Sitting upon his trusty Cushman Scooter, my father posed for the camera here. Although there is some question of when the picture was taken, we suspect it was circa 1946. Cushman scooters were built from 1936 to 1965. This exact appearing model with its fender logo was in a recent magazine article and on a historical Cushman site. It was a 1946 model. I remember my dad talking about the scooter with the engine that the rider sat upon.

Before this Cushman, Dale owned another scooter that had a permanent wheel connection to the engine... without a clutch. I remember him talking about it. You would start and stop the thing with the engine drive line always connected to the rear wheel. It never idled at a stop sign... he'd simply push the thing to get it started and away it would go. Any idea what kind of scooter that was?

We believe that this shot was taken in Los Gatos, California off of Quito Road. Dale had friends, Hal Packard and Bill Chivers, who lived in that area.

Dale was raised in Los Gatos at 112 and 151 Wheeler Avenue. He attended what is now, Old Town, a maze of shops that used to be the old grammar school in Los Gatos. He attended Los Gatos High, and Tech High too where he learned the machinist trade. Finishing High School without a career plan, Dale's father, a bridge designer for Santa Clara County, connected him with the administrator of Tech High in San Jose. After graduation from Los Gatos High School, Dale attended Tech High and learned the trade in a year. He was a natural... and a genius.

Dale told the story of a "hunch backed boy" who also attended Tech High. He was not a natural but other students in the program felt sorry for him. One of the class assignments involved taking a a piece of iron and filing it into a perfect square. The disabled man could not do it... so the other students did it for him.

Dale worked for Handy Iron Works and a couple of other shops before being hired by the NACA, which became NASA. As a Machinist Engineer, Dale had much to do with the space program. He retired from there after 32 years, and went to work for Defraction Optics in Palo Alto. In 1979, Dale and Carlee moved to Sequim, Washington.

Lots of people restore Cushmans and they are, indeed, very cool. You can check out some here.