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<blockquote data-quote="ossagp" data-source="post: 197616" data-attributes="member: 1650">I was 6 when sprouts took himself to the other side.&nbsp; My freshman year in college I was on my way to a race and stopped in Fresno to drop a gift from my sister to a family friend (If you can believe it,&nbsp; a man called Papa Joe was just getting out of prison.&nbsp; Bookmaker.).&nbsp;&nbsp; Anyway,&nbsp; a girl there asked if I rode the race bikes and then told me about her grandfather.&nbsp; Sprouts Elder.&nbsp; I hadn't heard much about him in early 1970.&nbsp; I knew he was a speedway rider and had come to west Fresno county to race lots of time during the period mentioned in Roll's reference above.&nbsp; I asked a couple of people who would have known him a little bit about him and man did I get some stories.&nbsp; Jerry Fairchild was brought into my question by Ken Maely (google them both if you need to).&nbsp; Fairchild had been part of the the Milne brother's world speedway championship.&nbsp; A co sponsor and a provider of the JAP's they used.&nbsp; (When I met Jerry he still had all the bikes they used and his grandson was using some of the engines in frames that Jerry built for him at places like Costa Mesa.)&nbsp; Anyway,&nbsp; all that led me back to my new friend with something to talk about.&nbsp; The family friends were of Armenian descent.&nbsp; They jokingly sometimes referred to themselves as &quot;Fresno Indians&quot; since there seemed to be some problems with people from elsewhere even then.&nbsp; Anyway one of his friends was the mother of a woman whose daughter became famous as Cher.&nbsp; Simply Cher.&nbsp;&nbsp; So it was funny to recall said &quot;Cher&quot; singing about being an Indian and finding out what kind.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ossagp, post: 197616, member: 1650"] I was 6 when sprouts took himself to the other side. My freshman year in college I was on my way to a race and stopped in Fresno to drop a gift from my sister to a family friend (If you can believe it, a man called Papa Joe was just getting out of prison. Bookmaker.). Anyway, a girl there asked if I rode the race bikes and then told me about her grandfather. Sprouts Elder. I hadn't heard much about him in early 1970. I knew he was a speedway rider and had come to west Fresno county to race lots of time during the period mentioned in Roll's reference above. I asked a couple of people who would have known him a little bit about him and man did I get some stories. Jerry Fairchild was brought into my question by Ken Maely (google them both if you need to). Fairchild had been part of the the Milne brother's world speedway championship. A co sponsor and a provider of the JAP's they used. (When I met Jerry he still had all the bikes they used and his grandson was using some of the engines in frames that Jerry built for him at places like Costa Mesa.) Anyway, all that led me back to my new friend with something to talk about. The family friends were of Armenian descent. They jokingly sometimes referred to themselves as "Fresno Indians" since there seemed to be some problems with people from elsewhere even then. Anyway one of his friends was the mother of a woman whose daughter became famous as Cher. Simply Cher. So it was funny to recall said "Cher" singing about being an Indian and finding out what kind. [/QUOTE]

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