The Suitcase of Courage

70 Years Ago:A Sunday Group Ride

(First off, a quick but BIG THANK YOU to all who pre-registered for Pedal for Paws!  We have over 90 folks so far, but it's not too late if you missed the early deadline.  Just show up the day of the ride - Saturday Oct. 1!  Secondly, there are a few posts that are "mile markers" for me throughout the year and I tend to repost them.  So as the cycling season puts on its jacket & armwarmers, take a trip back in time with me to a Sunday Group Ride that took place on the eve of World War II, 70 years ago . . .) 

Click Here to Start Your Journey

September 21, 1941 was a Sunday, an early autumn day in Southern New England, clear and mild.

World War II had been raging in Europe for exactly two years.  The German army had advanced into the Soviet Union that summer and was riding high on the success of having already conquered most of Western Europe.  France had just been split into German-occupied and Vichy zones the previous month.

It wasn't learned until much later that at some point in the days leading up to September 21, 1941, there was an important meeting concerning Nazi Germany's capacity to develop nuclear weapons.  We thought the atomic age didn't start until four years later.

We didn't yet have to Remember Pearl Harbor.

On this particular Sunday, the Japanese were celebrating the 10 year anniversary of occupying China's northeast territory of Manchuria.  At some point during that same day, perhaps as some sign of heaven's outrage at such an audacious celebration, the sun was blacked out during a total eclipse visible in most of China - from just northeast of the Black Sea to the Pacific ocean.

Just three weeks earlier, the Japanese government assured President Roosevelt that it had "no imperialist designs on any foreign nation."

Britain had survived the Blitz, which ended that May - the same month Glenn Miller first recorded "Chattanooga Choo Choo" which was featured in a hit movie starring Sonja Henie.  "Blue Champagne" by the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra was the #1 song on September 21, but the Henie movie, "Sun Valley Serenade," was released to theaters exactly a month earlier.  By then "Chattanooga Choo Choo" was already a top ten on the Hit Parade, well on its way to becoming the first gold record ever the following February.  It was the nation's #1 hit by that December.

Bobby soxers fed the voracious appetite of juke boxes across the country and made Frank Sinatra the top male vocalist that year.

Families had probably gone to church that Sunday morning in Connecticut, though some navy yard workers may have slept in having worked so hard to launch the Gato Class submarine USS Greenling (SS-213) at the Electric Boat Co., Groton the previous day.  Many were marking the 3 year anniversary of the Great New England Hurricane that devastated the Connecticut coast and rendered Hollywood screen siren Katherine Hepburn temporarily homeless, having to rebuild her family's home in Old Saybrook.

But there was no sign of bad weather this September 21 and at least a few folks took advantage of the beautiful Sunday afternoon to do what many of the readers of this blog do on Sundays.

They went on a group ride.

There aren't many left that remember the "Hobby Trains" run by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (the "New Haven") during the late 1930s and early 1940s.  In an effort to boost ridership, the New Haven took advantage of the fact that their railroad connected the Great Metropolis of New York with New England.  There were camp trains in the summer and ski trains in the winter.  Photography specials in the spring and all year 'round.  But what better time for a Bike Train than Autumn and what better place than the Berkshire Hills?

Thanks to a recent discovery of raw film footage by the NHRHTA, we can go back to that Sunday seven decades ago and enjoy the sights of a pre-war group ride.  You'll have to pedal your single-speed cruiser over a bunch of rollers before you get to the picnic.  Don't worry if you have to walk up some of the hills - and girls, be sure to mind your skirts that they don't get caught in the spokes.  There are no "rest stops" as we think of today - bits of orange and Powerbars - but an entire spread complete with potato salad, Boston baked beans, chicken and watermelon awaits us.

So give your Schwinn, Columbia or Raleigh to the porter to put in the baggage car, give the conductor your ticket, and enjoy the trip.  The train is about to arrive at the station . . .

 

Why Cycle Wednesday:Pedal for Paws, Saturday October 1

As many of you know, I'm helping Mrs. SOC with Pedal for Paws, a charity bike ride benefitting the Forgotten Felines no-kill cat shelter where she volunteers.  The ride will be on Saturday, October 1st in Old Saybrook, CT and the surrounding towns along the CT River and Shoreline.

Last year, I had Mrs. SOC - the brainchild behind the ride - guest post here to tell you "Why We Ride."  Our primary inspiration was Rainy, a wonderful tortie we adopted from Forgotten Felines and who became our erstwhile "coach."  Unfortunately, Rainy's not with us this year but her memory - and the knowledge of all the cats we help with this ride - continues to inspire us.

So hopefully you won't mind if I repost what Deb wrote last year.  Frankly, I couldn't do a better job of describing why this is an important event and why we hope you'll come out and support Forgotten Felines on Saturday, October 1.  The entry fee is all we ask for a great ride for a great cause - No additional fundrasing is required (though additional donations are welcome and appreciated).  Heck, if you register by this Monday (Sept. 19), you'll even get $10 off and a free t-shirt.  What could be better than that?

Ok, enough of the details, here's Deb with the background...

--------------

About three years ago, Mr. SOC and I adopted this girl from Forgotten Felines...

Give me ten more...

and our lives have never been the same. She's the first feline coach we've ever had.

Blowing off your ride again today?

I started volunteering at the shelter shortly after she and Rosie came to live with us (Tim is still not quite sure about his sisters), and it was always my dream to do a charity ride to benefit all the cats that came after Rainy. Last August, with much counsel from the SDCs, Pedal for Paws was born.

With less than a month to go, the planning gets overwhelming. All the details make me crazy. But then I go to the shelter, and see all those faces, and I realize all over again there's nothing I'd rather do.

I can give you lots of statistics (but, alas, no Garmin): as a no-kill shelter, we have over 125 cats at any given time; we've taken in 167 so far this year, and adopted out 100. There are over 30 kittens placed in foster families, and as fast as we adopt them to new families, they keep on coming. We're an all-volunteer organization: 115 volunteers, and of those, 56 of us work a weekly shelter shift. As my mom used to tell my sister and I growing up, cats have to eat and have their boxes cleaned every day. And so we do, twice a day, seven days a week, holidays included. Our other volunteers help with the website, the phone calls, the vet runs, the supply runs, the building maintenance and lawn mowing. We rescue cats from 10 towns along the CT River and shoreline, and the shocking thing is that we don't receive a dime from any of them, nor the state. Our funds are all donated through generous people, through our fundraisers or otherwise.

But when I am there, I forget all of this. It's a special place where every cat has a name and is loved and spoiled and played with and treasured, til his or her forever family comes along. I'd like to give you a Tour...wait til you see the catscape!

Please check out the photo album in the column at the left, or click here.

And if you haven't already signed up for Pedal for Paws, I hope you'll do it soon. Coach Rainy is counting on you!

Quick Feedback Needed . . .

Many of you know, as I transition to the off-season, my pursuits begin to turn away from cycling & racing to reading, historical research, and modeling. This blog has been almost exclusively, but not totally, about my racing & riding. Sure, there's an occasional "off topic" post, a book review, "what we did this weekend," etc. but for the most part this blog is pretty quiet during the off-season.

Saying it's "cycling only" certainly gives me a handy excuse for not posting as often, but as my Big Research & Modeling Project gains steam (apologies in advance for the pun), more and more I realize I'd like someplace to keep track of and log that progress.  And, if my experience with the Suitcase of Courage blog is any indication, I'm sure to get some great information, help & guidance in that journey too.

But a lot of that success depends on you.  I've been considering starting a second blog for a while, but it's enough work keeping up with this blog - never mind two of them.  On the one hand, it'd be nice to have all my interests in one place; on the other hand, I suspect that could get confusing (I have a wide variety of interests).  I think one of the strengths of the SOC blog has been its focus - it seldom deviates from its theme.

What's been your experience?  Do you tend to enjoy (and therefore visit, and hopefully interact with) blogs that are primarily about one topic or theme or do you like and appreciate more variety?  I suspect a lot of the answer has to do with how well the blog is organized - i.e. how quickly you can get to what interests you.  But if you see a post about racing one day and a post about a cool looking building I plan to model the next, is that too jarring?

Frankly, would you be more or less likely to visit?  What about others?

Just by way of background and to provide a little preview of my Big Research & Modeling Project, other than the occasional one-off posts about books and trips and such, the main focus of the "other half" of this blog (or a seperate blog) would be to document my research into the lower Connecticut River Valley circa 1946/47 with a goal of recreating in miniature the railroad line between Old Saybrook & Hartford, CT.  My bike commute to work (there! a cycling tie-in :^) follows this line and one of my older friends is a guy who grew up along the line in Wethersfield during the late 1940s.  I'm having a blast doing all the historical research required to faithfully depict the era and locale, but I need a place to put all the stuff I'm collecting and, hopefully by sharing what I'm learning, maybe I could learn some more.

That has certainly been the case with the Suitcase of Courage blog.  I just need to get a sense of whether adding all that other stuff here would be a good or bad idea.

So leave a comment or send me an email.  I look forward to hearing what you think about it.

Still here....

It's been a crazy few weeks.  How many blog posts start out that way?  Not terribly original, but true.  We were percolating along nicely during the Summer of 2011, doing our usual racing & daytripping routine, when the wheels seemed to come off slowly grind to a halt around mid-August.  The change seemed to start with the cancellations of my final two big summer races (Hyannis & Fall River), then the Missus got sick for one of the Rent' Races and - coincidentally - I got stung by a bee.  So instead of racing, we spent that evening in the ER.  We had a slight up-tick in activity the last full week of August, racing TWICE (Rent' & Ninigret), but then The Hurricane Tropical Storm Irene came calling & we had to deal with that.  After she left, the weather took a decided turn for the chilly & the last Rent' race of the year was cancelled due to the National Guard using it for a staging area to help victims of the storm.

Talk about a strange - and abrupt - way to end the summer.  Instead of doing what we'd planned, the storm made us plan what we'd do (you have to when you're without power & water for days).  So before plunging totally headlong into Autumn, herewith are a few photos documenting the summer's ignominious end....

 

The night before the storm, I took a short ride around town and took a few "before" shots.  This is North Cove.

 

And here's Fenwick.

 

Here's Fenwick again, shortly after the bulk of the storm headed north.

 
We couldn't get to town our usual way.  This is one of five trees that were down, blocking the road and ripping out powerlines, between us and the substation.  We'd be without power (and since we have a well, we'd be without water) for four days.

 

This is the beginning of the causeway over South Cove and the beginning of the leadout/sprint for our Friday morning group ride.  Road's flooded.  Sprint's blocked.

 

The storm forced us all to be a little more creative.  Though this use of our grill isn't all that original, I'm glad it has the little gas burner on the side (though don't try to cook a pound of bacon without planning ahead where all that grease will go.  Ask me how I know).

 

And candles aren't the best way to roast a marshmallow, but anything'll do in a pinch.

 

One of the brightest discoveries (sorry) was how great my bike light was as a source of indirect/bounced light.  Aimed at the white ceiling, it just about lit the entire room.

 

As we started clearing things out, we discovered the main reason power wasn't being restored quickly.  This picture doesn't do it justice, but this is an absolutely GARGANTUAN tree across the street from our house that took out ALL of the powerlines.  Good thing it fell the way it did.  If it'd gone the opposite way, it would have totally destroyed the house (just off pic to the right).

 

We got by relatively unscathed.  A big branch came down in the front yard.  And this big, ivy-covered tree, came down in the back yard - right on top of our well.  Speaking of the well - and water - we were VERY blessed to not have gotten ANY water in the basement.  I was especially worried about that given all the rain and the fact that the sump wouldn't be working without power.

 

And another blessing: Clearing the tree away from the well revealed that it wasn't a direct hit.  The well is fine.

I was actually out on the regular Wednesday Night group ride when my neighbor texted me that we'd gotten our power back.  And one of the coolest things was heading back and seeing house after house, previously dark, now all lit up like Christmas.  Tim was on our ride and we all cheered when we saw his porch lights were finally on too.

Labor Day Weekend was a lot different this year.  Our traditional dinner couldn't happen - Dock 'n' Dine had been swamped by the river and the storm surge.  And instead of playing at the beach, most of us in Old Saybrook - and all over the state - spent the weekend cleaning up.  But what we had to deal with was nothing compared to the devastating flooding that happened in upstate NY and Vermont.  Nobody expected that and those folks are STILL trying to get things back together up there.  So all in all, certainly no worries here.

But now that the summer and my racing season are now officially over, it's time to turn my attention to my "off season" pursuits.  All that time indoors - and now that I don't have to train, I'll have a little more of that - allowed me to make some more progress on Chet's modules.  I don't think I've ever told Chet's story on this blog before, but since I expect I'll be sharing more photos like this, it's probably about time that I did.

Not quite time though.  While it seems forever ago now, I did do two last races and I've been able to get together for some great Saturday morning group rides that I'd like to share.

So watch this space.  There may not be any racing to report, but Autumn is one of the best times to ride.  And if you don't mind the "branching out" a little bit topic-wise, there'll be plenty of off-season activities to share with you too.