Rusty But WonderfulSidetracked Sisters

I don’t remember that my first bike was an important item to the rest of the family as it was to me. You see, my older sister was a bookworm, not into physical activities such as bike riding. I, on the other hand, loved to be outside and really loved to ride bikes, scooters, and roller skates. In order for me to accomplish bike riding I actually had to go to a neighbor’s house who had adult children who left an old rusty bike in her garage. She graciously let me ride this bike almost on a daily basis.

After begging on my part my father finally purchased this bike from the neighbor for the large sum of $10.00. I was absolutely thrilled. I didn’t even mind that it was rusty, didn’t have handlebar grips, and just had the bare necessities such as a seat, handlebars, and two wheels. Well, my dad actually went the extra nine yards and painted this bike blue with silver handlebars and handlebar grips. Now, this was wonderful.

I rode that bike all my childhood years until for some reason my dad actually purchased a bicycle built for two.

My younger sister and I had a great time riding all over town on this bike. We would like to look at houses (imagine that) and gossip all the while riding either in the front or back of each other. The one in the front actually did most of the work as the one in the back could fudge peddling until it was noticed by the front rider that the peddling was getting kind of hard. I remember one time riding my oldest daughter on this bike when she was very little. One of the neighbors brought it to my attention that I should note that while I was peddling my butt off she was doing calisthenics on the back.