Duds and suds

I took two pairs of socks, a cotton sweat shirt, Levi's jeans, two pairs of bike shorts, one was wool and one a cotton synthetic blend. The chamois were of course real leather back then. We wore matching bike jerseys that Ed's grandmother sewed us (She made jerseys for some of the local bike teams in San Diego.). She carefully sewed TCCA on the back of each our jerseys. One set of shirts was heavy rugby grade cotton and was green and yellow and the other made of white, yellow and blue slinky nylon. The nylon shirts were hot and clinging in heat and cold and porous when it was cold. The cotton shirts were great in heat especially when you squirted water down your back, and did fine in the chilly northwest mornings, but not so well in the rain. They were all made with love and I kept them for decades. I had some sort of a single ply nylon windbreaker and we both had plastic rain ponchos from the army/navy store, which we thought could double as tent if it rained. We each wore traditional bike capos on our heads. To keep my mother happy I wore one of those sausage shaped leather “helmets”. Fortunately it was never put to the test, which is not to say there weren’t thrills and spills.

Mary Jane and I touring Vancouver Island in the early 1980s. My jersey is a class II relec of the '63 ride down the Pacific Coast.

Let see what my memory can bring forth as to toiletries. I definitely remember the Pope on a Rope soap - cleanliness being next to Godliness. That would be Pope John XXIII. I suppose one would have to have gone to a Roman Catholic grade school pre-Vatican II to get the full metaphoric symbolism. Just checking and to my amazement there is Pope Francis on a rope soap available as of this writing. I can think of not just a few people in the public view who would be very deserving recipients of a little Godly cleansing.

Being both sixteen and not nearly of full beard, in reality barely a smudge on the upper lip we brought one Gillette safety razor with Blue Blades (stainless steel razor blades were still blocked from entering the US from England.). A partially used tube of Barbasol non-airosol saving cream. My first shave happened in Crescent City, nine days into our journey. I was totally impressed when I saw the 1/4 inch of dark fuzz on my upper lip.

One comb and toothbrush a piece and a shared travel tube of toothpaste rounded out our hygiene. No sunscreen, I don't think it had been invented yet.

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