Dad shows his bicycle jacket with patches from many years of bike riding.

Anyone that knows my Dad, Jim Spearman, knows about his love for bicycling and his family. Besides over 40 years of working at the same company, biking and family or anything he could do to combine them, like camping, were pretty much what life in small town Mount Vernon, Ohio was all about. As far as Dad was concerned, there wasn’t really much more that you needed in life than a job, family, a house, and a bicycle.

I remember Dad taking to bicycling in the mid-70′s. I was young, but I remember it was rough times. Cooper-Bessemer had laid him off and he had taken a job with a long commute and lower pay at HPM. A work related accident at HPM caused a back injury that required extensive surgery. Things seemed to be going from bad to worse. The doctor told him that walking or biking were exercises that would relieve the pain. Dad got on his bicycle and it worked. Not only did it relieve pain, it saved us money, he enjoyed it, and he made friends doing it.

Not long after all of this Coopers started to boom with business from the Alaskan Pipeline project. Money started coming in and Dad worked all the overtime he could, cut lawns for extra money, and worked night shift janitor jobs to get caught up. He would ride his bike to and from these jobs, even when they were in the middle of the night. Things greatly improved and a few years later, he had time for more bike riding.

In this photo, he’s holding the numerous patches from organized bike rides he was on. I don’t think any of them were less than 50 miles. Sign-up money usually went to a good cause and you’d receive a patch. The oldest one he had was from 1977 and they kept going up to the present. In his retirement, he still keeps biking whenever he gets a chance. When he’s not spending time with his friends and family, he’s usually on the Kokosing Gap Bicycle Trail.

On Fathers’ Day, I’d like to thank Dad for all the hard work he put in over the years and everything he’s done for all of us in the family. Just as he’s never waivered on his bicycling hobby, he’s never waivered on taking care of the family either. We love you Dad!

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