Ernie with an advance February 2024 copy of Scootering.
In August 2023, Our club President, Ernie Lundstrom celebrated his milestone 70th Birthday. It also marked his 50+ years in scootering.
Over the years, we’ve been to many rallies both at home and abroad on ferries booked by Ernie, stayed in some fabulous hotels and other accommodation booked by Ernie, had some fantastic times and met some great people all through Ernie. We thought it was about time this unsung hero of the Scootering scene finally received the international recognition he truly deserves.
We discussed approaching ‘Scootering’ magazine to see if they would run an article but our late friend Barney said they might not do it and if they did, it might not appear in the magazine in Ernie’s 70th year. It had to be worth a try though, right ?
We approached ‘Scootering’ and they were initially a bit reluctant. Our request eventually found its way to feature writer Stuart Owen, who actually knows Ernie and he agreed that Ernie’s story was well worth featuring in the magazine and that he would be pleased to write it. Apart from being a feature writer, Stuart builds some very fast (100 mph+) Lambrettas – but he sometimes has trouble stopping them. He’s had to rely on the assistance of a perimeter fence on at least one occasion – but that’s another story!
Stuart wrote the article and then advised that he’d have to find an issue to squeeze it into as the content is decided for each magazine at least 12 months in advance. True to his word, Stuart has got it in the February 2024 edition.
An advance copy was taken up to Ernie’s house and with his typical modesty, he said “Why me ? there are other people in scootering more worthy than me “No there aren’t Ernie” There are a number of well known names within scootering who’ve been around for a long time and who’ve made scootering what it is, but we doubt any of them have displayed the stoic leadership that you have, planned routes to virtually all points of the globe and had your meticulous attention to detail.
It was thought that ‘Scootering’ may publish a half page tribute to Ernie and that would have been great, but no! Stuart produced a four page article and for that, we owe Stuart a huge debt of gratitude. We’re sure that wherever Barney is now, he’ll be smiling down and will be delighted with this accolade to his great friend.
The February edition of the magazine should be in the shops any time now, or you can order a copy online from ‘Scootering’ from their website at scootering.com
For now though, we salute you El Presidente, Ernie Lundstrom.
