Vern Nelson rode his bike to Edison Elementary School in Centralia every day as a boy, often beside his best friends, Dave Lawson and Dick Sullivan.
They all three delivered The Oregonian and other newspapers, even taking over each others’ paper routes when one biker accrued other duties. Eventually, Nelson married Lawson’s sister, Rae Jean, who has since passed away.
All three worked in the trades: Nelson was a drywall contractor, Lawson was in the U.S. Navy and a logger, and Sullivan, according to his friends, is the best mechanic around.
They saw hard times: friends would move away. Lawson’s father was killed in a logging accident. They’d scrape by, making $1 an hour in factory jobs.
And as the years went on, the trio remained best friends.
Recently, someone asked Nelson about his fondest memory. At 82 years old, he answered without hesitation: those childhood bike rides. He vividly recalls the freedom of leaving home, the joy of riding beside friends and his excitement for the school day.
So, he thought, why can’t we do that one more time?
“Our families are concerned and trying to discourage 82-year-olds from riding bikes,” Nelson wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “But we are determined to relive our favorite memory with our best friends. Besides, you never forget how to ride a bike ... Right?”
And so they did. Nelson and Lawson, both 82, Sullivan, 83, rode their bikes before being greeted at Edison Elementary by Principal Josue Lowe for a tour of the school on May 1.
Lawson fell four times in the process, and Nelson admitted it didn’t all go perfectly as planned, but they were nonetheless successful. They rode their bikes.
“It’s different of course, when I climb on it. I can’t pedal without my hands,” Nelson said. “We were trying to recreate something that, probably, is far in the past and (we’d) never be able to do it. But we had fun.”
The school, Lawson said, looks “spotless.”
Considering it’s “over 100 years old, it’s quite remarkable,” Nelson said.
Lawson replied, “I am not!”
