Back to considering motorcycles for Sepia Saturday!
A couple of posts from my past blogging...
Friday, September 26, 2014
Before I was a Motorcycle Mama...
First I was just a date...
on the back of a Triumph motorcycle with my one-day-to-become husband, who is now my ex-husband.
But back in my early twenties, I was like a lot of women, a bit of a fool for those rumbling machines...and the men who rode them.
Doug rode this bike across country from Hartford, CT to San Diego, CA where he was about to have "Basic Training" for the Coast Guard.
A friend of his lived in the middle of the country near St. Louis, MO, and he stopped to visit Dave. And I happened to be boarding in that house, since it was on a college campus, so I met Doug. Our entire relationship then moved into the status of writing letters (remember them?)
He sent me this photo, with a lovely innocent inscription on the reverse...and of course I carried it in my wallet.
Yes that was 1961. The cellar stairs were where we had a lot of our "date" while he may have been working on the Triumph. I know he did give me a ride at some time. And either that trip, or the next, he took me out for pizza as well. The motorcycle was no longer part of the equation by the time we seriously got engaged.
But that's another story. I share this with my Sepia Saturday friends, and hope you'll come over to see what they've come up with as well.

In about 1971 I was half owner of a Honda motorcycle with my then boyfriend. We split up and sold the motorcycle. By then I had my first 2 sons, and decided they needed me alive and healthy and that motorcycles were pretty risky to drive around.
Several years later, Doug, by then my ex hubby, again drove a motorcycle and had a bad accident with broken bones...and I don't think he had any more motorcycles. My oldest son, however, did own one when he was in the Navy.
on the back of a Triumph motorcycle with my one-day-to-become husband, who is now my ex-husband.
But back in my early twenties, I was like a lot of women, a bit of a fool for those rumbling machines...and the men who rode them.
Doug rode this bike across country from Hartford, CT to San Diego, CA where he was about to have "Basic Training" for the Coast Guard.
A friend of his lived in the middle of the country near St. Louis, MO, and he stopped to visit Dave. And I happened to be boarding in that house, since it was on a college campus, so I met Doug. Our entire relationship then moved into the status of writing letters (remember them?)
He sent me this photo, with a lovely innocent inscription on the reverse...and of course I carried it in my wallet.
To Barbara the "Laughing Girl"
from the dancing prep school hood
with memories of Pepsi on the
cellar stairs.
With love and such,
Doug
Yes that was 1961. The cellar stairs were where we had a lot of our "date" while he may have been working on the Triumph. I know he did give me a ride at some time. And either that trip, or the next, he took me out for pizza as well. The motorcycle was no longer part of the equation by the time we seriously got engaged.
But that's another story. I share this with my Sepia Saturday friends, and hope you'll come over to see what they've come up with as well.

In about 1971 I was half owner of a Honda motorcycle with my then boyfriend. We split up and sold the motorcycle. By then I had my first 2 sons, and decided they needed me alive and healthy and that motorcycles were pretty risky to drive around.
Several years later, Doug, by then my ex hubby, again drove a motorcycle and had a bad accident with broken bones...and I don't think he had any more motorcycles. My oldest son, however, did own one when he was in the Navy.
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Another SS post
Saturday, August 19, 2017 Motorcycles in my life
Sepia Saturday sharing from the past...
Motorcyclists love to cruise on the Blue Ridge Parkway which is about 5 miles from my home.
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Not my ex-husband's first motorcycle, but similar! |
I rode more than this first motorcycle, a Triton, which belonged to my boyfriend
at the time, who I later married.
We didn't stay married all that long, and the best part was having two
sons together. (He had sold the motorcycle when he entered the Coast Guard and before we got married.) After the divorce I found my new-found freedom in the 70s and maybe went a bit overboard. I had a boyfriend who I got engaged to, and we bought a motorcycle together...a little Honda.
Here I am (hands on hips) having a yard sale in 1973. I think it was mainly things my sister was selling as she moved from an apartment in FL to living in a cabin in TN. But there are the Honda's handlebars in the foreground, which I felt pretty comfortable riding on my own.
In a few more years, the next motorcycle in my life was a BMW, which another boyfriend owned. I actually never drove another one myself. (Don't ask how many boyfriends I had, but I'll gladly tell you I only was married once!)
However just last week I heard a motorcycle behind me, and knew it was a BMW by the sound. They are the earliest (that I know of) to have a drive shaft rather than a chain. It makes a world of difference, I think!
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Not me, nor the exact model we rode in the 70s, obviously! |
And between my home and the Parkway is a huge Harley Davidson store. So most of the "bikes" on the parkway are Harleys.
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This week's Sepia Saturday prompt shows this:
Travel has always been a central theme in photography. Ever since the days of the first Box Brownies, we have got our cameras out at weddings and when we go on holiday. Our theme image this week features a couple of motorcyclists from 90 years ago, with their motorbikes and set against a faded seaside scene. The lady is my mother, the gentleman was a family friend - and the chap with the camera would have been my father. They were travelling - in this case to the village of Blue Anchor in Somerset. You can go where you like for Sepia Saturday 790 - the destination is yours to choose. All you need to do is to post us a link to your old photographs on or around Saturday the 30th August 2025 HERE.
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Today's quote:
No one who has ever touched liberation could possibly want anything other than liberation for everyone. |
REV. ANGEL KYODO WILLIAMS |
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There is today, more than ever, the need for a compassionate regenerative world civilization.