1. Where did I put my wife? GF I know where she is, but it is my wife I misplaced again.
2. What kind of beer is it that I like?
3. Where should I look for my bike keys? I'd like to go out for a ride.
4. I am done peeing. How does this zipper thing work? eeEEEWWW right in the face.
But when it comes to waking me up early to post our next MOM........ noooOOOOooooo don't call me, just post an embarrassing, ridiculing message for the world to see that I am slurking my responsibilities. Oy!
Dear Admins & Mods,
Is it possible to de-MOMmy-ize a past MOM winner? You know. Like dawg. (I'll finish this letter to the Admins/Mods later..... I need to get the new MOM posted b4 I get more hate fan mail. Oy! Where did I put my bottle of excedrin extra strength?)
. Kel03 is one of the most down to earth, relatable chaps you’ll ever come across. As the axiom goes, “What you see, is what you get.” And that my friends, as you know, is a breath of fresh air.
Kel has a son and a daughter and has been married for 38 years. 18 years to gal #1 and 20 years to gal #2. In Kel’s own words, Deb is really #1. She has been great. ("So far.") <-- Said by Kel, not the author.
Let’s do this month’s MOM by the numbers…..
The 70’s
. Kel started his career in a steel mill in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He tried living the “Hamilton city life” but it just wasn’t for him. So, it was 37 years of commuting 32 miles each way.
He fondly (ok, not so fondly) remembers his initial safety talk with a one-eyed guy. Aaaah, what? Yup. A one-eyed guy in charge of safety. Kel could not help but wonder what he was getting himself into.
His career started as a millwright. This was fine because welding intrigued Kel. Before you knew it, he excelled at welding and soon after shined so brightly… (Get it? Welding. Shining brightly? Oy, tough crowd today.) … Kel took over the welding division at the plant. Soon after, he built a brand-new welding shop that turned out to be literally “World Class.”
His World Class welding shop handled not only everything the plant needed welding wise, but his efforts and enthusiasm got him an invitation to participate in developing a welding apprentice program for the entire province of Ontario. This invitation would make the humblest of men jump for joy. He said yes and became a local celebrity.
Fast forward…….37 years later. After arduous commuting efforts and becoming a spectacular welding star and creating a name for himself, The Kel was sitting at his desk at 2PM on a Thursday afternoon on November 28, 2008 and thought, “I’ve never heard of anyone complaining about retiring.”
At that moment, without giving it another thought, he got up from his desk, signed out, and left. Never to return again.
The following Saturday, he told his wife he quit. No more. “The End.” It has been GREAT ever since. The only afterthought Kel entertained was……. “I should have retired years earlier.”
Now, no retirement is ever truly complete without the introduction of a celebratory drink, right? Well, Kel had purchased a Collector’s bottle of Canadian Club years before and never cracked it open. This bottle needed to accompany a special event. Well, that wonderful day of retirement on November 28th qualified. With an ear-to-ear grin he strutted to his home bar, eyed the waiting CC, and took a shot. (We “hear tell” about 6 shots in under 44 seconds but he will only “fess up” to 1 shot. It’s his MOM write up, so we will go with 1 shot. )
To date, Kel has polished off 12 ounces.
We digressed a little bit amongst all of the retirement excitement, so back to the 70’s.
In the 70’s Kel got a hankering for Corvettes so he purchased a 1962 stock Corvette. Then (in his words) “…as a young stupid kid would do…” he got another Vette that was a tad bit wilder in every way. Not many Vettes were seen around back then, let alone a kid in his 20’s with two of them. [emoticon grin] Well, until one was stolen and the other (sadly) sold to a dentist. Kel would really like to have that one now.
The 80’s
. In the 80’s Kel was racing on an oval dirt circuit in Ontario and in Western New York. THAT was fun! He started by crewing on Late Models, but that wasn’t fast or exciting enough. So, he moved to crew on modified big blocks. Now that was fun. What was even more enjoyable was when his team won all three of the track championships that were available at the time.
After that season, Kel was asked to go “south of the border” on the Grand National Sportsman Circuit, but with a young family and halfway through his welding career, he thought going “south of the border” was not a good idea.
In hindsight, he wonders if that was a good decision. The first marriage of 18 years he was in at the time wound up going by the wayside anyway so...
The 90’s
. In the 90’s, The Kel became a single dad and racing, as well as other activities took a backseat as he became more involved with his kids’ needs.
Being a Dad and MOM or as Kel said as the song goes, “Mr. Mom” was tough. The kids were pretty young and he was working full-time at his career.
Preparing meals, laundry, school, homework, extracurricular activities and much more, you know, the list goes on and on. It’s a lot to juggle, being single. On top of all of this, Kel made the time for his kids to play hockey, dance, and modelling lessons. My goodness, it was 32 miles to work. 32 miles back home. Pack up the kids, back 32 miles past work, then another hour of driving (one way I might add) just to get to the hockey rink. Did I say one way? Oy! [emoticon doh?]
They all got through it successfully. How? To this day, Kel can’t say how, he only know that his family came first. There was lots of love and the kids enjoyed their childhood.
In 2000
. A new century means new toys, of course. Right? As Kel crossed into 2000, he started boating. He sailed boats for several years and was crewing on others. In ’05, he started taking sail boats from Port Dalhousie, Ontario, Canada to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.
Luckily, he was able to take the time off from work and keep his family in the loop as to where he was, all the way down to Florida.
It was fun! He would leave from Lake Ontario and go to Oswego. Then enter the Erie Barge canal, sailing down to the Hudson River and out into the Atlantic Ocean. WHOOO HOOOOOOO!!!! RIDE’m COWBOY!!! Ok, not really “RIDE’m,” it was more like SAIL’m” [emoticon shrug?] all the way down the Atlantic seaboard to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Of course, these boats would have to come back north eventually, so someone had to do the dirty work of bringing them back. Yup, yours truly The Kel brought them back to Canada.
But it was not always as sexy as it sounds, sailing the high seas at sunset with champagne and caviar. Along with the high seas came the “pucker times” of rough, high, and very unforgiving weather [emoticon jump excitement-bad] that made docking and kissing the ground a loving surreal reality. Too many times for comfort. But nonetheless, it was FUN!
Sadly, due to the recession in ’08, most boat owners lost their boats.
The joy of free sailing to and from Florida went by the wayside. That is not to say, as things pick up, he would not do it again. For he likely would if he receives the call to do so. . .
To The Present
. Today Kel rides, golfs, plays hockey, and does a variety of handyman jobs for his friends and neighbors. Heck, he even refurbished his son’s restaurant during the first COVID lockdown. That was a challenge, as building supplies had to be ordered well in advance due to slow arrival times. If you forgot to order just one part, one piece, work was shutdown. But the place now looks amazing and his son has one of the nicest restaurant & bars in the area.
Kel is a HOG member, but with COVID looming for such an extended time, he has put his chapter activities on an indefinite hold.
Only recently have some of his charity rides started back up, so he is very much looking forward to participating in those rides again. There is nothing, nothing that compares to riding for charitable causes.
The Kel’s been riding on and off since he was 15 years old. Kel is now 67, so by my calculations ( ...carry the one...) that makes it 85+ years.
His first bike? It was a Triumph Bonneville 650 that had a bit of a raked front as he recalls. It really pissed off (yeah, pissed off) his mom and dad because he didn’t tell them he was purchasing a bike. He just bought it and brought it home. Heck, at the time, Kel was not even old enough to have a driver’s license, let alone ride a motorcycle on the open road. LOL
Clearly, his mom and dad said NO to street riding. True to Kel being Kel, he rode it in the fields (as you know, this makes it a tougher ride in every way) until his parents were not around. Then he quickly scooted out of the fields and onto the streets for a cruise. Well, until he passed his folks going the opposite way …………BUSTED!
Then came another Triumph followed by a Honda 550-4, Honda 750 Shadow, ’03 Road King, and now bringing everyone up to date, he rides (and not in the fields) a 2010 Ultra. Oh yeah.
Due to a flood where a lot of PIXs were lost, the RK may (may) be in the photos below.
Kel’s BEST bike was his silver & charcoal ‘03 Road King. It was Harley Davidson’s anniversary color and was exactly what he was looking for. He found it in Tully, New York. It was his first import experience.
Canada has some really odd importing procedures. Part of which is that you can only take it to one place for the safety check and ownership transfer. And the odometer has to be converted to kilometers.
Kel purchased this bike, with 5000 miles on it, from an 85-year-old man back in ‘08 who was giving up riding in the wind.
His favorite ride? That was rolling through the Black Hills and South Dakota area on a trip to Sturgis, SD.
Although he trailered along with some friends, it was quite an experience watching the wind, hail, rain, and temperature changes that came from nowhere and without warning and pretty fast I might add. It was an awesome time. And the people, events and rides were equally awesome!!! Someday God willing, Kel is planning on going back with his friends for round #2 at Sturgis.
Deb and Kel are both fair weather riders. If the day looks good and they are in a good mood, it will be KSU time. Because of where they live, it takes a good hour to get to decent riding areas. Once on the roads, they do enjoy riding, riding, riding, and just enjoying each and every moment of the open roads.
One of their favorite local rides is the Friday the 13th cruise to Port Dover. It’s the single largest one-day event for bikers in North America. This year, Kel sort of goofed up and they’ll miss this event. He and Deb will be touring western Canada on the “Rocky Mountaineer” train, only to be coming back one day after the Port Dover event ends. Grrrrrrrrr!!!!
For the last few years and like so many others, riding has slowed to almost a standstill due to the perils of COVID. But nonetheless, they are managing well.
General Thoughts & Chewing The Cud
. In this department we start off with going back to charities. Kel has a soft spot for people in need. He suspects this goes back to his younger days when he was a member of the “Leo Club,” the junior club for the Lions Organization. They would bring gift baskets to families in need. It is forever imprinted on you when you see their faces as you carry food in for their Christmas dinner.
To this day, it would be so like Kel to make a sandwich and leave it on the bench where a homeless person is sleeping. (He puts it down and Deb picks it up and eats it. )
Sometimes instead of food, Kel gives them some cash to help them along.
For years, Kel would donate through automatic payroll deductions.
As stated above, The Kel has two children. And now, two awesome granddaughters, Cameron and Parker. Man, oh man, Kel looks forward to them coming over and wearing him out.
Kel says the kids today are so smart. It’s amazing. They seem to know everything and have everything!
When growing up, Kel had the proverbial hockey cards, dinky toys, and those green plastic army men, and that was it.
As for military service, in Kel’s younger days he was in the Army Cadets.
The Army Cadets was run out of the local High School (Kel was not in high school at the time) and they camped weekends, had rifle practice, and parades. His favorite thing to do was shooting the rifles. They would go to Niagara on the Lake Rifle Range where they would use FN rifles.
They would also practice with 22’s in the High School gymnasium, which today, would never happen. All they did at that time was to put a sign on the entrance doors that said, “No Entry, Shooting In Progress.”
As it got closer to signing up for the militia, Kel thought hard and long about it before deciding not to sign up since he was a bit on wild side. And it likely would not have ended well for either side.
If The Kel was going to lay claim to a pet peeve, it would be one thing and one thing only. That would be how much it bothers him the way that his country and local governments treat their veterans. It’s just not right. Guys and gals literally put their lives on the line. Many never come home standing up. If they are not KIA/MIA and are one of the lucky who survive a conflict, then all too often it’s the matter of a loss of limb(s), minds, disfigurement and not being taken care of, if at all, timely, or fully. This is sad and unforgivable. Why this is their welcome home treatment or payback is beyond me.
Our military is the basis of our freedom.
Picture Gallery
Cameron & Parker L to R. . Son (far left) with the Blue Jay t-shirt. . Son / Owner of Boston Pizza. The restaurant Kel renovated.
.
.
.
.
.
Just getting off Dehavilland Otter Sea Plane in Vancouver. Next stop is the Capalano Suspension Bridge.
From The HD Staff CONGRATULATIONs kel03. .
. .
. If you would like to recommend a future MOM, please PM BuzzCap7. Thank you...
Congrats to @kel03 What a career, now that you are in retirement, it is just like any other job; you have to work at it to be successful.
And @BuzzCap7 I do not know how you do it, but every month you seem to produce a great if not magnificent write up of the Member of the Month. And pay not attention to @dawg he probably had too much coffee and a few too many doughnuts this morning.
Again, Congrats Kel03 and thank you Buzz for your wonderful insight and write-ups
Buzz, you knocked another one out of the park! And only because you had such GREAT material!
Kel03, it sounds like you've really lived a life well lived! I admire your dedication to your children through the divorce. As my own parents are divorced, I can appreciate what you must have done to manage all of that. And I also commute 37 miles one way and have for 35 years (and counting), so I can REALLY appreciate what it must have taken to do that!
I also admire your pet peeve and I share your sentiments. I realize that you're Canadian, but we have Patriot Guard members in other countries and we would welcome you if you choose to stand with us at one mission or 100. I don't know the PGR situation in Canada, but it shouldn't be hard to learn. How far are you from the border?
Kel, congratulations, man; that's a FANTASTIC story!
BelchFire
08-31-2021, 01:23 PM
)
As Kel crossed into 2000, he started boating. He sailed boats for several years and was crewing on others. In ’05, he started taking sail boats from Port Dalhousie, Ontario, Canada to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.
so someone had to do the dirty work of bringing them back. Yup, yours truly The Kel brought them back to Canada.
...carry the one...) that makes it 85+ years. 
…………BUSTED! 
)
