Motorcycles and Stockings: Part 2

It's sometimes difficult to look backward, and fully trust in your memory.  I'm left with very little that I actually remember of Lucy Warren.  I know she attended my grandparents' church, and I believe she was a friend of my aunt.  I remember that she drove a beat-up white van to church, and mentally picture her wearing darker, more masculine clothing as depicted in the postcard.  I remember her as being rather quiet: not unfriendly, just serious.  But much of this, especially regarding her clothing and demeanor, could be my mind filling in the blanks as best it can.

One thing I know is she knitted this Christmas stocking for me.  I don’t remember receiving it, so she probably made it when I was quite young.  I’m not sure what prompted her gift, although everyone likes giving and making things for babies.  She would have made this after her second transcontinental ride, so perhaps she gave up motorcycling after that, and took up knitting instead.  Or maybe she just had more time after she retired, and took up another hobby.

There’s a great story buried in the past, about a woman who did something difficult, arduous, rare, and (at least for her time) masculine.  Yet she also did something (that we typically regard as) feminine, with a great degree of skill, making an item with such skill that it became a treasured keepsake, even in those years when I forgot who gave it to me, and in so doing forgot about her.  

If you’ve done something interesting, share your experience with others.  You may not think it's important, but anything unique that you've experienced will be of interest to others, and may serve as a source of inspiration.  I wish I knew more of Lucy Warren’s story, both about her life, her interest, and her two cross-country trips.  I can’t help but think that those trips would have been interesting to hear her talk about.  From the postcard, I can't even tell what types of motorcycles "The Snapper" and "Cinderella" were.  But at least I’ve got the postcard, and my Christmas stocking, to remember her by.

Dragon Dave

Motorcycles and Stockings: Part 1

When my grandmother transitioned into a nursing home, we had to go through her house.  Among her possessions we found this postcard.  Age had literally eaten away at it, but it looked interesting, and I recognized the woman in it, so we packed it away among the things to go through later.  The picture intrigued my wife, so she did a simple Internet search, and found a paragraph on the woman in the June 1963 issue of “American Motorcyclist” magazine.

According to the article, she traversed the contiguous forty-eight states twice on a motorcycle, once in 1925, and again in 1962.  She never suffered significant mechanical difficulty during these trips, and averaged 350 miles per day.  This would suggest that she knew how to repair and maintain her bikes, and kept them in good condition.  It also suggests that she kept herself in good constitution, as riding a motorcycle can be more wearing that driving a car.  Imagine riding across our nation, in glaring sun, blustery winds, or driving rain!  Imagine how many hours each day she rode, to average so many miles!

On her first motorcycle ride, when she rode the motorcycle she called "The Snapper," work had not yet begun on the Empire State Building in New York.  The faces of American presidents had yet to be carved into Mount Rushmore.  Hoover Dam had not been built.  Nor had the famous Route 66 been established.  On her second trip, aboard "Cinderella," she would have noticed large-scale changes to our nation, such as the interstate highway system in its infancy, an utterly transformed Las Vegas, and the other examples mentioned.  Had she visited Cape Canaveral, as I did on my recent trip, she would have witnessed how the government began using it as a missile test range, and the birth of our nation's space program.  

When she set out for her first journey, Hawaii and Alaska had not been made states, so she visited every state in the union.  On her second ride, our nation had grown not just by two states, but from a population increase of fifty percent.  She would have noticed dramatic changes as towns and cities grew to accommodate such population growth.

Imagine what those trips must have been like for her.  They sound like incredible journeys. 

This post will conclude tomorrow. 

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

Lucy Warren in American Motorcyclist