This is me.

[bryanchurch06]

I want to take a minute and properly introduce myself, i jumped into this forum headfirst and starting posting right away, as many of you have probably figured out i don't do forums often or well, so who am I? well i was born in a small town in NC in the western mtns most of my family ranged from Mtn City TN to Wilkes Co, NC. I dropped out of school after the 8th grade and went to work in a sawmill tailing slabs over the next 4 yrs i worked at every furniture factory and textile plant who would hire me, btw rubbing filler in a furniture factory is one of my least fav jobs of all time and that says a lot. That beginning set a precedent for my career if there is a crappy job I've probably done it. Fast forward to 1981 and a GED and i was in the military i thought anything would be better than what i was doing. Went to Ft Benning for basic and AIT and Jump school then to Ft Bragg stayed there until a accident dented my skull and ended my military career, something i was not prepared for btw. So back to square one find a job and with limited experience construction was a easy choice and for the next 30 some yrs i worked about every kind i construction i could, drove a truck, worked for the dept of corrections in TN, MT, and SD as i said if there is a crappy job i probably did it, i liked to travel and found out my first 2 wives liked a paycheck more than me so i stayed on the road as much as possible living in motels and bars mostly. i have worked in every state except for Alaska so far and since my knees are shot i probably wont ever work there. what did i gain from all this you ask well if nothing else i met a large cross section of the population for sure, dealt with a lot of criminals not all of them in prison btw, and tried to just keep going mostly that's the secret just suck it up and drive on as they used to say, my father told me once, son you will find whatever you are looking for in people and for the most part i did. My father had a 3rd grade education and could barely read or write so he did the best he could, took a lot of years for me to understand that I'm sorry to say. So here we all are in a day and age that i really do not recognize anymore, a member recently stated he had been the victim of racism here on this site, i am truly sorry he experienced that, to be honest i haven't seen it and maybe i wouldn't recognize it if i did, If you heard the language on a construction site in the 80s and 90s you would develop a pretty thick skin i've been called everything but a child of god. and if i'm honest i don't know the meaning of a lot of words people use these days and i don't want to either so i dont google them all i know is somehow as a straight, white male who worked his ass off for 40 some years somehow i woke up and became the enemy of the whole world, everybody hates me and not only is it overlooked it is actually encouraged. well crap what am i supposed to do? nothing to do really just suck it up and drive on, keep on looking for the better angels in people and try to somehow enjoy the time i have left, hence the bikes and this forum. Anyway as a wise man once told me you will find whatever you go looking for so i keep looking for good people and good times and let the rest of it take care of itself. I am sorry if some of this sounds a little to forrest gump like, not my intention. wishing all the best to every member here in the coming year and if i've somehow insulted you please blame it on my lack of education and a concussive brain injury that makes me say whatever i'm thinking at the time, no filter at all, not kidding just ask my wife.

 

[sieg]

You sound like a pretty smart fellow for someone that only made it to 8th grade. Be proud, you done dam well!

 

[bryanchurch06]

You sound like a pretty smart fellow for someone that only made it to 8th grade. Be proud, you done dam well!

I appreciate the compliment, but honestly there's millions of guy just like me, we're not special just stubborn, hard headed and hard working and whether this country believes it or not they're sure gonna miss us when we're all gone.

 

[Tchap]

Please don’t think that Everyone hates you and others of your age and experience. You have mine and others’ respect here. I’m not religious in that way, but You, my friend, are a Child of God! Ten billion year old carbon (Joni Mitchell). And from a fellow veteran of Benning and Bragg…Airborne!

 

[bryanchurch06]

Please don’t think that Everyone hates you and others of your age and experience. You have mine and others’ respect here. I’m not religious in that way, but You, my friend, are a Child of God! Ten billion year old carbon (Joni Mitchell). And from a fellow veteran of Benning and Bragg…Airborne!

All The Way!!

 

[mcmd]

Bryan, I have nothing but respect for anyone who's as honest and forthright as you have been in your introduction. It sounds like you've faced some uphill challenges in your life. Do know, you are not hated. I really admire what you've said about looking for the good in people. You're a friend here!

 

[MisterB]

No mention of your motorcycle history in this post so if you posted elsewhere I missed it. If you don't have a history with smaller bikes do you find yourself regretting it now? I do!
I started with a 350 in high school and finally wound up with an 1800 in my 50's and THEN I discovered the joy of small displacement bikes.
Honestly, in the early 80's I could've picked up Trails and muscle cars for next to nothing, but better a late Trail than never.

 

[bryanchurch06]

No mention of your motorcycle history in this post so if you posted elsewhere I missed it. If you don't have a history with smaller bikes do you find yourself regretting it now? I do!
I started with a 350 in high school and finally wound up with an 1800 in my 50's and THEN I discovered the joy of small displacement bikes.
Honestly, in the early 80's I could've picked up Trails and muscle cars for next to nothing, but better a late Trail than never.

I rode smaller dirt bikes until I turned 18, once I got on the streets I turned to larger bikes and didn't look back until last year. I don't plan on anything bigger than my 22 500 rebel. Smaller bikes are more fun definitely. In the 70s I don't think I owned anything that cost more than a couple hundred dollars which was a hell of a lot of money for me then, I bought a 73 honda 250 Elsinore in 1976 for 175 dollars if I remember correctly, I had to carry extra keys for the front sprocket as the slot was worn-out and it would spin them out, I eventually just had a sprocket welded to the shaft so I could ride it. That was the 1st bike I bought with my own money. Sorry if I am not using the correct term for the little keys that held the sprocket to the shaft I have not thought about that bike in years.

 

[SneakyDingo]

We're glad to have you, thanks for the intro!

I think the older crowd appeal of the CT125, we're going to have a lot of give and take on pretty much all forums like this for politics, ideals, upbringing, etc. and like... I don't think much of it matters as long as "you have no idea what that person went through to get to this point" level of kindness and acceptance happens.

IMO It's kind of crazy to see just how much things have changed since you were a kid. I mean, looking at when you were born and what has occurred in a single lifetime... the Soviet and US race for the moon were still ongoing. Now we have multiple countries and private companies leaving the atmosphere. When you were born, microcontrollers were still being developed and flipflop valves were commonplace; now flipflop transistors have all but disappeared and microcontrollers are ubiquitous in society. Things have changed a LOT. Heck, even the most recent constitutional amendment passed in the 90s - if you remember the fall of the USSR, you were alive then. It's a sobering moment to realize when you've been friends with a coworker longer than some of your other coworkers have been alive.

Chances are in another 30+ years, with fortitude, luck and self care, I'll be able to make it to being the best dirty old man ever I'll be, faced with similar or the same challenges. I can only hope to reflect on my days and be as well adjusted and insightful as you are today.

 

[bryanchurch06]

Thanks for all the kind words and support, I suppose that since retirement I've started looking back at things a little much, and it seems like if you live long enough every thing you ever said or did will be wrong or at least out of fashion. If you ask me what are the 2 biggest changes I have noticed? Well the first is the almost complete loss of personal responsibility in the world and the second is that somehow the way you feel somehow matters to anyone other than you. I have worked on jobs with grown men since I was 14 and nobody ever asked me how I felt, only if I could do the job and that continued for the next 40 yrs. In my world the only important thing was doing your share of the work if you wanted respect and I valued that a lot more than my feelings. The highest compliment for a man in my day was being called a hard working sob. I'll take that any day.

 

[Volant1006]

I can't recall one thing I learned from grade 9-12 that I actually use at my job (IT technician) in everyday life. I learned more in 6 months at my first job than I did in 2 years at a technical school. And the way public schools have turned into indoctrination, woke, social media bully sites I think the majority of kids would be better off bypassing high school (especially college) and learning a trade that can actually be used in society instead of a gender studies degree. Reading, writing, and erythematic what ever happened to that? I saw an article around 77% of Baltimore high school students are reading at an elementary level. We're letting our kids down. US spends over $800 billion on public education yet it lags behind most other industrialized countries. That's either fraud or incompetence, you're tax dollars at work. Singapore, South Korea, Canada, Finland, & Germany all pumping out smarter students than the US all while spending much less money. Too bad this country is going to sh!t. If they would all just train our kids to be Honda Trail 125 technicians our problems would be solved!

 

[m in sc]

Here you go. No kids, thankfully I/We gladly dodged that (even though i did raise a stepson for 14 yrs, 1st marriage). Yes, we are being stalked by a british ninja outside the Waynesville Ingles in the 1st pic.... this pretty much sums it all up. 1 pic from 2 years ago, one from 24 yrs ago (looking at my buddys GT380 he blew up), last from 6 yrs ago at deal gap with Nick from 'vintage smoke' & 'blacksmith cycles'. Also was ASE certified tech at age 17, back to college on my own later in life, 2 engineering degrees and now a cushy job in engineering for 23 years, so i can afford my hobbies and a good quality of life.

 

[SneakyDingo]

Gender studies? When I was a kid it was having an arts degree. Now I'm an adult and have met a lot more people, holy f I wish more of my coworkers also had arts degrees. Now, 22y into my career, I know arts degrees are kinda like turbos. They'll boost other things when bolted to something else.

It seems so weird to not use 9-12 learnings regularly. I consciously use mine all the time. Ditto for my university degree, but I'd say that the 10-12 inclusive is where the bulk of my day-to-day shitshow comes from. I owe so much to my high school teachers. Except Ms. Farrier, who said I'd never amount to anything in computers, and every breath I take now refuting her future prediction raises my self esteem.

EDIT: Asked my coworkers this question today. "We don't use it consciously, but the knowledge we have from that time period formed a solid foundation of the things that we use on a regular basis." So apparently I'm a bit of an anomaly, but I also got the job because of that anomaly.