My Pa's Motorcycle

My Pa would ride the wheels off his bike, taking it "off road" with some of his friends like Ralph Wilbur.  Of course, these guys had smaller bikes like Indian Scouts and such so dragging them over fallen branches and streams was a bit easier for them.
Graduating college found my Pa working in the engineering field and a few years later he met and married my mother.  I remember weekends when he would roll out that huge, to me, motorcycle out in the driveway to start the tradition of kicking, cursing and fiddling with the timing/carburetor til the bike roared to life.  Sometimes this 'procedure' would take 15 minutes, other times an hour but after he got it started, he would always come back after that ride with a smile on his face.
I started riding on the back when I was 8 years old as did my sister who was 2 years younger than I.  My other two sisters, alas, did not.  My Mom had the epiphany that so many mothers do......motorcycles are dangerous and thus my riding days were over. .