For as long as I can remember I have been reading the New York Times obituaries. It's something that I do every morning over my cup of coffee. It's not for any morbid reason, to me the obituaries represents the passing of time, a sort of look back in history. When I see the obituary of some important politician, actor or actress or any other prominent person, and I read the story, it brings back memories of things that have occurred in my lifetime. For me, it's very much like reading about, and remembering the events that have happened in (and maybe a little before) my lifetime.

Until recently, the people I've read about have mostly been older than me. Their deaths seem like the natural order of things. Lately, however, I'm seeing the obituaries of my contemporaries. Many of these people were musicians who were active when we were all in our teens and twenties. Last year I read about Ronnie Spector of the Ronettes, Tina Turner (the woman who had so much energy she was supposed to live forever), earlier this year David Crosby and in the last few days Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las and just yesterday Melanie. Their obits came as a shock. We were all so much younger then and in my mind's eye, they are frozen in time. I remember listening to Ronnie Spector sing, thinking Mary Weiss was sexy and falling in love with Melanie. Tina was supposed to dance and sing forever. David Crosby had something to say, and as part of the supergroup, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young took the music world by storm. We not too long ago lost Tom Petty and people like Jerry Lee Lewis.

I know that time marches on, and death is part of the cycle of life, but when you start to see the passing of people who shared their youthful lives with you, and whose music was the anthem of your youth, it comes as a shock.

I will continue to read the obituaries, the memories that reading about these people and the history of the world is worth reading about. And, I'm sure I'll continued to be shocked as I see more and more of my contemporaries (and perhaps some people a little younger than I am) appear in the obituary pages.

 

My Mom used to call the obits the Irish funny papers.
I'd like to go this year without dealing with obits. The last two were too busy for my liking.

 

People I used to know have died. Most of them are former off-road motorcycle guys who raced in the desert with my then-husband. We went to the desert almost every weekend and they were the people I spent time with, camping together as a club in our motorhomes or campers.

One died this week, Robert T Torgerson. He would have been 82 in October. He was the kind of guy who always had a smile on his face and seemed to always be in a good mood. I used to hang out on Saturday nights at the Simi Valley Motorcycle Club campfire and talk to him and another old timer, Bob Birch, who died years ago. Quite a few others that Andy raced with have died. Some of them were Russell Jenkins, Mike Edmonson and his brother, and "Downhill Alexander" to name a few. They were in their 40s or 50s. Taking too many drugs took their toll on some of them.



^2-12-2017. This is called the Husky Memorial. It's where plaques or motorcycle parts may be placed to memorialize riders that have passed on.



^Russ was a friend and was at our wedding in 1984. His son and our kids played together in the desert.


^Mike Alexander, aka Downhill Alexander died at 45. Fun loving guy who rode balls-out on steep downhills, earning him the nickname.



^Trudy Beck was one of the very few women who raced in the desert back in the 70s and 80s. She was in the same class as Andy and could beat him. I never knew her but I respected her. The W1 was for her number plate as Women's class, Number One. She earned #1 for riding the best in a year.





^The last time I was there was in Feb. 12, 2017. It made me sad to see the plaques of people I knew from the days we spent in the desert. I'm going to be 66 in 4 days. Some lives go on.

 

Rob, I always count on you to post an Obit for the singers from our era. It wasn't an obit but it was really hard for me to say I enjoyed seeing Lou Christie on stage last fall. The people I was with all thought he put on a good show. He's a few years younger than me and I'd known him since high school so it really hit me how much he aged since we last talked. I've been in the local MG club since 1976 and have seen way to many obits recently of friends I've had for decades.

 

That an awesome site, Patricia.

 

We saw him years ago in Wilmington. He sang great and stole the show. I also read the obits since I will be 80 next month to see who I outlived.

 

Patricia,
I enjoyed reading your post about your experience in the world of motorcycle desert racing. I was in the motorcycle industry from 1973 - 1988. In the mid 80's I was the National Sales Manager for the Motorsports Division of Bell Helmets. Early on in the industry I got to know the likes of Gary Nixon, the Palmgren Brothers (Chuck, Larry and Denny), When I was with Bell I had the pleasure to meet and work with some true legends of the motorsports world. The likes of Malcom Smith, Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson, Fred Merkel, Shirley Muldowney, Bobby Rahal and others.

One of the many lessons I learned was in 1984 the night before the Superbike race in Riverside CA, Fred Merkel and I were two of the judges in the Trophy Girl contest to see which contestant would hand out the trophy at the race the next day. It was NOT an easy task. It was more difficult than I thought to take one's personal attractions out of the equation and vote for the person that I thought was best suited for the job (no pun intended, as they were all almost wearing swim suits) for the competition. Taking in their physical presence, coupled with their answers to the questions posed to them as to why they wanted to be the trophy girl was more difficult than I thought it would be.

After all of these years being in the motorcycle industry was the most fun that I have ever had at "work". As the saying goes: "If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life".

 

Same with me. When I joined my local MG club four years ago I brought down the average age of the membership. It's quite sad that every year we lose three of four members.

 

I read the obits in the three local papers just to make sure I am not in them. If not I can go on with the day. If I am in them I am going back to bed!

On a serious note, there are just too many people that I know in the obits. I guess that is what comes with age.

 

I’m ‘only’ in my fifties and I too check the obituaries here in Vermont and back home in R.I. I have already lost quite a few classmates from my school days.