I've posted some of these pics before, but the old links are no longer available. Dad and my mother ran their own business for 57 years and dad also worked 35 years in a steel mill. Hope you enjoy!!
This is my uncle in front of dads first bike shop which was inside an old coal bin next door to their house about 1938. Dad did some bike repair work for a couple of local hardware store that sold bikes.
After he got out of the Army in WWII, dad opened another shop in an alley downtown from where he lived. He sold Whizzers and Simplex Servicycles and James motorcycles.
My uncle and my grandfather and a customer inside the shop. They stayed in the alley location for a couple of years and then moved to another location on a main street.
This was about mid 1950's. Dad also worked full time as a boilermaker at a local steel mill and had a business partner that ran the shop when he wasn't there.
He later sold that location to his business partner and opened this new location across town.
This is about 1965 when I was old enough to start working in the shop along side my grandfather after school each day.
This was my Paw Paw. He was a retired barber that came in and worked on bikes during the day. He worked on bikes at a blacksmith shop before WWI. Here he is "washing a brake". We used kerosene.
When we outgrew that place, we built walls around the old house and tore it down inside the new building. I don't think we closed any due to construction.
This is just prior to the first Christmas in the new building. Here's some pics of me about mid to late 1970's working in the shop.
I still enjoy working on bikes now! Thanks!!!
This is my uncle in front of dads first bike shop which was inside an old coal bin next door to their house about 1938. Dad did some bike repair work for a couple of local hardware store that sold bikes.
After he got out of the Army in WWII, dad opened another shop in an alley downtown from where he lived. He sold Whizzers and Simplex Servicycles and James motorcycles.
My uncle and my grandfather and a customer inside the shop. They stayed in the alley location for a couple of years and then moved to another location on a main street.
This was about mid 1950's. Dad also worked full time as a boilermaker at a local steel mill and had a business partner that ran the shop when he wasn't there.
He later sold that location to his business partner and opened this new location across town.
This is about 1965 when I was old enough to start working in the shop along side my grandfather after school each day.
This was my Paw Paw. He was a retired barber that came in and worked on bikes during the day. He worked on bikes at a blacksmith shop before WWI. Here he is "washing a brake". We used kerosene.
When we outgrew that place, we built walls around the old house and tore it down inside the new building. I don't think we closed any due to construction.
This is just prior to the first Christmas in the new building. Here's some pics of me about mid to late 1970's working in the shop.
I still enjoy working on bikes now! Thanks!!!