Australian Motorcycle News — January 30, 2018

80 amcn.com.au

IWASHAVINGone of my

usual stress-filled daysat

Gassit HQ afew weeksago,

whenanemailfrom Bill

McKinnon, former editor

of Two W heels magazine,

lobbedinto myinbox.

Attachedwas abrilliant

photograph of the late,great

TwoWheelscolumnistPeter

Smithsittinginfront ofa

typewriter perchedon a

small wooden table. He’sgot

abottleinonehand,what

lookslikeaharmonica sitting

onhislap (Smithwasa

skilled Blues musician), anda

StarHotelT-shirtunderneath

hisoveralls.Asnapshot ofa

realjournalist at work.The

imagebroughtasmiletomy

face,andIinstantlyfelt the

stress lift.

Iwasn’tfortunate enough

to ever enjoy Pete’scompany,

but thefact thathisfriends

are made upof fellow

industrylegendsincluding

Guy Allen, Grant Roff, Wendy

Spooner, Geoff Seddon

andJohnRoothsuggest his

company would havebeen

highlyentertainingand

educational.

Bill has put togethera

softcoverbookcontaining

an anthology ofPeter Smith’s

TwoWheelscolumns:Mr

Smith: A Sharp Mind in a

Blunt Bodyy,itcovershisearly

workfrom January 1985 until

December1988.

Iimmediatelyor

mycopy,happyth

profitsfrom thesa

the 1000 copies pri

willgototheBlack

Institute. Now, wh

Ineedabreak,Ipi

up andreadwhate

page it opens to. It

me to blockout the

forfive minutes an

agoodlaugh.

Iwon’treviewab

made upof the wo

from alegendofth

industry–instead

justshareoneofh

shortercolumns:

ONE THINGI’VEa

worried about,an

believe me there’s

muchmy shrinkr

Iwouldn’tworrya

the humble Ocky

for Octopus) strap

wheredidtheEla

Eye Removers orig y

hail from?

Well, the ol’ Smith

investigative brain went to

workandhere’swhat Ifound

after bribing a few members

of the newsouthwalespleece

farce.(Not that I needed to do

that to get theinfo, it’sjust

that it’ssoeasytodoandI

enjoyit so much.)

The Original Octopus Strap

was a swag ofaircraftquality

rubber retaining straps

coveredwithawovencanvas

Ships. igones. Likeaircraft

carriers. It was inventedby

Fred C. Bungee, an aircraft

maintenancemanwiththe

US Marines.

You see,when aircraftland

upon aircraftcarriers,their

forward velocityis rapidly

reduced to non-existence by

adevice calledan Arresting

Wire.Thiswireisnot a

wireatallbut a thickbitof

rubber with a canvas outer

cover. Ol’FredCBungee

saw thepotentialfor use of

theleftoverbits ofbroken

ArrestingWire and made

some cargo net-typedevices

out of ’em.These doohickies

werethefirstOckystraps.

Fred C Bungee’s creative

intellectdidnot vegetate

andhelaterfiguredout that

there was an application

Legend’s

tales

g

Mr Smith: a sharp mind in a blunt body

Top Read

rdered

atthe

leof

inted

kDog

enever

ckit

ever

allows

eworld

nd have

book

rk

he

,I’ll

is

always

nd

snot

reckons

about, is

(short

p.Imean,

sticised

ginally

outer

(toforestall

deterioration) used

for tyingdown Stuff On

Shi i ik i f

RRP:$24.95

VividPublishing

http://www.vividpublishing.com.au/mrsmith

(08) 9 4674143

“The little buggers have

wanderlust, andinevitably

escape and breed in dark

corners ofgarages”

This stuff

is beaut!

s!'OOD &EED

s 'OOD -USIC

s 'OOD #OMPANY

s!'OOD 9 ARN

s!"IG3HED

4HANKS FOR COMING

AUSTRALIAN NONFICTION

http://www.vividpublishing.com.au