They met during the very early fifties and mutual interest arised. They decided to make a trip from Stockholm to Mora (600 km back and forth). By bicycle. He insisted on this. She was very reluctant but after a lot of discussions she was persuaded. On the morning of the departure she confessed, somewhat ashamed, that it was something she had not told him about. She had never ridden a bike.
Where she was brought up, on a very small and rocky island in the Alandia archipellago, there was no use of a bike.
She learnt how to ride a bike, fully fifities touring loaded, that morning. The first day they came 100 kilometers, then she had to rest for a day to recover. Then they made it to Mora in two days. One week of "normal" holliday and then back to Stockholm in two days. It rained about half the time of this whole period. They slept in a tent.
In the light of this it is quite fantastic that they stayed togeather, got three kids ( of wich I am one) and are still happily married after fifty years.
Johan Ericson Stockholm, Sweden PS When visiting my mothers relatives on the island that very same year, my father "forgot" to tell he could not swim. A fact that when it was discovered, by my mother jokingly rocking the kajak to far, could have ended this whole story.
-----Ursprungligt meddelande----- Från: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org]För Stephen Barner Skickat: den 14 februari 2003 11:19 Till: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Ämne: [CR]Another V-Day Story
Back in '78, a young woman came into the shop just before 5 to purchase toe clips for her new mixte Schwinn LeTour. She was a a recent graduate of the local nursing school and had been working nights. She didn't know we closed at 5, and came in after sleeping all day. Since she was too groggy to object, I offered to install the toeclips for free in the shop parking lot. Of course, that gave me the opportunity and leverage to ask her if she wanted to go for a short ride (so I could help her with her technique, of course), and that led to the further opportunity to ride past a local ice cream shop. You have to sit under a shady tree to eat ice cream, which provides the opportunity to ask the pretty girl out to dinner...
To make a long story story short, we got married a year later. I still have the '77 Paramount I was riding that day, she still has the '78 Paramount I bought her a year later to replace that concrete LeTour, we are still married, and she is still drop-dead gorgeous. I, on the other hand,...let's not go there.
Steve Barner, who just scored a '74 Raleigh Professional in Bolton, Vermont, where the thrmometer reads 24 below zero.