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Remembrance from Nathalie and Jim Roberson... enjoy!
Remembrance from Nathalie and Jim Roberson... enjoy!
Posted Oct. 5th, 2024
Nathalie had me mopping the floor this morning so when the cleaning crew comes; they won't think we are pigs. I thought my father, who would have turned 100 years old this year, not that he was a pig but that he was a stickler for mopping.
He joined the Navy shortly after Pearl Harbor and retired 20 years later as a Chief Petty Officer. It was around 1963, the family was loaded in the station wagon for a long trip to where I don't remember. We were on a two-lane highway in the middle of nowhere. It was raining so hard that the two-speed wipers were not keeping up. Ahead, you could barely make out a person walking. There was no shoulder, so the man walking in the ditch was being flooded by each passing car. Suddenly, my dad stopped, and I remember my mother saying, "What are you doing?". "Picking up this sailor," he said. "You don't know that man." "Yes, I do, he's Navy. No swabby is going to walk as long as I'm alive.".
The sailor smelled like a wet dog. His wool jumper was beyond wet, and his sea bag must have weighed double its dry weight. I don't remember how long he was with us, but I do remember that smell and seeing my father hand the man money as we dropped him off at a cafe. During this time, my dad was working as a school janitor, so I'm sure whatever the amount, it was most of the money he had. When I tell this story, I ask people to remember and learn from people like my father.
A note from cRc member Jim Roberson:
A note from cRc member Jim Roberson:
Posted June 26th, 2024--
As many of you know, Nath and I have had a sidecar for the last few years. As age gains on us all, I realized that I could no longer be safe on this bike. It sat for 2 years before I could get the strength to sell it.
I listed it online and had a response from a guy up North. He's a 75-year-old Army Vet with cancer with no idea as to how much life he has left. He purchased the bike not knowing if he had 2 days, 2 months, or 2 years, only knowing that whatever time, he was going out on his terms.
He told me he's as excited as a child at Christmas. May God bless us, in the gearhead group, with the same love and drive for our chosen rides as this man, and do our best to pass on the passion to those who come after us.
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