7309 Baldwin Avenue, Lincoln, Nebraska 68507
This is a picture of my 3 year old grandson Jacob (Jake)
Eppenbach with his Cushman Husky Model M70, serial #A69400; my
son-in-law Stacey Eppenbach with a 1928 Cushman 1-2 HP Cub Model
R9, serial #60102; and me with my 1908 Cushman 3 HP serial #99F,
all engines on Cushman trucks.
After all my years of restoring old cars, my wife convinced me
to find something ‘smaller’ as a hobby. (She didn’t say
lighter!) I had gone to a few threshing shows, mostly to see the
old cars that always showed up, but I was always intrigued by the
gas engines. Finally I found and bought an Associated engine, and
soon had several engines of different kinds, including Jaeger, IH,
John Deere and others.
Being a Lincoln native, I knew about the Cushman scooters, but I
didn’t know that Cushman made stationary engines long before
the scooters. Once I found that out, I became a ‘purist’
and decided to collect and restore only Cushmans. I sold my other
engines and bought my first Cushman (a Cub) in 1986. Well, that one
Cub has grown to 52 Cushman engines, from the early two-cycle
marine engines up to the two cylinder 15 HP, and about everything
in between. My hobby has also grown to three generations as my
grandson and son-in-law are also now into the hobby.
Jake always liked to be in the garage with Grandpa from about
the time he could walk. He didn’t always use the tools I gave
him for the right things (I have a couple of ‘love dings’
in a freshly painted engine as a reminder!), but he definitely
enjoyed the grease and rust! It seemed only natural for him to have
an engine his size, so I first located a 1945 Maytag Model 82 which
he took to shows along with me and ran it. But it also seemed only
natural for him to have a Cushman, so he now has the Model M70
air-cooled.
Over the past few years, sons-in-law Stacey and Mitch have
helped me a lot on projects that required another pair of hands or
more muscle than I had. During my recovery from cancer, Stacey
became my ‘starter’ when I didn’t even have the
strength to start an engine. Now he likes the Cushmans, too! It is
a real thrill to have three generations with gas engines at shows,
and working together in the garage.
I should add that I have a lovely and understanding wife, Barb,
and three wonderful daughters, Jennifer, Jill, and Molly, who
helped me many times over the years to load or unload engines, move
them around the garage, hold wrenches, etc. But the bug never bit
them quite as hard as it did me, so when Molly had Jake 3 years
ago, I was kind of hoping he would be interested in old
engines…and guess what! If his interest continues, I’ll be
thrilled, because it is a great hobby and a good teacher about
things mechanical, hard work and a bit of our heritage. If he goes
on to other interests, he’ll never forget what he has learned
from restoring and showing gas engines.
