A love of bicycles has spanned three generations for a Brantford family, and a beloved 100-year-old CCM model now has a new home in California.
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Jim Mercer, aged 96, spent his working life delivering milk and ice cream for McNichol’s Dairy and Silverwood’s starting in the late 1940s, using a horse drawn carriage. In his travels he would sometimes come across a discarded bicycle that he would take home and repair.
“I watched my father (James Mercer) do the same thing,” he recalled. “We never had money for bicycles, and he would bring wrecks home and put them together and paint them up. The neighbors saw what he was doing, and they never had money for new bikes. They always contacted my dad and he’d look after them.”
Mercer retired after 27 years delivering bread to local stores for Weston Bakeries, and continued his interest in bicycles, swelling his collection to nine at one point.
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The prized bicycle in his collection was given to him by a cancer patient whom he drove to Hamilton for treatment.
“I got to know him, and he appreciated me driving him,” Mercer said. “I told him I was interested in bikes, and he took me into his basement to show me the bike that he then gave me.”
It was a standard CCM bicycle with wood and leather grips, metal spokes and wooden rims that the gentleman’s father had purchased for $45 in 1924 so he could get to high school.
“The front rim has a small crack in it,” Mercer noted, adding that he would occasionally ride it on the street in front of his Tranquility Street home where he lived for 65 years.
Mercer moved into Seasons retirement home in West Brant in August of this year, with help in the downsizing transition from his son Bill who lives in California
“For me as his eldest son, I said the only thing I’d ever want is your antique bike,” explained Bill, who had The Bicycle Shop on Clarence Street package it up for the return flight to California. “I have the bike here now and am proud to have it.”
Bill – an avid cyclist — said the vintage bicycle is a museum piece and will be showcased in his home.
“Now he’s showing it off in California in the neighborhood where he lives,” added Jim. “It’s getting quite a bit of interest.”
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