he said.
Brown’s most prized motorcycle was a 1955 police bike he sold more than 10 years ago when his wife became ill with cancer.
His partner in life, he noted she also was his partner on the road.
“She got on behind and rode with me,” he said of his wife, who lost her battle with cancer a short time later.
In all the years, Brown has managed to ride unscathed until last year when he was heading into Niemerg’s Steak House and was struck.
“It was the first accident I ever had,” he said.
Brown noted it was the reason he was getting a new Harley and trading the 2010 sidecar motorcycle.
“I carried a stuffed dog in the sidecar,” he said.
The accident didn’t deter Brown from riding again. The Mason resident rides into Effingham daily for lunch.
Brown isn’t as concerned for his safety as others who periodically look out for him.
“I have people at church who check on me every now and then, and neighbors keep track of me,” he said.
Brown has ridden his motorcycles great distances, with long trips up the East and West coasts and in Babler State Park near St. Louis, where he did volunteer maintenance about 10 years ago. He hasn’t given up his motorcycle trips, either, participating in the Sheriff’s Posse Ride and taking trips to Missouri and Ohio to visit former shipmates.
When he’s not riding, Brown keeps busy “puttering” in his shop and working on mechanical projects that include making parts for outboard motor boats for friends.
But Brown looks forward to the open road and doesn’t see his hobby as unique for his age.
“I know quite a few riding past 80,” he said. “The age limit now is being stretched. The retiring at 55 and giving up — that age is gone.”
Brown plans to continue riding into his sunset years.
“It’s in my blood. To have the wind in your face and all open space is just a tremendous feeling,” he said.
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source: The EDN (Thoele, 3/1)
