The word Nimbus refers to a motorbike made in Denmark. I grew up with the sound of this as our neighbors had such a motorbike  from the 1930s.

Fisher & Nielsen created this motorbike in 1919 and stopped the production in 1960. The peak period for the motorbikes was in the thirties. The firm is mostly known for making vacuum cleaners called “Nilfisk”. The name is derived from the two names.

This one that mean something special to me was purple-red and had a side cabin for the wife and a saddle behind for an extra passenger. I recently found a blurred photos of the sight from 1975. At that time our neighbors were about to move into a home for elderly people and the Nimbus was probably sold.

My dear neighbors going out on a ride

Once in the late 1950s my twin brother and I silently went down in the side cabin and somehow got the cover over us.

We probably knew when the elderly couple took a ride for groceries because we said “Hello” big surprise when they stopped at the dairy five minutes away from their home. We were rewarded with some sweets which we wouldn’t expect our mother to give us if we went shopping with her.

I am lucky to have this picture of the couple on their motorbike. At the time not many everyday situations were taken as a motive for a photo. I remember the way Mr. Eskaer moved his leg slowly across the saddle in a very stiff way drawing a line in the leather with his shoe and I thought :

Is it like that to get old?

Our house was parceled out from a big farm near by and so was all our neighbors’. They all started with a small summer-house and when people could afford it they built a proper house.

Our small summer house

Our neighbors lived in a flat about seven km away and came to their summer-house in May every year and left it in the end of October. My twin brother and I were excited when we saw that Mrs. Eskaer was coming in May because we loved to come on daily visits. Mr. Eskaer travelled back and forth much more as he spent time in his well-kept garden for many more months of the year.  I learnt to sew after a pattern and we did cross words and learnt different plays of cards in their company.

Mr. Eskaer holdning us I remember this because I was looking at the album with photos many times as a child. 18 months old in 1952

Mrs. Eskaer took care of us one day when our parents were out. We were not used to that

Our neighbors invited for birthday in July 1955

The sad end to this story is that I wanted to show them my first born baby in 1980 at their old-age home; I went there very confident and proud but had to realize that Mr. Eskaer had dementia and Mrs. Eskaer was occupied in the therapy to teach other residents to sew. She didn´t want to talk to me. I couldn’t understand it and I still can’t. She was like a dear grandmother to me. I never got the explanation but I have just accepted that there are facts in life that I can’t grasp so I remember the good moments from our childhood.

Seen on the internet very similar to the “original”.

Not long ago I saw an example of the motorbike at Egeskov Castle, which is both an estate for the  noble family and a museum for cars and motorbikes. It’s blue, but beautiful.