I’m 70. I started my journey into the world of mechanical wonders at age 4, my mother actually installed that button. It was while we were living in Virginia on the Christmas a tad over 2 months after I turned 4. My dad was a newly minted Lieutenant in the Army Medical Core he was deployed to Korea and served in a MASH hospital, he and his team were there to deploy and further develop the artificial kidney; I saw him once, for a week, in the 2.5 years he served in Korea. That Christmas it was just me and mom; the Red Cross brought us a Christmas dinner and a small tree. Mom gave me what had been a good quality brass alarm clock and a collection of used tools; the clock, however, had been over-wound and dropped (thrown?) a number of times, to call it junk would have been kind. My mom told me that the clock needed my help and told me she was sure that I was the man for the job. I never did get that clock to run again, but I learned about gear engagement and bearing adjustment; I spent hours taking it apart and putting it back together; it was one of the best presents I ever got.
I got my first motorcycle at age 15, a 250cc Zundapp Super Saber, while at a private school in upstate New York; I bought it from one of the cooks for $40.00, but it had "T" boned a car and was, virtually, salvage. Two senior class men (called 6th former's for you Brits) helped me get the wreck into the school's maintenance shed where we repaired the damage enough to have a pretty spunky dirt/pit/rat bike.
I worked for many motorcycle dealerships while in college before joining Corporate America; from 1964 to present there were only 4 years I didn't own a motorcycle, however, during those 4 years I rode other people's bikes; I'd trade service/repair for riding time.
At my present age I have seen many people retire, the bulk wake up at some point and realize that they haven't seen a new web page in a week, that arthritis has killed their golf game, that they are drinking too much. I belong to a few chapters of different British motorcycle groups, but find it hard to attend when all I hear are stories about ailments and medical procedures, not that I'm in any way immune to such maladies, but learning to live with them is much easier than rolling the dice in the OR; bitching about infirmities doesn’t make them any better.
During my corporate America "tour” which lasted a bit over 30 years, I got laid off 6 times, was hired as a contractor, illegally, 4 times, was put between a rock and a hard place too many times and was frivolously sued twice by complete jerks; these suits went no place in court, but sure wasted a lot of time. Being ambitious and passionate about my work as a software technical recruiter wasn't helpful for career growth. Small companies hired me to solve their "Human Capital" deficits, which I could do better than most. When these companies started to grow, they implemented "process", promoted "team work", talked about "working locally, thinking globally". I always found a way to spell "team" with an "I". I learned that a corporation’s collective common sense diminished with the square of the head count. I also learned HR was at the very bottom of the corporate food chain; essentially a place to exile “loyal incompetence”. Many times, Clint Eastwood’s line from “Dirty Harry”, “Personnel, personnel is for idiots” ran through my mind. The last place I worked as an employee was quite the ride. I joined EMC corp when they were at a 700 headcount; I was hired to support Advanced Development, a group that wrote the micro-code that cut disk access latency; I, eventually, managed a group that focused on software development in a much broader sense. I was granted stock options on my hire, I also saw patterns in the stock price each quarter, which I charted. I left EMC when the headcount exceeded 127,000. The BS I had to deal with was easily balanced by what my options and day trading allowed me to leave with. I paid off the mortgage, topped off the kid’s college funds and built a rainy-day fund that I hoped would out last me. I also purchased a Mk3 Norton.
I had 3 Nortons back in the day, I always liked British iron, but Norton was/is my favorite; motorcycles with real soul. I will never retire; having Rocky Point Cycle is one of the best purchases I have ever made. I purchased an industrial condo to house RPC in and started buying 60s and 70s air cooled European twins: Nortons, Triumphs, BSAs and BMWs; I have 10 examples. RPC’s parts business pays the bills and gives me a place to spend my days. I do service work, so put RPC on your list of places to stop at if you ever ride in New England.
The pictures that follow show my “man cave”, please pardon the appearance, I owe the shop a good cleaning and squaring away.