Great memories

Though these things may not look all that important, they brought back so many memories of my parents, my Father especially. When my Brother in England died a couple of years ago, these books and cycling clips were amongst the family belongings that great friends of mine sorted through and then shipped over to Canada for me. Both my parents absolutely loved cycling and I am lucky to have wonderful memories of going with my parents and Brother on our bikes into the countryside around Birmingham, UK. I have such fond memories of my Mother searching for wildflowers (a love for which she passed on to me) and my Father taking photos (especially of steam trains, for which he had a passion!). The old bicycle clips were one of the most precious thinsg sent out to me. I had no idea I would discover them in a box stuffed full of interesting papers. Memories of my father bending over to attach the clips over his trousers and ankles, came flooding back.

The three books in the image above will be passed on to my son, who is a keen cyclist, too. There is a note inside the "Ragged Staff" book, saying:

"Best wishes to Tom B. (my Father, Tom Carden Bassindale) - good cyclist and first-class photographer" - 'Ragged Staff'', April 1947.

"Ragged Staff is the pen name of Rex Coley, a journalist on Cycling (which became Cycling Weekly) in the 1940s and 1950s. Each article is an entertainment - a short tale or scene from the life of a keen cyclist, who is never happier than when traversing the country on two wheels. There are endless social mishaps, with boarding house land ladies who have a low opinion of cyclists; hotel porters who insist on carrying saddle bags like the baggage of grandees; and station masters who don't approve of means of transport that do not require the purchase of tickets. Much of the time Ragged is accompanied by his wife, Ann, his foil and frequent debunker. On occasion, the son, and even the pet dog join them awheel. Coley was an accomplished writer. These are simple little tales with no pretensions to literature, but Coley makes them a pleasure to read. Each is alive with incident and dialogue."

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Round the World on a Wheel:

"Sir John Foster Fraser (1868–1936) was a British travel author. In July 1896, he and two friends, Edward Lunn and F. H. Lowe, took a bicycle trip around the world riding Rover safety bicycles. They covered 19,237 miles in two years and two months, travelling through 17 countries and across three continents. He documented the trip in the book Round the World on a Wheel." From Wikipedia. This may have been the first serious book written about cycling.