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August 10, 2008 |
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Man on Bike
FOUND by Meghan Engstrom
in Duluth, Minnesota
I found this photograph (along with some baseball cards) sitting on my dumpster one day.
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The Motown Man May 20, 2007 |
Take Me To The River August 10, 2006 |
First Job July 21, 2005 |
I'm in Love with ... December 27, 2007 |
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
I think I know at least one found moto fanatique who's gonna love this photo! Also, the guy's kinda cute. I have no idea about vintage motos.. what year do you think it was?
And this photo was found on a dumpster?? That's just sad.
Those boots make me hot! Leather and buckles... hmmmmmm
Ahhhhh. Now THAT's a Find to start the week with, and no mistake. An Indian Scout. And the historical equivalent of leathers. He is so proud of it, and of his skill as a rider. And rightly so. He doesn't have to act cool--he IS cool.
What's that hanging in the open doorway behind him?
It might be early spring, but to me it says late autumn. I can feel the crisp bite in the air.
This is by far one of my favourite Found photos so far.
It's so purely still a good photograph, the anonymity of it actually adds a great aura too.
My guess is pre-mid-century, as far as time frame [as a side note].
Should've been the cover of the guy's (auto)biography.
interesting old photo.
I don't really have anything to say about it, but if the baseball cards the finder found with the photo were nearly as old as it, then they would most likely be worth some money.
Love it(what a man!). I wonder about the life lived.
Having looked at it for a longer time, I have the itch to take the bike and pump up those tires. They look a bit deflated to me(but I am by no way a bike expert).
This photo has character. I would hang it on the wall.
Makes me wonder if the person that threw it out was someone who got rid of it because the man pictured was not as fine on the inside as he was on the outside. Or just to young to appreciate the history of it.
By the way, seeing that the picture was found in Duluth, I would go for early spring (May) and one of the first outings on the bike again (which would account for the low tire pressure).
My step dad is into his classic motor bikes (though not normally american ones) and he says this bike is an Indian, and it is probably post war, about '45 he reckons, as it has electric lighting and a horn. He was very jealous of someone finding it, and says it would probably make £30 on ebay just for the photo.
those boots are so awesome. i love this photo
WHOA! Dude is awesome! That's a killer Indian. I can't believe someone threw that out. Perhaps there's some issues... :(
This guy is pure old-school badass.
looks like he's got a big ole chaw of tobaccy in his lower lip..
Fantastique photo!
Can't imagine why anyone would toss this. EVER. Excellent Find, Meghan, thanks for sharing!
My husband says the Indian motorcycles were made around the turn of the century, maybe through the 1930's and 40's. He said they're super collectible.
So.. first I was gonna say that maybe he found it in the barn, and decided to pose on it; that's why the tires are deflated. But the bike looks brand new, doesn't it?
But his jacket is NOT brand new. There's a huge rip on the left elbow, and it looks kinda raggedy around the right cuff edge.
I wonder what the original size of the photo is. Some from the 1920's and 30's are so tiny (2x3" i think) and it's really fun to scan and enlarge them. Many cool details show up then.
I think this picture was taken on Christmas day. This is the BEST Christmas gift this guy EVER got. The pale thing hanging in the doorway is the sheet that covered the bike so that it would be a surprise. The hot boots came with it.
My daughter has a pair of boots sorta like that. She got them at Hot Topic. My grandfather always wore a hat like that. He was born in 1901.
Do you think that's tobacco drying in the open doorway of the barn? My grandfather used to dry tobacco in a barn very similar looking in the hills of Tennessee - looks something like that - but I'm not sure. If so that would mean that it is the fall time. Just speculating.
Great find! Love the photo.
@Lucky.. I believe you're onto something there! I'm thinking this is probably what Christmas looks like in Kentucky. Maybe he was also lucky in Kentucky! (Doesn't matter that it was found in Minnesota. Finds travel, as we know.)
Seriously cool, Fonz-wise.
This is exactly how I picture Alan. Motorcycle and boots included.
"Found on a dumpster?!?!" Oh how incredibly sad.
What a great photo. (He looks a little like Ralph Fienes.)
I love this photo. He's so proud of his bike. I have a photo of my grandfather back in the day with his first Harley. Priceless.
I think this is my favorite find in a very long time. I hope you put this photo in a frame. . . it would be a great conversation piece.
Hey, Word Girl! Me too! I have a photo of my grandfather on a Harley, back in the day. 1915, to be exact.
My grandfather, age 14, is sitting on the back, behind his older brother. My grandpa is rolling his eyes and making the "he's crazy" gesture, pointing to his brother whose back is toward him and has no clue.
When you first view the tiny original photo, it looks like they are going somewhere. It wasn't until I scanned and enlarged it that I noticed the kick stand was down! I just uploaded it to Photobucket. Just now. Weird you should mention that.
I wish I'd found this for my Adopted Ancestors collection. He'd make an excellent adopted great uncle! (and that garage looks like my Great Uncle's in Apgar, W Glacier. But the surrounding scenery's not right.)
Clover.. I can't wait to look at the picture of your Grandfather on that motorcycle! Sounds like a real treasure!!
The pic was 4x6 - obviously recent print off of the original photo (maybe they kept the original?). I thought of Ralph Fienes too when I picked it up. The baseball cards were probably from mid-80's, most of them commons & junk.
The weirdest part about finding the photo, was someone was obviously moving out their apartment, and there was the usual "stuff" in the dumpster that people toss when moving (papers, old food, broken furniture, etc.), and then, this photo, just sitting there...
i love this. love the boots (man, do i want a pair) love the bike, love the guy.
Does anyone else see Rod Serling in him?
@Higgy
YES!!!
@Clover
Christmas in KY can look like a lot of things. We rarely have snow, sometimes it's rainy and cold, and sometimes we have 70 degrees F, sunny and windy. Like in the pic, sometimes we get a low pearly looking sky and the air feels cold and crisp. On those days, we get enough sunlight to make shadows, but really, everything just sort of glows.
@Everybody
I hope I get some boots like that for Christmas!
Great photo! This was taken back when anyone who rode a motorcycle really was Cool and genuine anti-social types. Nowadays where I live most if not all "bikers" are either weekend warriors or punk kids riding Japanese made bikes. Fakers in other words.
Anybody ever see the movie 'The Fastest Indian in the World'?
Awesome photo, you don't throw out photos like this.
This is fantastic!
Hi finder Meghan!! What a fantastic find! Thanks for stopping by to answer questions. I bet the recent print off the original was blown up from the small 2x3" size. And I bet they did keep the original, and maybe other enlargements made from it, that they may have considered better quality. Isn't it lucky that this one was lost for you to find?
At my mother-in-law's funeral I enlarged a bunch of her old photos and made prints that we posted around the room. Everyone enjoyed them so much. It wasn't that long ago, only a few years, but it was before we had a scanner. So I took them to Kinko's and did it by hand on their copier, using the photo setting. Anyway, there were many duplicates that I discarded. Maybe one will turn up here someday.
Chrome, I don't see why you can't adopt him as your ancestor anyway. Meghan won't mind, I bet. You can adopt my grandfather too if you want. You would have loved him, really you would!
@Lucky.. I love your description of the low pearly sky.
Wow- BOTH Finders commented in the comments today! Woo HOo! Thanks guys! That just makes the Finds and comments even better.
THIS IS THE MOST FABULOUS FIND, YET!!! Long live the Indian Motorcycle!
My hubby owns a Motorcycle shop, *Universal Cycle* in Toronto.
I'm gonna' blow this photo up and frame it, then hang it in my office at the shop!!!
VROOMMM!
@ SMALLBEAR- "The Fastest Indian in the World" was a fabulous movie!!!
Also, @ MEGHAN THE FINDER and KEEPER- WOW!! This is a wonderful photo to find, and keep! You're one lucky girl!
However, I did want to point out that maybe, the way you described your story of when and how you FOUND this charm...do you think the *owner* set this pic aside along with the baseball cards and threw out all of his/her garbage and walked away, hence, forgetting that this pic and cards were left on the dumpster???
Just wonderin'...
Whoo-hoo! Easy Rider!
p.s. The boots are AWESOME! I would wear those, with one of those cute American Appeal dresses that I keep seeing in the ads.
@Holly
No, the garbage dumpster was in a back alley - something you'd only go to if you were dropping off garbage (as I was when I found it). And the baseball cards were in a binder, but pages falling out everywhere. I think whoever the owner was just dumped their possessions to make a quick move.
I saved the pic to my desktop, and then enlarged it quite a bit. I realized that there isn't a rip in his sleeve, it's a two part sleeve. If you look really closely at the other sleeve, you can see that it has the same cut in the same place. It's pretty interesting, really. Great bike. Great boots. Really great find.
Very John Steinbeck looking.
Boots = awesome.
@Higgy: I see what you mean about Rod Serling, but my first thought was that he looks like Scott Bakula.
Awesome picture.
Ralph Feinnes, for sure. I really like this find and the responses.
Was the guy just passing through and someone took his photo before he was out of there?
All kinds of cool stories to ponder..
Julse, can you see what that thing is, in his back pocket? It looks like a hammer handle.
Or maybe numchucks.
Clover, perhaps that's his muddler and he's stopped by to make mojitos.
Thanks, MEGHAN!
Also, check out the tire marks on the dirt. Maybe he owns a few hundred acres of land and they've (him and his motorcycle buds) made bike trails so they can ride around doin' jumps and tricks. I know motorcross bikes are more for this kind of thing, but back then, they didn't have the *jap-scrap* motorcross bikes.
I showed hubs this pic and he said it's most likely a 1937 Indian. Not a 1945 as that was war time.
Who knows...we can only dream....
Forgot to add, not that it makes a diff, but it's a single cylinder, as well. Good 'ol, American made!
That bike right there, today, would be worth a mint if it was all original.
Kat, I have no idea whatsoever what you're talking about. Muddler? Mojitos? What language is that?
Clover, a muddler is a tool a bartender uses to mash up stuff for certain cocktails. It's sort of like a little wooden bat. A mojito is one of those drinks that you need a muddler to make. It's a delicious concoction made with rum, fresh mint, fresh lime, sugar and club soda. Yummy! Highly recommend it!
So anyway that thing sticking out of his back pocket looks like it could be a muddler!
It looks like a hammer sitting across his leg, the head of the hammer is on the other side of his arm and in front of his belly.
or maybe it's a hatchet or an axe.
I think it must be a hatchet. He is after all riding an Indian.
Hatchet - Indian. Get it?
The photographer probably wanted him to hold it up and make chopping motions, but he refused on the basis of his superior coolness.
Kat, that sounds just delicious! But how do you pronounce it? mo-gee-toe? mo-yee-toe? Is it Spanish?
Lucky.. hahaha! stereotypical but funny funny!
Clover, it's moe-hee' toe. Bacardi sells one premade that you can purchase in bottles or cans, although I think it contains a malt liquor, not rum, cuz they sell them in the grocery stores here. They're not bad. (around here they tease me if I drink 'em, and they call 'em "girly beers.")
Holly, thanks for the info re the bike. Sounds like your hubbs is in a good line of work these days, with the popularity of custom bikes!
It's interesting to me that christiatric in tromaville mentioned Scott Bakula. I have LOVED Quantum Leap since its series premiere in whatever it must have been.. 1989? (I just wiki'ed and yes. March '89.) I seriously thought I'd seen every single episode at least twice. But in the opening sequence there was always a little clip where Sam was riding a cool motorbike and looking all Beat Poet/EasyRiderish.
I NEVER saw that episode until about a week and a half ago! It was Rebel Without a Clue, aired Nov 30, 1990, and.. Sam leaps into a member of a biker gang where he meets a truck stop restaurant owner who lost his son to the war and an idealistic young woman who is going to die unless she gives up her reckless dream of living the hard life of Jack Kerouac.
So anyway.. Man on Bike doesn't look like Scott Bakula/Sam Beckett to me, but the SPIRIT.. the Vibe does.
I guess I didn't see that episode because I was in the middle of a move from Upstate to Northern NY. (right up there by the Quebec border.) Was that a million years ago, or what?
Beautiful Find. Thank you, Meghan!
Absolutely beautiful, yes, I agree with Nighty. It's been a great found day! Nighty-night to foundians everywhere, and sweet dreams!
Clover, I have absolutely no idea what that is in his pocket. It does sort of look like a hammer.
Mmmm...Scott Bakula...I met him once...he was working on "Necessary Roughness" in the small town of Denton Texas (North Texas University is there, where they filmed the movie), and I was working graveyard at Jack n'the Box, and he came through in a white car, reading a newspaper while he waited. All I could think was "Sam, SAM is in my drivethru!" He ordered a Taco Salad, and then left. I was too shy to ask for his autograph. The next day my best friend and I went down to the University, where they were taping the crowd scene at the football game, and got to be extras in the movie. We got paid with a free meal from Church's Chicken.
I didn't know it then, but my future husband was in the movie, as well. He was a student at NTU. It was a lot of fun. I've always been in love with Sam...ahem...I mean Scott.
Julse, that's a really cool story. I haven't see that movie and I have no clue who Sam or Scott are. But still, it's interesting, especially the part about your future husband.
I reckon he's just stopped by and had a liason with a beautiful woman, she takes this picture to remember him by before he moves on. He never found out that she became pregnant, and that his son has been treasuring this photo all his life as the one thing he has of his father.
Square-headed hammer under his left arm -- you can see the head poking out in front.
I agree his tyres look a bit soft. Maybe he lost the pump, or he finds it a softer ride that way.
Great picture, great guy, great bike. He's evidently just cleaned it, as it isn't dusty despite the rough ground. Terrific slice of history, if only we knew.
Alas, treasures generally get thrown away when somebody dies.
This is a seriously cool picture and that man is hot!
This photo is simply amazing, wonderful.
I hope that, someday, the snapshots I take will look 1/10th this good!
hahaha.. hammer under the arm reminds me of my Dad's fix-it method for just about everything. At some point, it always came to... "Gawdammit! Gimme the hammer!"
I love this photo so much. For some reason this photo is very Ray Bradburyesque to me.
This link shows the 1930s Indian model which looks similar to the bike in the pic:
http://www.indianmotorcycle.com/History/Histor
http://tinyurl.com/6fc7n7
(Dave the Wave's) The 1930's model seems to be the closest to Man on Bike's model, not the '20s or '40's.
Ihad a pair of boots like that from my great granfather, they wore them in ww1
Absolutely a GREAT FIND!!!!!! What a handsome man...and such charisma...such manly attraction...and not just the bike. First picture I saved...just to enjoy. Thanks for sharing.
@Totally in love: My dad used to call that "making a ballpeen adjustment."
I am disappointed in today's electronic TVs etc...a good whack on the top or side used to fix a lot of things. Today, you whack it, you break it forever.
Today's appliances are wussies.
@baby basil
For some reason I found the wussie electronic comment extremely cute and funny to the point that I unknowingly began laughing/giggling. My co-worker asked what "that" noise was. Being a male I was very disappointed in my self. It was just that mental image of a gang of todays electronics meeting a gang of yesteryears electronics in a dark alley way...
What I wouldn't give to have met this man, at tht time.
Always happy to spread a little laughter...but sorry it made you blow your "cool dude" cover. But it's true, my old vaccuum tube radio could take the brand new Samsung any old day, with its cord tied behind its control panel. With only half the tubes lit, too.
LOL. I can just see a that Big old TV (although those babies were HEAVY man. that might add some mobility issues), twirling its plugin in one .. um.. hand, and chanting, "Samsung... come out and plaaay-aaay!!"
Thanks, you guys, for the hilarious mental image. I'm going to have a hard time shaking it.
I love the picture, but it always makes me a little sad to see pictures that have been either thrown away or are for sale in antique shops & such... it makes me feel as though there's no family left to take them. How sad.
Great pic! They changed to that fork style in 1933, so it has to be at least a 1933 or later model. I'm no expert, but it looks an awful lot like this pic of a 1938 Scout:
http://www.indianmotocycle.co.uk/bikes/38sport
Beautiful image, I would frame that. We just don't find images like that in the UK, whenever I find a photo, its either someones kid, or an old passport photo, nothing as goregous as that. Oh my, I feel one coming on....argh....
*photo swoon*
*thud*
Mmmm. This is delightful.
Very Marlon Brando in The Wild One.
Indian Scouts were made around that time too.
*Brando + Bike = swoon*
1FunChickadee, I've been on a mission lately, "rescuing Adopted Ancestors" from Antique stores and shows. I've collected up quite a number of them. (although I DO leave even more behind. Not all of them capture me.)
I've discovered that many others are doing the same sort of thing- collecting up antique pictures from similar sources- JUST to give them a home, and some of their dignity back. (That's the closest I can come to explaining what compels me.)
Oh, and Clover, did I mention how AMAZING that pic of your Grandfather and Great Uncle is!!? Amazing!
Chrome Toaster, you are a gem. I love it... you just made my day.
Maybe it bothers me a little more than others because I'm so close to my family...and pictures mean so much to us?
[*shameless plug*] 1FunChickadee, feel free to visit my Adopted Ancestors album on my Myspace... follow the link in my profile.* (I signed in just for you!)[/*shamless plug*]
Chrome Toaster, I checked it out & I'm loving it. I left you a message, thanks for the link!
I want this, how can I get a higher res file of it?
I LOVE the boots!
Hellooooo handsome!
As with Stardust and First Job, I find myself coming back to this Fantastic Find-- just to visit- every so often. This picture is five different brands of amazing.
duluth mn, eh ?
it reminds me of george clooney in leatherheads
*sigh*
george clooney...