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Born to be (almost) wild: Our article on the Route 66 exhibition at the Museum of Our National Heritage led us to scour yearbooks from the '60s in search of modes of student transportation from that time period. This flotilla of scooters from the 1961 Hub yearbook also shows makes and models of four-wheeled transport in the background. While perusing the yearbooks, we also came across a poem that captures the mood of spring and the need to be out on the open road. Penned by student Brian J. Fitzgerald (CAS'64, GRS'66) -- not our Bridge senior writer/editor -- the following excerpt was taken from the 1966 Hub yearbook:

Motorcycle, Spring, River of Life

When bodily and tangible the air called me,
When the morning was hallowing and welcoming,
When tree buds were opening,
Some twenty paces
In that very Spring
Took me from doorway to curbing.

I freed my clutch right in the morning's eye,
Got the old bubbler bubbling and ticking over,
Zipped up,
And buckled my chin-strap under my chin.
I shifted (zoonk); when that was done,
I pulled from the curb and opened the throttle
And lo and behold,
By golly,

Away I run.
Why not, when every particle of the universe
Was companionable under the sun.

I leaned, and laid my motor over,
Powered out of the turn, changed up,
And took to the road like Jesus took
To the rippling Lake of Galilee --
Swapping the cogs, I cut my swatch
On the river of life just like reality.
That was me;
Little Old Ladies' and Gentlemen's Motorcycle Society.

23 April 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations