A Child’s Christmas

Often this time of year I revisit childhood memories of Christmas. For me it is the years 1941 to 1944, when I was between the ages 5 and 8 years old. Possibly the age that Christmas means the most to any child.

Christmases spent during the tough economic times of WWII. I always think how much harder it must have been for others my age in countries like France, Belgium, and Holland where the actual fighting went on.

Times were tough economically in England, but at least the country was not invaded so although I never understood what war meant, I never knew what the financial hardship was because I had known nothing else.

Whereas children my age on the continent of Europe faced the actual horrors of war, bullets, explosions, and people dying.

I can remember exactly what was in my Christmas stocking each year because it was always the same thing. First of all, my Christmas stocking was one of my actual knee-high socks that I wore every day. It did not take much to fill it.

In the toe of the sock there was always an orange. Yes, an orange, was a treat because oranges did not grow in England, they had to be imported from Spain or some other Mediterranean country.  

In the foot of the sock there would be and item of clothing, usually a pair of socks or gloves hand knitted by my mother, from used wool unraveled from an old sweater.

In the leg of the sock there would be a rolled-up coloring book with crayons or color pencils, and a special Christmas edition comic paper, usually featuring, Mikey Mouse and all the other Walt Disney characters.

There were few toys being manufactured due to the war, so any extra toys received were either refurbished used toys, or hand made by a friend or family.

For me Christmas was never about the material things received on Christmas morning, but it was about the season’s activities. Decorating our home and school with holly branches and paper chains and paper lanterns we made ourselves.

Learning to sing Christmas Carols in harmony at school, and performing them in a concert, and going house to house singing carols, in evenings during the week before Christmas. The parties at friends’ homes with all the wonderful home baked food. Christmas cake and pudding, and mince pies.

In the years since WWII, I have witnessed Christmas turning into this ever increasing frenzy of shopping, and conditioning our children for a lifetime of consumerism. The notion that material things will buy happiness.

In these current world-wide economic hard times, there are going to be a lot of disappointed children this year, but will that be such a terrible thing if some of them learn to lower their expectations little.

My thoughts are with the children living in the Ukraine. I am sure all they want for Christmas is for the war to end.

Bicycling Road Test Bike

When I was building frames in Southern California back in the 1980s, my business was humming along nicely, I was building thirty FUSO frames a month. The last thing I thought about was that I would be corresponding with people about these very same frames 35 years later.

I certainly did not foresee the Internet and my writing on this blog, a weekly journal. Had I known, I might have kept a few more records for a start. When I started building the FUSO in 1984, I stamped each frame with a simple in sequence serial number, starting with 001, 002, 003, and so on.

At the time the number was a simple way for me to keep track of how many frames I was building. It gave each frame an individual identity, a number that could be written on an invoice when it was sold.

I kept no record of where each individual frame went, apart from copies of the invoice, which are long gone. There was no reason at the time for me to keep that stuff.

In 1989 I built a 56cm. LUX frame number 1650, it was assembled into a complete bike using Campagnolo C-Record components. The bike was shipped to “Bicycling” Magazine, as they had agreed to do a road test, and write an article about it. The article appeared in June 1989 issue. (Picture above.)

The bike was subsequently returned to me, and I took it the Atlantic City, New Jersey, Bicycle Trade Show, in the Fall of 1989. As was customary, when the show closed the bikes were sold off to bike dealers at a discounted price.

Recently, the original owner of this bike sold it, and the new owner contacted me to ask me to authenticate that this was in fact the very same bike that appeared in Bicycling Magazine.

As mentioned, I did not keep records. However, here is a frame that was built in 1989. You can look at the FUSO registry and see other frames close to #1650 with original owners who also bought them in 1989.

It is a LUX frame, the color is pink with blue decals, it is a 56cm. frame built in Columbus TSX tubing.

I even stamped TSX on the bottom bracket shell, which is unusual.

The LUX frame was built to order only, there could hardly be another with the exact same specs. I can safely say, this is indeed the same bike.

Bikes like this have added value because they have a story attached to them. At some point someone will pay big bucks for such a bike, it will be a valuable addition to any collection. I hope the new owner will appreciate that I have just added value to his purchase by authenticating it.

That may sound a little mercenary to hint that someone owes me but let me explain. I always had a “Love/Hate” relationship with cyclists, until I realized that cyclists are just a cross section of people, that come in a whole range of personalities,

When I had my bike business in Southern California, I had a strict “No visitors” policy, because people would hang out all day, and I could not get any work done. I had a business to run, orders to fill, and a living to make. Then to make matters worse, the people who took up most of my time, were least likely to actually place an order.

It really is no different today. Believe it or not, my whole life does not revolve around bicycles. I have moved on to do other things. However, writing on this blog, and answering people’s emails, takes a disproportionate amount of my time.

Don’t get me wrong, I choose to make myself available. I could just quit, but I appreciate the interest, it gives me a great deal of satisfaction. However, there are expenses like monthly hosting fees, not to mention my time. A few good souls donate on a regular basis that helps defray this cost, without them I could not continue.

I will never put a “Pay-Wall” on my blog, that would be annoying and counterproductive. I will not charge for answering emails, but rather rely on voluntary contributions.

As with any gift, “It is the thought that counts.” If someone makes an unsolicited donation of a few dollars, it shows they took the time to actually go to my Registry, and clink on the PayPal “Donate” button.

It shows people care, and ultimately that is all we can wish for in life.

Footnote: Go to my Registry PDF files and download a copy of the Bicyclig Road Test article. Scroll down the page, second below the pictures.

Adopted

Parents of an adopted child will often tell them. “We chose you, and that makes you special.” I came to these United States in January 1979, in a few weeks’ time I will have lived here 44 years. That is longer than I lived in England, the country of my birth.

I adopted this country, which makes it special. I do not take this country or it’s people for granted as I might have done had I been born here.

A country and its people are one of the same, The USA being so large often feels like several different countries. To understand this, a person has to travel and live many places, as I have done. 

From New Jersey, close to New York City, to San Diego, California. Then gradually northwards to Riverside County, to Los Angeles. To Eugene, Oregon, then back across this country to South Carolina.

Throughout my travels, on meeting strangers, because of my accent as soon as I open my mouth I am viewed as a foreigner. Just as it is unwise for an American to travel overseas and express a political opinion, it is also best I remain neutral.

By taking political opinions out of the equation, I tend to see others as either good or bad, which is all there is really. If I choose friends based solely on some political leaning, I miss out on some good people, and allow others closer than they should be, taking my best interest into account.

I have no room for negativity in my life, either people or obsessing over it in the news or social media. Sadly, the media thrives on negativity, but I have come to realize if I look at the perspective of it, the goodness in the world, far outweighs the bad.

For example, I read about a mass shooting somewhere, and five or six people died. Not to make light of such a tragedy, but out of a population of over 300 million, the ratio of evil as opposed to good is a tiny percentage.

My point is, I can do little as an individual to stop these heinous acts, but when the good far outweighs the evil, why would I dwell on the bad?

You can define a country as the land mass it occupies, but the real spirit of any country, its heart and soul, is its people. As long as good people far outweigh the bad, and love outweighs the hate, there is hope.

Short back and sides

I have seen fashions come and go many times over the years, trends go out of style, and often given time will become fashionable again and appear for another-go-round.

One fashion I never expected to see again is the “Short back and sides” haircut. (Left.)

Reason being, it was never really a fashion statement, it came about out of necessity.

The decade from 1930 on, there was a world-wide depression.

Men were unemployed much of the time, but at the same time in order to get even casual temporary work, a person had to maintain a clean and presentable appearance.

A razor blade could be had for a penny, it was inexpensive and easy for men to keep themselves clean shaven. However, a hair cut is a different matter.

It had to be cheap, which meant quick and easy, and to maintain the tidy appearance, it was necessary to have a haircut every two weeks.

Men wore hats, either a brimmed felt hat, or a cloth cap. All a person needed was a pair of non-electric hand operated shears, to set themselves up in business charging a nickel for a short back and sides haircut, extra for some cut off the top.

The depression of the 1930s was followed by WWII, these were hard times, the trend continued. I remember in the 1940s, every two weeks, a silver shilling (12 Pennies.) clutched in my hand, running 2 or 3 miles, to a house where a Mr. West lived.

Mr. West had 12 children, which is probably how he got into the business of cutting hair.

After the war in my pre-teen years I would go to the barber shop for a haircut every two weeks, there was only one style, short back and sides.

I remember I had to ask the barber not to go too high at the back and sides, I hated to have my hair left like a little round skull cap on top of my head.

On weekends there would be 10 or 12 people waiting, but with each haircut taking only 5 or 10 minutes, the wait was never that long.

To me the short back and sides was a trend of that era, never a fashion. Who could indulge in fashion, when all a person could do is survive. It lasted 30 years from 1930 to the 1950s. Fashions do not last that long.

By the 1950s my generation were the first to come of age after the war, and to become interested in our appearance and fashion, and I would travel miles to avoid getting a haircut like the ones I see trending today.

I would get on a train and travel to London and pay good money to get my hair styled like Tony Curtis, (Above left.) or Robert Mitchum (Above right.) Note that movie stars did not have a short back and sides haircut, their hair was styled.

It seems to me that these over the top, “Manly” haircuts that are trending today, hark back to time when men were tough. They kind of act like a “Padded bra of masculinity.”

In the 1950s we all wanted to be different and to look different. We did so by all looking the same, as every new generation has done since.

It never works. A persons looks are what they are given in life, all one can do is exercise and eat healthy to make the most of what they have.

A confident demeanor and personality will take a person further than mere looks. And no haircut or style will make you appear tougher, or prettier, or whatever look you are going for.

Built to last

One of the highlights for me when watching the cycling Grand Tours like the Tour de France, and Vuelta a Espana, is not only viewing, the beautiful mountain scenery, but the architecture of the old buildings as the race makes its way through towns and villages.

Magnificent churches and cathedrals and castles built on mountain tops, that have stood for centuries, and many taking over a hundred years to construct. Built from blocks of stone hewn by hand into precise shapes and sizes, then carried up ladders or winched up by rope and pulley.

Whatever method used, it was without the aid of mechanical cranes, and was labor intensive. By the sheer size of these buildings, and the fact they remain standing after 10,000 years or more in some cases, shows that the construction, was precise without the use of sophisticated survey and measuring devices.

The point I am trying to make is that buildings all over Europe were constructed with brick or stone. They were built to last, and even simple stone cottages built for farm workers are still occupied today, some as old as 600 years, or more.

These were not built with the precision of the great churches and mansions built for the wealthy, it appears many were built with very little measuring at all. Some have walls, ceilings and floors out of square, doors and window frames the same.

It is the crudeness of the construction and lack of planning that adds to the beauty of these European towns and villages, as the buildings tend to blend with the natural landscape.

As I write here about “Crudeness of construction,” my thoughts are drawn towards the construction of houses in America today. Although designed by skilled architects and regulated and planned to an extent they all look the same. If I think about the actual construction of the modern home, its methods are extremely crude.

Wooden framing with chipboard nailed to the outside, followed by a thin plastic sheeting, and vinyl siding. Sheetrock on the inside with glass fiber insulation between. Plastic window frames and doors on all but the more expensive homes.

It seems to me that all construction and manufacturing today is carried out with no thought of a product lasting any length of time. In fact it appears that there is a deliberate planned obsolescence, thus ensuring future sales and continued consumerism.

In the meantime, the worlds populace is being fooled into thinking that if we just switch over to electric vehicles, all our problems will end. When the truth is, more and more items are being produced, made from plastic, and sold in plastic packaging.

Although consumer items are being produced cheaper, and they wear out faster, or more likely become obsolete in a very short time. Plastic is the one thing that lasts forever. One cannot burn it, and can only recycle so much, and how much can we continue to pile in landfills?

When I built hand brazed, lugged steel bicycle frames, I was simply following a standard procedure that had been set at the beginning of the last century. It was what my customers expected.

The technology was in place that I could have TIG or MIG welded frames, but that was not what my customers expected or wanted.

When the large corporations took over in the early in the early 1990s, they massed produced frames in fewer sizes, and then with their marketing clout, convinced the consumer that this is what they needed.

One can argue that since that time there have been many technological improvements made to the bicycle. However, the costs of buying and maintaining a bike has risen tremendously, and with each technological advance the old tech is obsolete.

The bicycle basically such a simple machine, how much technical advancement can they inflict upon it? Does a bike used just for the joy of riding, really need electronic shifting and hidden brake cables?