Book Review: The Old Man and the Harley

I recently finished reading this book and I found it to be a pretty good retelling of the author's father's journey from the Worlds Fair in New York to the Worlds Fair in San Francisco in 1939; riding a 1930 Harley Davidson!


The tales of three Newkirks and their father are told concurrently as their respective lives touched the others. While the story is about Jack Newkirk, the author's father and his adventures while doing his epic ride on a 1930 vintage Harley Davidson VL Big Twin, you also learn about Scarsdale Jack Newkirk who is his cousin and a naval aviator who would gain fame as a squadron leader for the famed Flying Tigers under Claire Chennault in China.

You see, the author is named after Scarsdale Jack, and it is with this connection and his relationship with his aging father that he makes the same trip that his father made, except in reverse. The author retraces the route, starting from San Francisco's Treasure Island, with a short stint to take his aging dad to Sturgis to fulfill a promise his dad had made during his 1939 ride. Along the way the author feels the company of the ghosts of his family's past, their memories helping him to relate to events in his own life.

I found the accounts of Scarsdale Jack and his heroics as a Flying Tiger Squadron Leader, his training as a pilot and later naval aviator and his tragic death on a combat mission to be fascinating and well told. It kind of reminded me of the writings of W.E.B Griffin and his USMC series of WWII.

Concurrently, the author vividly takes us along for his father's ride in 1939 America, just barely getting out of the grips of the big depression. His description of the mechanical problems the old Harley gave his father, and how his father overcame these problems was in turn amusing, uplifting and inspiring.

The "Old Man", Jack Newkirk (yeah, same name as the cousin who was the aviator), proved his mettle riding the northern half of the US, just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Jack's brother Horace is mentioned in passing mostly, though a large part of the family, his roles are minor it seemed. The main one being his rescuing of the Harley from a deadbeat who had bought it from Jack after Jack had made it all the way to the west coast and needed money to get back home with his brother via car.

The war changes everyone lives, Scarsdale Jack leaves active service with the US Navy and joins the Flying Tigers, leaving behind a young wife back in the states; and gathers much public acclaim before he's shot down in combat.

Young Jack, back from his ride and overcome by grief from the death of his cousin at the hands of the Japanese joins up in spite of his father's efforts to get him to try a non-combat service job. Jack ends up in the South Pacific and undergoes his own combat trials and horrors which end up being revealed near the end of the book.

The last fourth of the book is devoted to the author's own journey retracing his father's route through the country. His interactions, past and present, with his father are detailed and dissected by the author as he rides cross-country to confront his own demons in the form of regrets, fears and hatreds that are in the end confronted.

In sum, a book worth reading. You'll be amused at the mechanical "issues" young Jack learned to deal with his old Harley. His depiction of life in America during the depression and in the latter part of the 1930s is very well done. I just wish the author's dad had taken more pictures of his trip but then again finances were tight for him. Can you imagine this, trying to ride across the country with a budget of less than $120?