One year ago....Long Ago and Not Very Far Away....

"Oshermo"

Sherman Joseph Schroeder, Jr.

2/17/1935

7/13/2012

Some one once said that in order to have a friend you must first be a friend.

So very true in this case.

Sadly missed by a multitude of friends.

And the British Motorcycle Association of Colorado came to my house today!

And what a day it was!  Hey, Dana, come on in!  What are you riding? 

Oh, I see, it is Sherman's Black Matchless!  Lookin' good!

 

I wanna' go for a ride!  And Dana, ever the gentleman, took me!

 

And we feasted on pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, baked beans and all the other good stuff, topped off with an upside down German Chocolate Cake.  My grand daughter helped with the cooking and the clean up.  Great to have her around and not just because she is a work horse.

So it was a very fruitful day and I am very tired.  This was the one year anniversary of when the club came to bid farewell to Sherman.  Next week marks the one year anniversary of his passing, so it was a bittersweet celebration of that time in our lives. 

So let me just thank everyone for today.  And an especially big thanks for giving me the ride Sherman would have given me.  Thanks, buddy!  Hope we meet again soon!

 

 

What is normal?

Recently I have had the occasion to wonder, what is normal?  What is not?  To me, 5'1" and 160 pounds is normal.  Not so to my 100 pound step daughter.  Getting up at 4:30 is normal and perfectly acceptable to me.  Not to my 23 year old grand daughter.  Spending 7-8 hours a day on my computer is "normal" to me, but I have friends and family members who are challenged to turn their computer on, if they even have one.  I talk to one daughter several times a week on the phone, another weekly, one monthly and one I have not spoken to in years.  Which of those scenarios is "normal?"
When I was raising my babies it was "normal" for me to work 2 and three jobs just to make ends meet.  Yet I know families where no one works.  To them it is "normal"  for some one else to "take care" of them.  I do not consume alcohol, but I know people who drink as a matter of course.  I don't buy or drink soda pop, but I know people who  drink it on a regular basis.
What I am trying to get to here, is what is normal?  Could it be that there is indeed, no "normal?"  When we were growing up back in Nickerson, it was much like being raised by the wind.  Mom worked cleaning houses.  Dad did not work.  Mom came home and cooked our supper, we ate and then mom ironed a basket of clothes for one of the ladies in town.  We went to bed.  We got up and did it all over again.  My Dad sometimes had a "hot toddy" for his "cold".  Sometimes he let us have a teaspoonful.  Usually not.  The woman at the end of the block kept an eye on the little kids for 50¢ a week.  (She liked to ride stick horses and the little kids would run behind her.)
We were very poor, but so was everyone else.  Poor was the "norm."  We moved to Hutch and fit right in with that society.  Mom was a secretary by that time.  She would later go on to waitress work which paid better then office work back then.   By that time us kids were all beginning to leave home.  Mary got married at 15, I got married, Dorothy got married, Donna drifted off to school, and Jake was Jake, and Josephine was divorced and remarried with her kids grown and gone.
I immediately had a nest full of kids and began travelling the state with my tree trimmer husband.  I remember back when I was raising kids, Ward and June Cleaver were raising kids at the same time as I was, but talk about a world of difference!   A two parent home!  Ward went to work and guided the children in the right direction.  He did not appear to drink or carouse.  That was the "normal" for June but  my "normal" was far different. 
And so it is now today.  I look back down the road of my past and I see a skinny little girl with bare feet picking her way down a road of shattered dreams, lost opportunities, broken hearts, dragging 5 little kids behind her to reach the ever elusive rainbow at the end.  I now stand at the precipice to what, I know not, and I ask myself, "Did I do it right?  Did I do the best I could?"  The answer is "no".  But I do know this, I did the best I could knowing what I knew then with the tools that were at my disposal. 
I got all my kids into the world of adulthood.  They are all functioning members of society.  True, they are no doubt scarred by their childhood, but aren't we all?  They all have a different perception of "mother, hearth and home," but don't we all?  If I could walk the road again and know what I know now, they would all have gone to college.  We would be a close knit family and we would vacation together and talk on the phone every day and be so happy.  But until some one figures out a way to live our lives in reverse, they will just have to live with an imperfect mother, but one that loved them all nonetheless.
So, I just got off the phone with the oldest daughter who reassures me that there is no such thing as normal and as for her childhood, when someone says,  "How are you ?"  she replies, "Mentally unstable, but I am very friendly."
So there it is in a nut shell!

Big misunderstanding on my part about the Sherminator!!!

Just had a short email from the Danaman.
 Lou,
          The Sherminator is for racing @ Bonneville, it's not street legal. So I will be coming down to your place on Sherman's black Matchless that I got running awhile back. Now I am counting on giving you a short ride on the Matchless, so make sure your life insurance is paid up (hah!)
Danaman
Hey, that is even better.  Check this out!  Whoops, never mind.  Was going to link you up to the youtube of the Matchless, but that is not there any more .  RATS!

Thanks, Dana!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y57dnNtUk_Q

 

Yes! It is a go on the cook out at my house!

SHERMAN J SCHROEDER, JR.

MEMORIAL RIDE AND COOKOUT

JULY 6, 2013

FEATURING THE

Sherman's Black Matchless

RIDDEN BY DANAMAN

AND ESCORTED BY THE BMAC

Call for details  719-546-1555

Just heard from the DanaMan and July 6 is a go!  Soooooo, the bike club should arrive here between noon and 1:00 for lunch.  I just want to say, if there is anyone out there who would like to join us for whatever reason, just give me a call so I have a heads up on how many to cook for.  Or leave a comment at the end of this blog.  Or send a message through my email.  I will give you good directions to my house and be most happy to see you.

Dana added this: I don't have email addresses/phone numbers for these three, so could yet let them know about the ride ? Let them know they can either come to Colorado Springs for the starting point of the ride, or just meet us at your place for lunch. We will start the ride @ around 11:00 AM from Johnny's Navajo Hogan bar and restaurant ( 2817 N. Nevada Ave, Colorado Springs, CO ). I would guess we would be arriving at your place between noon and 1:00 PM.  Also if they want to attend our club meeting at the Hogan, that starts at 10:00 AM, they are more than welcome.

I would love to see a good turnout for this event.  This is one week before the anniversary of Sherman's passing so we need to celebrate the little fellow one more time.  Sherman was one in a million!

Here is a link to the newsletter showing lots of pictures.  http://www.bmacinc.com/Newsletter.html
And look for them on Facebook.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/293247852308/?ref=ts&fref=ts

So that is the scoop for now.  I look forward to seeing or hearing from some of you very soon.
loumercer3@aol.com
 

This was Saturday when the smoke was at its worst at my house.

 

This was the sun about mid morning on Saturday.  I pointed the camera straight at it and clicked.  Normally all I can see when I do that is the glare, but this was filtered through a lot of smoke from the fires all around us.  The air was filled with a smoky smell and a haze hung over everything.

 

 

About 1:00 in the afternoon we caught a break and I got this picture of a helicopter on its way to one of the fires.  See how blue the sky was?  The smoke smell lifted for this period.

 

 

And then in the early evening it all came back.  Guess the cool morning and evening air held it closer to the ground.  My friend, Wanda, lives over at South Fork which is now under pre-evacuation warning and she said they can not even smell the smoke.  It apparently goes straight up and then down to the valley.  Lucky her.  Well, not really lucky her, because she is still in danger of losing her home.  I would not like to be in her shoes at all!

 

I picked Doug up for church yesterday morning and he said it had rained at his house the night before.  He said it was really nice.  I would not know since it did not rain at my house.  I have not even seen a rain cloud;  just smoke clouds.  I have been talking to the good Lord about this situation and I am sure he will remedy it soon.  Think how fast he could put out those fires, if he had  mind to.

 

But you know how this goes.  It is called nature and ever so often the forest fires thin the underbrush and the dead and diseased trees.  When we were down on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, they had a practice of going in and cutting down the dead trees and hauling them down to the road for people to use as fire wood.  Forest fires there are very rare, but of course the naturalists think that is interfering and a fern may loose it's happy home on the forest floor.  I do not know what the answer is.  I do know that there has been very little loss of life this fire season, which is indeed a blessing.

 

But I have been thinking, if I could get all my friends to pray for rain, maybe it would happen.  If you don't do the praying thing, try the karma and send good thoughts this way.  Just picture a nice soft rain falling all over Colorado.  Not a heavy downpour, because we have lots of areas that are now without vegetation.  That would cause flooding.  Just a little soft rain.

 

I would very much appreciate it!

 

 

Just a heads up for you biker fans or Sherman fans.

This is the "Sherminator" and it is ready to run.  Pretty sure this is going to Bonneville this fall!  The BMAC is having the annual Sherman Schroeder run and Dana called yesterday to tell me the plan.  We are not sure exactly where but it will be before noon. 

 

As soon as I know I will let you in on the specifics.  For now, just know it is in the works!

 

When Sherman passed last year he left the garage to his beloved British Motorcycle Association of Colorado, which he had helped found back in 1983.  Only one of the founders is left and hopefully he will be there that day. 

Any way, the club dug this out of the rubble in the garage and have spent the past year restoring it to museum quality.  This is going to be very exciting, at least for me