In my family our first bike was a little blue deal that taught you to pedal but was really short. You didn't fear falling off, but you had to pump hard. Maybe 12" tires?
The next bike i remember was a brown "english tricycle" Dad called it. Like a delivery bike with a basket. Three-wheels? One in front, two in back. A city bike. Very cool.
Except that we lived on a hill!! That made it really hard, as I was 7 and 8 years old.
In college I told a guy from Atlantic City, NJ, "It is hard to live in WV. You are either biking uphill or down. And if you leave home down hill, you have to go up hill to come home. It is not like Atlantic City where everything is flat!"
In the 70s the road bike became very popular, with its narrow tires. We bought cheap ones, but Susie's was still stolen off the front porch where we thought it was hidden by the rose bush.
We had hand brakes and had to learn to change gears.
I have told you this before but my senior year in high school I took violin lessons on the East End and I sometimes rode to my lesson with my violin strapped on my back.
Try that.
Elizabeth Street.
And I took care of Jackie's four children when she was gone for two weeks, by riding to the West Side. Remind sometime to show you from where to where.
In college, in Blacksburg, Va., when I turned 20 I asked my dad to buy me a bike. Susie was there and we went to Christiansburg and bought a Schwinn. It was called the Suburban. I called it the station wagon.
My friend Martha had a sleek, expensive road bike. I had a $180 Schwinn.
The best feature of the station wagon was that I could change gears while coasting into a stop sign or stop light.
It was blue. I rode it in Nashville and then sold it to my roommate Anne Lacey when I left Nashville.
But I forgot to tell you about the Colt.
Jay Schwarz belonged on the beach. He had yellow coils of hair, got a degree in Architecture without ever designing a building, and had a Raleigh bike straight up that he called the Colt.
One day he told me about the Colt, and confessed that it didn't have a rider. What it did have was a seat covered with foam rubber and a shower cap.
He brought it to me and I became the woman who rode the Colt, trying to expain it to me friends. Picture a Raleigh straight up, brown from lack of paint, but not exactly rust, and me, happy among limestone college buildings.
Remind me to tell you about people who go to college after they have had other jobs.
1 comment:
My bikes.
In my family our first bike was a little blue deal that taught you to pedal but was really short. You didn't fear falling off, but you had to pump hard. Maybe 12" tires?
The next bike i remember was a brown "english tricycle" Dad called it. Like a delivery bike with a basket. Three-wheels? One in front, two in back. A city bike. Very cool.
Except that we lived on a hill!! That made it really hard, as I was 7 and 8 years old.
In college I told a guy from Atlantic City, NJ, "It is hard to live in WV. You are either biking uphill or down. And if you leave home down hill, you have to go up hill to come home. It is not like Atlantic City where everything is flat!"
In the 70s the road bike became very popular, with its narrow tires. We bought cheap ones, but Susie's was still stolen off the front porch where we thought it was hidden by the rose bush.
We had hand brakes and had to learn to change gears.
I have told you this before but my senior year in high school I took violin lessons on the East End and I sometimes rode to my lesson with my violin strapped on my back.
Try that.
Elizabeth Street.
And I took care of Jackie's four children when she was gone for two weeks, by riding to the West Side. Remind sometime to show you from where to where.
In college, in Blacksburg, Va., when I turned 20 I asked my dad to buy me a bike. Susie was there and we went to Christiansburg and bought a Schwinn. It was called the Suburban. I called it the station wagon.
My friend Martha had a sleek, expensive road bike. I had a $180 Schwinn.
The best feature of the station wagon was that I could change gears while coasting into a stop sign or stop light.
It was blue. I rode it in Nashville and then sold it to my roommate Anne Lacey when I left Nashville.
But I forgot to tell you about the Colt.
Jay Schwarz belonged on the beach. He had yellow coils of hair, got a degree in Architecture without ever designing a building, and had a Raleigh bike straight up that he called the Colt.
One day he told me about the Colt, and confessed that it didn't have a rider. What it did have was a seat covered with foam rubber and a shower cap.
He brought it to me and I became the woman who rode the Colt, trying to expain it to me friends. Picture a Raleigh straight up, brown from lack of paint, but not exactly rust, and me, happy among limestone college buildings.
Remind me to tell you about people who go to college after they have had other jobs.
Love,
Mom
Post a Comment