Originally Posted by
Roody
Nice story.! The pride and happiness certainly does show in your face.
I just read--in Wired magazine of all places--that you should ride a bike like an 11 year old. Just ride for fun and to get where you want to go!
I remember when I was 10 or 11, riding with a couple friends on the square mile of roads around our house in suburban Detroit. I remember that when I was almost home, I slid out on wet blacktop and was covered with black goo and gravel from head to toe. An old man rinsed me off with his hose, but I still needed a kerosene bath when I got home.
But that mishap didn't spoil it for me. I've had a lot of accomplishments in my life, but none made me prouder than that 4 mile ride with no adults and no real clear idea of where we were going.
(For those of you who know Detroit--11 Mile Rd. to Dequindre to 12 Mile to John R. At that time, in the mid-1960s, there were even a couple farmhouses still standing along the route!)
So true. The child mind!
I have been riding with the child mind for quite some time and always appreciate others' discussing their child mind riding and childhood experiences. I do know my bicycles went from an open cockpit aeroplane to a stallion to a sports car in a mere flash of a thought. I enjoy the sense of flying that my bicycles give me and like to play when I get to parking lots or open areas. It almost demands "playing". And yes the early years of exploration on a bicycle are unparalleled in terms of their mark on our psychie and our memory bank.