We all know when it is getting close to Christmas, little notes with hints of possible purchases for our nearest and dearest, the appearance of those annoying flashing lights that can bring on epyleptic seizures, and those infernal advertisements that constantly tell us of the things that we really need (or not)! Some people love it, and some people don’t. Guess which one we are?
Yup, thats correct, we love it! Sunny days, alcoholic beverages and rides. Ok so some of us get pulled into the task of decorating trees and the putting up of those pesky little lights but it is just a small price to pay to see the smiles on the little faces of those who reside in the McSnotty mansion. Of course at the end of it there is the imbibing of ones body with celebratory refreshments. With lots of singing of yuletide songs and the swapping of those well choosen presents, every Christmas is a truely different but memorable occassion. Sitting back watching those colourful little tree lights blinking off and on one could contemplate what the New Year would bring for us, however all I can think about is “thank goodness that Joseph Lucas didn’t make christmas lights!” Just image the disappointment on all those little faces of children had Mr Lucas decided to extend his manufacturing skills to small festive lights. With bulbs not lighting, flashers not flashing, and smoke escaping from power sources the cries and protests would be unmentionable! But wait we do have that. Perhaps a distant cousin of Mr Lucas’ works for a Chinese manufacturer. Just a thought.
Anyway, because things have been a little quiet from us this year with demands from other quarters (our real jobs) Knobster and I thought we would spend some of the christmas fund and we got you all a very special christmas card. Click on Santa to the left to see how much we spent.
What do you think? It is a carricature of me and Knobster heading off to buy that something special for our wives. Guess who is who. And no – we didn’t run over Kev the Kiwi.
The illustration was done by Richard Maby in the UK. Richard is a very talented artist and has completed some christmas card drawings for the Vintage Motorcycle Club in the UK. You can see some of his work here – http://www.vmccshop.net/p/1448/vmcc-christmas-cards-large-vmcc-limited in the form of christmas post cards. Very clever and quite humourous. Richard doesn’t have a website yet but if you are interested in his expertise we can put you in contact. Just use our Contacts Page and we can pass on your request.
General news –
The site is still proving to be very popular. Since Knobtser rebuilt it in July last year because of ongoing problems with hackers we have had over 210000 page views. Somebody likes us. The increased use of the site is a clear indication that there is still a healthy interest in girder fork motorcycles.
The publishing of manuals has slowed down due to other commitments. To scan and format a 30 page book takes about 20 hours, so it is the sort of job that we like to do over winter when we cannot get outside and don’t have other things pending.
Good news for those who follow the NZ Classic Racing Register and their Classic Festival in February. For the last few years it has been held at Hampton Downs Park Raceway owing to safety issues at the old Pukekohe venue. Well through some well placed discussions (and a lot of praying??) the Register committee have been able to obtain a race permit for the February 2015 meeting to return to the Pukekohe raceway. Hooray! Hopefully some of the old racers and spectators who found Hampton Downs a journey too far will return.
So for Christmas 1937 what was on offer from Harley Davidson? Click on the cover of the Enthusiast magazine for December 1936 to see what your beloved could buy you.
It is a 3 page PDF so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it.
