MY C.C.M. BIKE
In the early 50's, I had this C.C.M. bike handed down to me from my
brother Denis when he left home to attend High School in Ottawa. He had bought
it from Junior Conley in Combermere so that by then it had to have at least a
zillion miles on it. It had mud
flaps on the fenders with bright red reflector lights on them and a steel
carrying case at the front. A front
head light above the carrying case and a rear tail light under the seat was run
by a generating motor on the rear wheel. You
could see at least 20 yards ahead of you at night, so all the animals got out of
your way. I recall going from the
farm one winters night down to John T. Drohan's Logging Camp below Alumonds Bay
via the winter swamp water flooded road, in order to deliver a note to my
father. The moon light and the
bike's head light made it seem like day time.
I only owned this bike for about a year, when the nut on the right hand
peddle arm came loose several times and finally the tread was totally stripped.
So, I drove it by one peddle up to Leonard Griese's at the Palmer and he
braised the arm back on. Now, white
metal and braising do not hold together very long so the peddle soon came off
again. So back I went to Leonard's and this time he used a braising
rod that had a higher tensile but it only lasted a few months longer.
Someone told me that Johnny Schison had a portable electric welder and
was a really good welder, so one day off I go to Quadeville.
Now, it was quite a trick to drive this bike with one left hand peddle.
It was easy on the down hill but really hard on the up hill.
To this day, my left leg is still the stronger.
When I arrived, Johnny was gone down to Green Lake to do some welding on
a bulldozer but his wife Mary expected him back by supper so I waited.
I went over and had a good visit with Jimmy Kuehl.
His mother, Agnes, invited me for supper and she served up beef stew and
home made bread. What a treat over
venison stew. His father, Joe Sr.,
greeted me with a " Good day, Mr. Mad Again".
Why! I don't know.
Johnny Schison didn't show up for supper and soon the sun started going
down, so I started heading for home. Jimmy
King caught up to me around Remus' as I was pushing that bike up the hill at
Camerons Lake and he stopped and offered me a ride.
Sticking my bike in his trunk, he drove me down to the Turn and then said
that he would drive me down to Harry Jessups so that I could make it home before
dark. (Bears came out after dark). However,
I found myself back at Leonard's in a few days and he advised me to go up to
Willis Mantifel's as he had just purchased a new electric welding machine.
I went up and Willis welded it back on.
When he finished and took off his space helmet, he said,
"That will be .50 cents."
Now, it wasn't that .50 cents was too much or anything like that, but the
problem was, Leonard had only been charging me .25 cents the other times, so
that's all the money I had on me. Willis
took the .25 cents and said I could pay him the rest the next time I was in
town. This was Willis's standard
charge for small jobs even up to the time of his retirement. Just before he
retired I took my two rear rims off my old panel van up to have newer snow tires
installed and we just started to change them when he had to go out and serve
gas, so I continued on and this happened again and again but soon the tires were
changed. When I asked Willis what I
owed him, he said, "Well, you did all the work, so how about.50
cents."
The next time I came to town after owing Willis this money, I visited
Proudfoot's first and the candy bar stand looked too good to pass up so I
thought Willis could just wait. I
was pretty scared walking from Proudfoot's store down to Fennie's store that
night for fear that Willis might come out and ask me to pay up my debt. Finally, this one Saturday night, I went to Willis's garage
with a .25 cent piece in my pocket. I
was very surprised when Willis didn't ask me or demand his money.
Now, I was too embarrassed to bring the matter up, so when Willis went
out to serve gas, I laid the .25 cents beside his till. When he returned, he
asked where the change had come from, but none of the guys standing around
replied. I was relieved that nobody
saw me place the money there, but most of all, my first big debt was paid up.
I wonder if his journal record book still lists me as a debtor.
The peddle on my bike never came off again even though I drove it all
around the country. Once I drove it
to Combermere for a farewell goodbye to my Grade 9 chum and another time I drove
it down to Griffith for their annual summer picnic. I also drove it regularly to school during the week and some
weekends to Quadeville via Grammy's Road to buy cigarettes.
Once I took it across the river in a boat and went up the other side past
Henry Fleguels, over the hill by Gordon Schutts and around by Wingles just to
experience a ride down Raglan Hill. I
must have been doing 50 miles an hour when I hit the washboard at the bottom.
I was a jitter bug for about 50 yards.
I put that C.C.M. bike through all types of weather and road conditions.
I don't recall a lot of repairs or break downs and I must have put
another zillion miles on it.
Short Stories by Bryan Madigan