Tommy and I were watching "Frasier" where Niles and Frasier learn as grown men to ride bikes. I told Tommy I got my first bike on my sixth birthday. I asked him when he got his first bike.
Unbelievably, he said he was a senior in high school. That was shocking as I knew they could well afford a bike when he was younger. And, they were kind, caring parents. Well, this led to more shocking revelations. His father did not want Tommy and his brother, one year younger, to ride bikes because he was afraid a car would hit one of them.
I thought this was bizarre. However, he had ridden the bikes belonging to friends. But, he was always blocks away at a friend's house. He rode in the street and never died. I was amazed that he never had a bike until he mowed yards in high school and saved his money to purchase a bike.
He then told me his father bought Tommy and his one-year younger brother shotguns when they were ten and eleven. I was shocked! However, Tommy said they had been shooting his pistol and over and under rifle/shotgun since Tommy had started school. I was reeling with all this.
The story I was telling Tommy was that I fell off my bike one day and hurt myself so badly that I left the bike in the big rocks in the road and walked home, crying loudly. The street was in a paved area, but it was a loop off the main road and had no pavement. The rocks were irregular and the size of golf balls or larger. It really hurt to fall off into that road. Daddy had to go get my bike from the road.
As a teen, I loved to ride my bike along a country road. I would ride fast and loved the wind in my hair. When I was pregnant the first time, I rode on the isolated area along a road of a not fully developed area. When I went to the doctor for pregnancy checks, he told me my neighbors told him I was on my bike when I was eight months along. He said they told him to tell me to quit riding a bike. I asked him if he thought I should quit and he said he did not think so. I rode my bike until the week before I gave birth.
My first bike was pink and I got it for a birthday present when I was six. All four of my younger siblings learned on my little pink bike. I never got another new bike, but did get a used bike that Daddy painted blue. I rode that bike into my 30s.
When did you or your child or sibling get a first bike? Tell me your bike stories if you will. Did you ever fall and hurt yourself?
