Non-Slipstream

NON-SLIPSTREAM

Writers of the era tell us things were just a little more genteel before WWI; it was the beginning of a new century full of technical progress and harmony. Gentlemen didn't appear in public without coats, ties and hats. Here the 1912-1913 University of Illinois Motorcycle Club gathers in the cool morning light for a Sunday ride. The bikes are as varied as the ties, hats, goggles and shirt collars; a lot of room for expression within the confines of propriety.

William T. Brenner sent us this photo for possible use in Slipstream but we didn't want to make fun of it. The picture simply radiates too much dignity, Woodrow Wilson might have felt right at home chatting with these natty fellows. Mr. Brenner explains

that the man near the center, the only one whose bik has a headlight, is his uncle, the late John H. Toui telot. Family history tells him that Uncle Jack wa removed from the University for being a dare-dev and riding that bike up and down the front steps c the University President's house, so the boys may nc have been all that dry and crusty back then.

We don't normally run old bike photos - we've go a million of them in our own files - but there wa something calm and pleasant about this one and w had to find a place for it. Fitzgerald was right whei he said that after the Great War things would neve be quite the same.