Wednesday, January 27, 2010

A Mans Shed is his castle

Well I have mentioned my father in law Bill often in this blog and after spending 10 days on holidays with him and Shane I have learned a lot about cycling. In a nutshell, if you spend a lot of time with an 80 year old who has stories to tell going back decades, of bikes of all descriptions, of the diets the riders used to get by in long races, the clothes the tactics and the life of a cyclist. In brief Bill has won a big race here, The Melbourne to Warrnambool and a big track race, the Austral and has won two world titles in Austria and has a huge trophy collection from racing in Europe.

Having said that, spending ten days with Bill was educational. We heard lots of stories (and I mean a lot...like a lot....), some of which we have heard several times before. But I think one thing that makes Bill just typical of his generation, is his passion for junk....more like just keeping things..."just in case".....I dont think Bill has ever thrown out anything. Having read One Story of someone who has accumulated too much stuff in five years...imagine how much stuff is accumulated in a cycling life of around 60 odd years and I have included three quick photos.

The Overview of the shed.......Bill is also a builder...so there are lots of bits of leftover wood and stuff...if you click on the pic, you can get a better look

Bike frames and tubes.....and some wheels
Some handlebars from his track riding.......

Bill has got just about everything in the shed and on our trip to Adelaide, we actually gave Bill a luggage limit which was "one bag" mind you he brought a bag that was HUGE!!!!!

PS There are a couple of other smaller sheds which have other stuff in them............never ever throw anything out.......

7 comments:

Red Bike said...

Ealier this year I finally got my first house. One of the best things about having a house is O finally have a shed. Every man should have a shed!

Mike J said...

That is an incredible amount of cycling gear. He could make a fortune on Ebay.

Black Knight said...

How many parts of bikes!!! I think he needs an inventory. I have an uncle 82 y.o. and he also tells the same stories several times as if it were the first time!

Judi said...

that is my boyf's wetdream! i predict thats how our garage will look when we're old too.

very cool.

Bluenoser said...

Start talking to Bill and recording him before it's too late Butsy. If not for you and Shane but for the rest of us.

-B

Judith said...

I am glad so many people can relate to this, next time I am there I will get some more pics and recording the stories is a good idea, but I would have to get someone else to do it.......he has some great quotes and we have a book with those in it!

Judith said...

PS A girl needs a shed too - mine is the study my computer room, it has a lot of junk in it too..pictures to come one day!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails

A place to vent my cycling frustrations and get some motivation to keep training hard