In a message dated 7/18/2003 9:28:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
LouDeeter@aol.com writes:
>
>
> I'm in denial. I keep looking for the post from Dave Straub to tell us that
>
> he doesn't understand what all of this is about. Unfortunately, as Tom
> Sanders pointed out, this happens too often to us at our ages, not
> withstanding the
> 20 &30 somethings on the list. It doesn't get any easier, that is for sure.
>
> I'm distraught and depressed. Lou Deeter, Orlando FL
>
>
(choke) I just met Dave for the first time in person at the Cirque this year, but it was as if we had known each other 50 years. At meals and at the other encounters, first it was all the ol' time Schwinn folk we kbow mutually in the 60's and 70's, then the racers, then specs on old bikes.....
An encycleopedia, a philosopher, a counselor, a human.
I got the news and like many, had to stare at the screen over and over, blinking, shaking the head, a fist pounding the table, a dammit.
Dave's news came just 10 hours after attending a memorial service last night that was a who's who of bikefolk in Frederick, Md. This morning marks exactly a week after a very close neighboring shop owner, Maurice Gunter was found dead by employees on the shop floor of Frederick Schwinn.
Chris Beyer, 'Mo' Gunder, Dave Staub...........
Mo was a modern shop guy, but had a love for the classics- and his windows were filled with a dozen bikes from the 50's through the 80's- mostly balloon, middleweight, and muscle bikes, but it did include a coveted p15 in Chrome he inherited from the former owner, for whom I worked from '69-'72 and from whom I got my first p13. That Schwinn Olympic tandem that Dave rode might have even been in that old shop on tour- I believe it was opaque blue.
Lou mentioned that as age ensues, we start to lose more and more close folk.
Mo was a baby of 32 with the knowledge and following of anyone twice that age.
The thought among the mourners last night was.... that if he had any idea of the immensity and love of his support group, he would have surely found reason to make the choice to live instead of taking his life from himself and his friends.
I join you all in sorrow and find greater strength in life as art and that things on the trouble radar are smaller than they appear.
Larry Black
Mt airy, Md.