and a cow on board
For Dixie O’Day, this week I have been drawing a motorcycle & sidecar.
With a cow inside, naturally.
For my research I got lost in a bygone age of excellent vehicles, and WISH WISH WISH I had been born in another time so that I could have been one of these ladies…
Oh how lovely! This reminds me of my mums tales of how her whole family of 2parents and 6! Children used to go camping travelling on a motorbike and sidecar. I didn’t believe it until I once saw a picture. What a sight that must have been! Your cow and sidecar are brilliant!
Hello Lynn, thank you so much for calling by and leaving your wonderful comment!
That is just the BEST story – I can really see it as a picture book about, say, mice or little dogs, but how much more amazing that it was real and human beings!
Hello again Clara,
Just had to add – speaking to my mum today about her family sidecar – she revealed that her dad had sat them all on a couple of chairs in the back garden, measured around them and built the sidecar himself with the chairs as seats! How wonderful – and so befitting a mouse / rabbitty sort of family don’t you think? (Wonder if it passed an MOT?)
This gets better and better! Did your know your grandpa was so brilliant and inventive? It’s that kind of eccentric genius that I LOVE. So befitting our mouse and rabbit idea – I think we’re really onto something…
In the late 50s/early 60s (up to 64, when he was 7) My husband and his twin and younger brother used to all travel in a covered sidecar whilst his Mum and Dad travelled on the motorbike. His Mum told me that sometimes she would look over as the drove along and see through the window of the covered sidecar flailing arms and legs as 3 little boys had fraternal scuffles inside…
As you might have already guessed form my over-excited response to this theme on twitter – I’m finding it HIGHLY inspiring! A picture book just waiting to be written.
Thanks so much for sharing. Keep your thinking cap on…
Oh Clara! We MUST get one for the Bubble & Squeak tour!!! How very stylish, and marvellous for picnics (which is my only citeria for choosing a car: is there room for a large hamper and a wind-up gramophone?). LOVE your b/w work x
Thank you so much James! But OF COURSE we must gad about in one of these for our Bubble & Squeak tour – there is certainly room for a large hamper and wind-up gramophone… also deck-chairs and parasol…
but who will be on the motorbike and and who will be in the sidecar?
My auntie had a motorbike and side car when I was teeny, she would collect large numbers of children and squeeze as many of them as she could in there then ferry them around Glasgow. I remember taking hot pies to my cousin(who had broken his leg) and mounting one of the steepest hills in Glasgow to taxi his lunch to him with my aunts threats ringing in my ears lest I drop them!!! I was terrified going up what felt like like mount Everest with hot scotch pies burning my lap!
THANK YOU Morag for calling by and leaving this brilliant story! I KNEW you had something inspiring up your sleeve, which is why I have been nagging you to share!
The image of a tiny squashed-up you with precious cargo of hot pies in your lap is perfect. I shall expect your fee in the post shortly…
I am loving all these sidecar stories! A real treasure trove! I only wish I had my own sidecar story…
Thank you so much for calling by, Andrea!
I don’t have any of my own either, alas – but I’m sure you can guess which way my thoughts are going: Dixie on a vintage motorcycle, Percy in the sidecar??
Can you still get sidecars? I’m thinking I may never pass a car driving practical, but maybe this is the perfect solution… 😉
What a splendid idea! I can pick you up for some afternoons of civilised road trips. Will you bring the egg sandwiches and ginger beer? X