 freedom is road seldom traveled. Friday, July 13, 2007 jeezuz, remember when? when you were a wee gommet? no work, no bills, no timeclocks, no worries? you were free for the most part to spend your days in the elusive quest for fun. that quest ramped up intensely when you procured your first real set of wheels. no, not your car, before then, i'm yakking about your first real mode of transport. your bike. most of us prolly mastered the art of biking between the ages of 5 and 7 sometime in one of the summers of that period in our life where we were learning to read, to write, to think and to express ourselves. learning to haul your own ass was just part of the glee of discovery. my first whip was a Schwinn Speedster. the kid's size. red. red and white seat. training wheels. first the pair, then only the right one, then a push down the hill on the sidewalk. made it near the bottom before catching the tire in the groove between sidewalk and yard and, well, you can guess the rest. i only got to ride this one on weekends. it was a hand-me-down that stayed at my dad's house. nonetheless, it gave me freedom from the hum of suburbia and from spending time with people i didn't really know. i developed my skills, i pondered getting a 'real' bike that was really mine...of course, that wasn't to come until xmas. western flyer buzz bike. purple. purple metal flake banana seat. purple metal flake hand grips. white striped tires and of course, the back tire was a 'slick.' my papaw added a speedometer as well. i loved this bike. it lasted about two weeks into its first summer. my mom ran over it while it was parked in front of the house in plain sight. i was devastated. she actually screamed at me after doing it, like it was my fault. she was in her own world and just plowed over it parking at the curb...ugh. my papaw got how important this freedom-giver had become to me. it took a couple weeks but he came through and when he did he came through with quite an upgrade. a schwinn orange krate...this bike lasted for at lease 5 years before i made the jump to a road racer style bike when that trend hit. the krate was how i became what i became. a loner. i rode that bike all over georgetown. i customized it with baseball and football cards. i kept it clean, i babied it, i limited who could ride it. fuck a dog being man's best friend, i'd say hands down, a boy's best friend is his bike. boy atop his bike. Comment (9) | Permalink |
