That reminds me of my first bike that I got at the age of maybe 7 or 8. Mom must have found it for $3 at a garage sale. it was a typical single speed coaster brake dirt bike that the previous owner, or perhaps pilferer, had sloppily spray-painted over completely black.

I abused the crud out of it, riding it over everything and into everything. needless to say, I was frequently getting flats. well, Mom wasn't about to pay someone to fix my broken toy, so she opted to present me with a patch kit, the kind with the glue, patches, and a scuffing tool (that has been replaced by sandpaper in today's kits I figure) and left me to my own devices.

after figuring out the instructions in the kit, I dug up some screwdrivers from around the house and used them as crude tire levers. it wasn't until years later that I saw a real tire lever for the first time, and until then I'm not certain that I even knew they made tools specifically for that purpose. I ended up getting pretty fast at fixing my flats that way, probably in part because of how frequently I was causing them. somewhat amusingly, I don't recall ever getting a new tube, but I do recall a tube that eventually seemed like it was mostly made up of patches.

a few years later I got into video games. I don't remember much after that.