Tribute to Veterans?

Posted Monday, February 27, 2012, at 12:44 AM

This picture was embedded in an e-mail I got yesterday from a fellow here in Boise. The message with the image was a follows: "A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life wrote a blank check payable to "The United States of America" for an amount "up to and including his life."

That is honor, there are too many people in this country who no longer understand this.

"God Bless Our Veterans."

I fully agree with the sentiment and the NEED to thank veterans.

But there was something that didn't ring true to me about the picture.

So I did a Google search for "Bike in tree".

I got a group of images that included different views of the same bike, same tree. I also got some links to "bike eating tree" stories, which turned out to be mostly blogs.

Now I don't blindly trust blogs, so I refined the search again and found a site called Museum of Hoaxes.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblo...

So I sent a reply to all as an update to the e-mail my veteran buddy had sent.

This link (Museum of Hoaxes) has two pages of comments about the Vashon Island tree with the bicycle in it.

The VERY LAST "comment" was posted at 11:00 this morning.

From the kid who got rid of the bike in the 1950's..................

Before that, there is a comment from someone in the UK about a bicycle that WAS left in a tree by a soldier that did not return.

So the Harley poster might have been created using the picture from a photo contest in 1994, combined with a story from the British Isles about WWI, reported in Ripley's Believe it or Not.

But I am convinced that the poster was done with the New Hampshire dealership's name on top to attract veterans that had the cash to buy a Harley, rather than pay tribute to a fallen soldier.

And I find no Honor in that nor is it truth in advertising.

Comments
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Thanks for the info, Dave. I hadn't been able to find much about the book.

The picture on the poster was apparently taken by a commercial photographer. Some of the other images I found yesterday show the same tree, same bicycle, but minus the front forks and handle bars.

The Museum of Hoaxes website comments give yet other interesting aspects of the tree and bike history. The last entry is my personal favorite.

Posted after I researched the poster but adding to the mystery of how the bike got there.

-- Posted by wh67 on Mon, Feb 27, 2012, at 1:55 PM

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/1412

-- Posted by Dave Thompson on Mon, Feb 27, 2012, at 11:45 AM

Hi Mr. Hostetler.

That photo also appears in "Red Ranger Came Calling", a book written by Berkeley Breathed. I believe it came out sometime around '94. Breathed is the creator of the Bloom County comic strip among other things.

Red Ranger Came Calling is a great children's Christmas story with great artwork. The subject photo appears at the end of the book. We read it every year.

-- Posted by Dave Thompson on Mon, Feb 27, 2012, at 11:43 AM

Thats is the downside of the information highway. Somethings will inspire you and others will turn out to be not true.

Would have made a great movie though.

-- Posted by KH Gal on Mon, Feb 27, 2012, at 7:33 AM

Hey, anything to make a buck.

IT SUCKS!

-- Posted by royincaldwell on Mon, Feb 27, 2012, at 5:40 AM

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Warren Hostetler

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I was born September 17, 1949 in Caldwell, Idaho. Like Idaho's climate, I have a dry sense of humor. It may be a result of faulty genetics, but I come from sturdy stock. My great grandfather once served as a postmaster right on the line between Camas and Elmore Counties and is buried on what was once his land. According to research my only sibling has done, we generally agree that he started his westward trek in Indiana sometime after 1838 and died of pneumonia in 1911. If Google earth is correct, there are at least 2.5 million average steps between Ripley County, Indiana and his gravesite.

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