Friday, December 10, 2010

What is a yute?

The question was asked by Judge Chamberlain Haller played by Fred Gwynne in the movie My Cousin Vinny.




There has been blogs of late showing pictures of the author as a yute. I believe it started with Geoff of Confessions of an Ageing Motorcyclist and (faint) hope that other bloggers will be stupid enough to follow suit.
Of the bloggers I follow, SonjaM was first to join in with Motorcycle pictures? Yes! Embarrassing? No (not yet)!


Bobskoot of Wet Coast Scootin quickly followed posting From the Past.



Before long Trobairitz was posting pics in her blog post Let's Do The Time Warp Again and then in Grubby Little Urchin



So now it is my turn with me on the tricycle, note the plastic motorcycle behind me, I started at an early age.




This is me on the first day of school; I don't remember if this was playschool or kindergarten but I was 5 or 6 years old. Wish my mom still had that little Ford Cortina.



My brother and I received our first bike from Santa in 1980 or '81, a little Yamaha Enduro 80. We dinked around on that for several years and learned to ride. I eventually rode friend's bikes too and was hooked. Sorry no photos, lost in too many moves.

Not a lot of me on bikes, but of me and my bikes. I think I was 13 or 14 years old on the quad with my cousin Landon up in Valleyview, Alberta one summer for my uncle's 50th birthday party.



My very first real street bike out of high school was a 1974 Honda CB750Four with full fairing and bags. My mother talked me into this over a little Honda 250, maybe she thought I wouldn't outgrow this one. It was a nice ride, although heavy to pick up after dropping it the carport one day when I forgot to put the kickstand down.



From there I moved onto an '81 Suzuki GS550 but got bored with that real quick and bought an '84 Honda Magna V45. This was a great bike and I loved it and rode it from Penticton, B.C. to Calgary and back one weekend.



But as Bobskoot can attest, ICBC isn't kind when it comes to insuring vehicles and it just became too expensive for a young man in his 20's to own two cars and a bike.


Yes, that was my Barracuda in the background. Eventually sold them both to move to the US.

In the meantime, I played around on Dad's trike.



Since then we've owned another Honda Magna V45, a Kawasaki KZ900LTD, Kawasaki Ninja 650R, Honda Nighthawk 250, a Triumph Sprint ST, Triumph America...




and the now the Triumph Tiger and Suzuki TU250.




So that's a yute.


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10 comments:

  1. I really love how you rehashed everyone else's historical documents first. I was seriously wondering if you were going to post any of yourself. ;) But you stepped up and posted some great ones! -Lori

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  2. Yep, blame me Mr T, but think of the absolute gems that it's unearthed and now they're shared in digital form rather than fading unloved in a box somewhere! Like Lori, I wondered whether you were going to post but well done, they're marvellous!

    Insanely jealous of the 'cuda! Always wanted one since seeing Hemi Under Glass performing at an international drag meet in the UK in the late 60's!

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  3. Oh, and a "Ute" in NZ and Aussie is slang for "Utility", or what you guys in North America call a pick-up truck.

    No charge for this information, hehe.

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  4. First I thought... what the heck is my pic doing on another blog. Following the line-up I was glad (and a little relieved) that you offered pictures of yourself and your motorcycle history. The Kawi looks nice, but maybe it's the yellow...

    Too bad we missed you guys on the motorcycle show... we only got half a day to make it through since we couldn't stay overnight. Met Bob, his wife and Stacey, tho. Enjoy your weekend!

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  5. Thanks all and to Geoff for starting this little trend, hope to see other post up pics from the past.
    Sorry Sonja, I forgot the first pic shows as the preview on everyone's blog page. Too bad we missed you at the show, we didn't know you were coming.

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  6. I still had to google "yute" as I had absolutely no idea what it was. Ironically, my first thought was Geoff's reference to a truck as I've probably seen too many movies filmed in Australia...

    Great photos. Fortunately, I am not in possession of any electronic or physical pictures from my childhood. And almost all of my pictures are slides.

    Richard

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  7. Troubadour:

    Oh, how alike we were. I also had a Suzuki GS550 and a '68 Barracuda 2 dr HT, 318ci V8. Yvonne's brother had a Charger 440magnum RT 2-dr HT.

    I liked the pink basket on your "trike"

    bob
    Wet Coast Scootin

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  8. Nice pics. I had a Barracuda, 69 fastback. 383 souped up...ohhhh those were the days. :)

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  9. Such a little sweetheart on the first day of school, then a few years later hamming it up for the camera...a little bit of that ornery sense of humor showing! Fun pics Troubadour!

    ...and the 'cuda - Nice!

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