CALLICOON — Craig Stewart remembered the day Bobby Bennett received his Harley-Davidson Topper scooter from his father, Jack.

“Bobby got the Scooter for his 16th birthday,” Craig said. “When he went in the Merchant Marines I told him I would like to buy it.”

And so the deal was struck.

Craig bought the Scooter and had fun buzzing around Callicoon on the machine – much like Bobby did.

“I even hand-painted a bird on the side when Bobby owned it,” Craig said. “That is what he wanted.”

Well, fast forward nearly 50 years and Craig found the Harley Topper in his garage and decided to restore it by painting it, replacing some parts and generally getting it back to pristine condition.

“I had a little trouble finding parts for it from Harley-Davidson dealers,” Craig said. “I don’t think Harley wanted to admit they built it.”

The Harley-Davidson Topper was the only motor scooter that the Harley-Davidson Motor Company ever produced. 

The Topper had a 165 cc single-cylinder engine mounted horizontally between the floorboards.

It was produced from 1960 to 1965 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Several years ago Craig visited the Northeast Classic Car Museum in Norwich, NY and got talking with the staff. “I thought that people ought to enjoy this,” Craig said. 

So last Wednesday, two board members from the museum came to Callicoon to pick up the Topper that Craig was donating to them.

“We have a motorcycle exhibit on site and a special exhibit called the ‘Hog Pen,’” Dick Schutt, president of the board of trustees, said. “People donate to the museum every year – everything from Classic and Vintage automobiles to motorcycles.

“We recently received a ‘57 Lincoln convertible,” Schutt said.

“We have over 200 classic cards in the museum with a huge pre-war exhibit,” he said. “It’s a world-class museum that gets nearly 20,000 visitors a year.

“We have the largest colllection of Franklin automobiles in the world,” Schutt said. “The Franklin Automobile Copmany was a marketer of automobiles in the United States from 1902  to 1934 and they were all made in Syracuse.

“We have two early electric cars in the collection,” he said. “A visit to our museum is really worth the trip.”