Do you have version 9 of the Adobe reader?

That might've been the problem. Seems to be working fine on my home PC.

"Round Three at Caney Creek...and a little Honda shall lead'em"

There's nothing like a great teaser headline, huh? Man, I miss these old school print articles!

OK, I admit it, I finally have taken the time to actually read the old articles...and I have to say...there is nothing like traveling down memory lane!

Several things I've noticed that are worth noting while reading this archive....

First, reading the articles made me want to go ride an enduro. The quality of writing filled me with emotion I simply don't get from reading the 21st century version of event notes - that is, short one or two liner notations intended for the minimal attention spans of our modern reader.

We need to continue to create a place where archives can be created and live and carry the history and memories of kids like me...and when we're gone, for the "kids" of today who thirty or forty years from now (when all of us old farts are long gone) will appreciate the memories and historical perspective we had the foresight to preserve.


Second, these archives remind me that for most older guys, the roots are bayou riding or cow trailing or scouting railroad track trails as far as we could go in one day...and eventually stop just pretending we were the best enduro rider in Texas...and see if we can really finish!

But I have to admit, more than anything, reading these old articles has made me recall the way I felt way back then...great days as a teenager - riding from dawn til dusk - and the only reason we stopped was to quickly scramble our illegal dirtbikes up a street to a gas station, where we'd mix some oil we carried with us with some gas...and grab a Dr. Pepper or an RC...and little bag of peanuts to mix with it...then back on the adventure trail.


Third, it has reminded me how SHORT the courses are nowadays...and how having only 50 riders actually finish an event out of 500 starters was OK...because that's why it's called an enduro. The whole point was to eliminate riders.

Frankly, my health restricts me from riding events, so I have to avoid talking smack I can't back up, but reading these articles reminds me of the movie On Any Sunday - when Malcolm Smith is smiling ear to ear with a face full of muck - reminding us, it isn't winning that mattered when we were young, it was just finishing!

We need to encourage young riders to look back at the riders of the past for inspiration and to remember - it's supposed to be hard and you are supposed to fail most of the time. That is what makes finishing at all such a grand accomplishment.


Fourth...and probably most important...this archive of really quality writing about event coverage has reminded me of why I started the TON project.

There was a time when news rags like Gulf Coast Motorcycle News were long gone, but more importantly, the last well known print media left in Texas - the TEX-MX NEWS owned by the grand lady of event writers and news publishing, Kat Spann - was gone and never coming back.

We need to revive the idea of EVENT COVERAGE WRITERS...and we need to do it in a big way. We have these awesome internet publishing tools available to us now...that literally cost nothing compared to the cost of old school print media publishing costs.

We need to encourage the writers among us - in every club and racing series - to step up and build the archives of the future today...otherwise there will be no archives like these old print publications in the future.

Like so many over 50 guys, reading these old articles makes me realize how much I really enjoyed the good old days of my high school years when I had my first bikes - 1970-1973. It has renewed my enthusiasm for my first love - bayou riding and cow trailing - and my second love, publishing and writing. It has stirred up all kinds of emotions.

From a writers perspective, and since I've spent my entire life in commercial printing, reading the clippings has reminded me of when event coverage was the stuff of real writers who could craft not only the mental images, but lead the reader to feel the emotions and anxiety and excitement...and almost smell the toasted top-ends stuck in the mud...and taste the mud you eat when you take that low-speed flight over the bars.

This work Roy and George and Bud have done has reminded me of why we created this TON thing...and why every time I ask Bud to move this monster mother to a bigger, more powerful server, I insist we not delete old photos and posts that to us now seem outdated and a waste of space...but instead, pick up larger hard drives (and backups) to archive this "junk" because an old pack rat webmaster thinks "someone may want to check this stuff out someday".


Well done....good work by all involved....keep it coming!

Bud...I had alot of scroll bars when looking at the TSCEC website page (framed pdf)and trying to zoom in and around. Is there a copy of the pdf file readers can download to open in a pdf reader off-site for easier reading?

Thanks for your comments and thoughts. When reading some of these articles, I had a similar experience.

I spent a great deal of time trying to find any way to get this volume of information (~308MB) on-line and accessible for everyone. I'm open to any suggestion to make it easier to view or distribute it.

Wow, that is huge. Maybe chopping it into ten 30MB chunks would work, but only a few power users like me would ever download a 308MB file like that. Still, with that said, you can load the file onto the server and let people request the URL via email, so we don't burn uber:bandwidth...I guess...


**

Purely by coincidence, last night my wife was on the computer and I asked her if she had ever checked out www.hulu.com yet. I explained how you can find alot of your favorite TV shows on hulu...along with portions of "the best of shows".

Today, she sent me this link....just by coincidence...cool!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/79438/on-any-sunday

BTW -- trivia question. Everyone remembers the intro portion with the little five year old kid on the minibike who rides the wheelie...but when he grew up, he was someone very famous to us older guys. Who is he and what was he famous for doing?

Also...I need to confess. Back in 1970, I used to wear one of those american flag helmets, made famous by the movie, Easy Rider. Bought it from the J.C.Whitney catalog for about $30. I drilled it and attached a football helmet face bar with foam taped to the inside. I thought it looked cool with my knee-high lace-up lineman boots.

Enjoy!

P.S. -- Adding this excellent old two-part Peanuts MX cartoon - just for grins...for the kids...enjoy some more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IElU5mYN3E&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bv9Pk2HSog&feature=related

the little kid grew up to race IRL cars and had the nick name..... WARDY? Jeff Ward. rider of the 500CC 2 stroke

Correct! ...Marty sent me a PM also...thanks guys...

As I remember the story goes, Bruce Brown and crew were out filming and this moto-kid just happen to be at the track and someone saw him doing his thing, so they grabbed a few seconds of footage and it made the final edit. Who could know the future?