Bicycle Harry

[BeachBiker]

OK, this one doesn't really fit in the "Things I Miss About Tyrone" discussion or under the "A Forgotten Friend" heading, but...

How many here remember that once-familiar Tyrone legend - Bicycle Harry?

[Robbuck]

Well, I had many a chat with Bicycle Harry..What a great guy.. he'd fix your bike and dispense a little wisdom for anyone smart enough to listen...It's a shame he's passed on.. the world can use all the "Bicycle Harry's " we can get...

[Mainegirl]

I remember him. What was his full name? Did he have a family? What did he do for a living? Anyone Know?

[BeachBiker]

I remember him. What was his full name? Did he have a family? What did he do for a living? Anyone Know?

I knew at one time, but can't really remember - and have had limited free time to post any further recollections/memories about him the past few days.

Your colective questions are one of several reasons why I posted him as a topic.

[banksy]

Remember the old guy who lived down behind Burger King? I mean really old.... I think they called him Harry as well..... he used to eat 3x a day at Burger King.... scrambled eggs, double eggs, 2-peice biscuit (what he called a crossiant.) Then if you would say, "Harry why don't you try some french toast instead." He would just repeat his "scrambled egg, double egg."

[jayestewart]

The Altoona Mirror did a publication this summer on the small communities around the area. They devoted a pretty good portion of the Tyrone article to Bicycle Harry. He died just a few years ago...don't recall the year ...and he was pushing a 100 when he did.

[Robbuck]

I'm pretty sure his last name was Snyder.. as to what he did for a living.. my Father-in-Law seems to think he pretty much did odd jobs.. didn't recall him having a real job anywhere..

[Blackout]

Here's a gem from Bicycle Harry......Back in the early 80's my mother worked at the Villa and at one time there was a major road project along the bypass near the restaurant. Harry found himself a hardhat and pretended to be from OSHA and completely shut down the project for a day. Citing the company for several safety violations!! He was a beauty

[sissy31696]

Tyrone Area Historical Society



Q ~ Who was “Bicycle Harry”?



A ~ Dan Meckes, a Tyrone native who left only to return years later, recalls one of Tyrone’s most interesting figures whose favorite possession is now preserved for posterity.
To the unfamiliar, the old bicycle tucked away in a crowded corner at the Tyrone Area Historical Society’s office would look out of place among the stacks of yellowing newspapers, fading photographs, and boxes stuffed with reminders of bygone years.
Unlike most of the Society’s artifacts showcased across town at the Tyrone History Museum, the dingy Schwinn isn’t meant to draw attention to Tyrone. It didn’t belong to Fred Waring, Tyrone’s most famous native son. It wasn’t in a movie or ridden by a U.S. president. It wasn’t even built by one of the town’s factories. It’s not worth a lot of money, coveted, or prized by anyone. It isn’t even in very good shape.
The value of the bike rests with the people who remember “Bicycle Harry,” a fixture on the streets and roads in and around Tyrone from World War II through 1981.
Harry Snyder didn’t earn the nickname Bicycle Harry from just riding a bike. That’s how most people remember him, donning a greasy newsboy cap as he pedaled around town. To the boys and girls of Tyrone, however, Bicycle Harry was the man who kept their spokes spinning.
“Every kid in town went to Harry,” Meckes recalls, adding that more than a few parents would save themselves the unnecessary frustration by dropping off new bikes, still in the boxes. Bicycle Harry would gather two or three of the neighborhood kids around and explain the workings of a bicycle.
Meckes recalls Harry saying, “Everything goes around and around like the moon and the stars and the sun.”
Now in his seventies, Meckes remembers the summer day in 1937, when as a 10-year-old boy he found himself in dire need of Harry’s expertise. Even without the unrivaled speed of a boy’s bicycle, Meckes didn’t have to go very far to find Harry. He was a Park Avenue kid and worked and tinkered at the end of the avenue, near the present-day youth baseball field.
Harry may have lived in the same neighborhood, but the two-room, tar-paper shack he called home was worlds away from the two-story comfort of the Meckes home. Harry’s was a Spartan’s world, Meckes remembers, with few items beyond the basic necessities.
At that time, even if a guy couldn’t get a job with the Pennsylvania Railroad or at the town’s signature industry, the pulp and paper mill, there were other opportunities for steady work in places like the shirt or shoe factories. Apparently, those opportunities didn’t appeal to Harry. Instead, he made his way in the world by picking up odd jobs and fixing bicycles.
“He’d always say, ‘I can’t work in a factory,’” Meckes recalls. “‘No one wants to work in a factory.’” In a blue-collar town like Tyrone, they have a name for guys who would rather fiddle with bicycles that take “good job” at the mill. “He wasn’t a bum,” Meckes points out. “To most people, Harry was just Harry.”
The kitchen had only a Ben Franklin stove, a sink, and a table. The bedroom was true to its name, with only a bed and four walls.
Meckes visited Bicycle Harry on June 8, 1937. Just the day before, Hollywood’s “Original Blonde Bombshell,” Jean Harlow, died at the age of 26, at the height of career. For ten years, her stunning beauty and memorable lines captured the hearts of millions of fans in theaters around the country, including a fan in Tyrone.
“He was sitting at the table crying,” Meckes says. Bicycle Harry showed the 10-year-old Harlow’s picture, and said she had died. “Who’s she?” Meckes asked. “Did you know her?”“Jean Harlow,” Bicycle Harry said. “She was a dream.”
Meckes says he didn’t tell anyone about that day for many years, but thinks it shows there was more to the man than most people knew. Bicycle Harry died in 1991 at the age of 103, and Meckes fondly remembered him as a “free and noble soul.”
As the editor of Tyrone’s Daily Herald, Meckes had been able — when old age finally put an end to Bicycle Harry’s rides around town — to pay his respect with a tribute.



— Adapted from an article by Greg Bock, staff writer for the Altoona Mirror

[BeachBiker]

Great job, Sissy.

Now, confession time on my part. I actually knew more than I let on about Bicycle Harry and played dumb (not hard for me to do) when I posted the previous entries.

The article cited by Sissy was the source that well answered many of my initial questions when I recalled about Bicycle Harry, but I was curious to see what responses would be posted - especially personal experiences by others.

For anyone wishing to see the article that Sissy referenced, it is here:

http://www.tyronehistory.org/faq_bicycle_harry.html

AND, I thought some of the other trivia provided by the Tyrone Historical Society in their "Frequently Asked Questions" (Bicycle Harry is one of them) provides some entertaining and really cool reading. Here is the link to some other topics:

http://www.tyronehistory.org/faq.html

[tammy]

Thank You for posting those links.
I also enjoyed the very last one .. Do you Remember these:)
I enjoyed that music.
I wish I still had my record player. I need to find another and play my 45 records that I recieved from my parents and grandparents.
I have always loved the Oldies:)
Also..I dont remember much of Bicycle Harry .I do remember my dad speaking of him fondly. Is there a picture of this sweet man anywhere?

[jayestewart]

Thanks for finding that article from the summer...hard to believe a guy who seemed like he lived a rough life lived to 103.

[Ken Reeder]

OK, this one doesn't really fit in the "Things I Miss About Tyrone" discussion or under the "A Forgotten Friend" heading, but...

How many here remember that once-familiar Tyrone legend - Bicycle Harry?

Yes , I remember when I was about 9yrs old , a friend an I were working on our bikes , along came bicycle Harry , offering to help fix my bike for 25 cents. I remember seeing him all over town riding his bike.

[banksy]

Thanks for finding that article from the summer...hard to believe a guy who seemed like he lived a rough life lived to 103.

Rough life? By who's standards? Consider this... he had little job stress, no family to demand he work in a favtory to bring home the bacon, had only a standard kitchen which meant he probably cooked everything on a gas stove (or the pot belly) and never subjected himself to foods with preservatives, probably was not much of a drinker, lived simply and stress-free, had no real dislike for much (another stress reliever) and lived in a rural community free of a the dust, must and crude of a really heavy industrial city such as Pittsburgh.

I would say he had it pretty good.

[BeachBiker]

... Is there a picture of this sweet man anywhere?

Tammy,

Sure - here is a whole bunch of them:


Harry showing off for "the ladies" (at age 93):

http://www.funnyhub.com/pictures/img/bike-flip.jpg

Harry the grafitti artist:

http://www.welaf.com/resources/files/1098156556.jpg

Harry in his younger days:

http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~tstocky/im ... nibike.jpg

Not many people knew that Harry was an accomplished "fiddler":

http://sportzfun.com/v-web/gallery/albu ... iolin2.jpg

Harry, victim of famous Northwood-based bike thieves:

http://www.damnfunnypictures.com/images ... icycle.jpg

Harry also mowed lawns on the side:

http://www.thirdwave-websites.com/bike/bike-mowert.jpg

Why you didn't see Harry much in the winter:

http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh/ima ... freeze.htm

Harry taking his own shortcut between Park Avenue and the South end of Pennsylvania Avenue:

http://rocketpowerproductions.com/grandcanyon.jpg

Harry also provided bicycling lessons when the circus came to town:

http://www.siue.edu/ELTI/Workshops/Oldw ... icycle.gif