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Today's Featured Biography
eugene spiegel
Passion is what makes the human experience worthwhile. This zest for life takes many forms. Some of us think within the acceptable social context, while a few special ones can think outside this box. Me, I don't even see the box.
My first love was girls. I proposed for the first time at the age of six, to that cute little red haired girl, with the help of my older sister acting as a go between.
My second love was photography, possible having something to do with my first love. My styles are spontaneous portraits, documentary, nature, infrared, and astronomy.
My next love was Astrology. For me, it works, and in 1969 I began my long, continuous study of the universe and stellar interpretation. What I didn't know then, was it takes about five years to begin to make sense of it, but I figured with time I would just get better at the many possible tangents it takes to understand what could be, or what should be, or what might be. It was a good decision, and today I'm still learning having been encouraged over time by my better understanding of this ancient science/art.
Then came bicycling. My first Schwinn I traded for, was in the late 1960s, while in college. I didn't particularly enjoy it, as it took much effort, and frankly riding with traffic took more chutzpa than I had, then. Nothing happened after this very brief experience with riding, until I turned 30.
At that point I took an interest in my fitness. After discovering I could use a bicycle for commuting purposes, back and forth from the suburbs to downtown. I later began studying Kung Fu, as a discipline and confidence builder.
Riding with other cyclists on group rides, I joined the Cincinnati Cycling Club, then contributed as a ride leader and cluster organizer. Along the way I discovered cycling was a social life as well as for fitness. To give you a practical idea of how much cycling has been a part of my life...The earth, at the equator, has a diameter of some 24,800 miles. I have ridden more than four times that distance, to date, with more to come.
By 35 I had begun amateur racing with the United States Cycling Federation in the Masters division, which I continued to actively pursue for the next 26 years. Along the way I freelanced for velo magazines as a photo-journalist, figuring as long as I was at the race, I might as well document it for others. For 30 years I had a vintage bicycle shop downtown, doing most of the repairs for cyclists in this part of Cincinnati. I still race Time Trials, against the clock, in Cleves, Ohio with my race team Queen City Wheels, even though I have moved over 100 miles away. I make the trip and enjoy the intense effort a handful of times each season, having the distinction of racing this event more than anyone, to date, ever has, just not the fastest. Along the way I capture many Ohio USCF medals in gold, silver, and bronze.
Just as I was approaching 40 I met my next love, my future wife, a bicycle rider, at one of our CCC gatherings. We married five years later, and I had my first child, a daughter at age 45, then a son at 49.
I am both proud and fortunate to continue my family's business, now under the name Reliable Vintage. My grandfather began our downtown business in 1908, my father continued it after WWII, and I inherited it in the early 1970s. Having moved from Cincinnati, it is today located in Nashville, Indiana, two and a half hours west of Woodward.
I continue all my passions still. I post photography daily on deviantart, under the name harrietsfriend, the name of my former, 4th, store cat. In this art site you will find images I have taken yesterday, today and soon tomorrow. Some of you might be highlighted in my postings, some might be later, as I continue the habit, since I was 16, of carrying a camera daily.
eugene
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