Gloria ’ s second bike , a beautiful blue ’ 41 Indian that came in on trade and replaced the olive-drab military Indian she ’ d bought earlier . Check out those straight pipes ! Wonder what Terry and Byron would think of those ?
But Gloria ’ s life story is much more than a longevity tale .
Gloria ’ s book , and indeed the woman herself , are in many ways a window on the 20 th century , and motorcycling ’ s prominent role in it . From her birth in the mid 1920s , the depression years of the 1930s and the WWII years of the 1940s , to the dynamic motorcycle culture of the ’ 50s , the explosion of two-wheeled popularity in the ’ 60s and ’ 70s , and smack into the bike-hyper ’ 90s and the early 21 st century , Gloria has seen and lived a lot of the stuff many of us only know from history books – and much of it from the seat of a motorcycle .
Grasp the woman ’ s hand ( gingerly , of course , as she turns 95 this July ) and look into those piercing blue eyes and you get the feeling you could almost be transported , Harry Potter portkey-like , back in time to an earlier
24 | MAY 2020 | THUNDERPRESS . NET