Harley Davidson’s Home

My two brothers, one from Iowa and one from Colorado, are in town this weekend. Today we went to visit the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Museum here in Milwaukee. We visited the museum not because we are motorcycle enthusiast but because we grew up in a house in the shadow of the Harley Davidson Company. Our house was next to the alley that led to the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Company parking lot. At 3:30pm we had to stop playing basketball in the alley and clear the way for the cars that left the parking lot.

One of my first jobs in High School was at Harley Davidson Company in the office. Before the day of modern copy machines, computers and electronic filing we made copies of blue prints on some large copy machines and filed them in cabinets for the engineers. I had left a job in a nearby Tire/Car Services business for this better and cleaner job but felt bored at this job. But the work did have its fringe benefits. At lunch hour during the summer months the executives and engineers would go to a nearby area to race their motorcycles up a hill. I was allowed to ride in a sidecar of one of the motorcycles.

Gradually the parking lot at the end of the alley expanded and quite a time after my parents sold the house and moved out, our house was one of the last to be demolished as the parking lot took over the whole block.

At the museum was a picture of the original shed where the first motorcycle was built by William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson in 1903. The spot was next to our home but was later moved next to the building that was down the block. At the museum it said the original shed was there until a construction accident in the early 70’s. It must have been well hidden, since my brothers and I do not remember seeing it in the 50’s and 60’s when we grew up in the neighborhood.

But coming home usually means old and new memories and information.

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