Taking Risks

I have no idea why this image popped into my mind, but it stayed there just long enough to ruminate. I often think I should carry a pad and pencil around with me like a geek and write down the things that invade my thoughts.

I was driving my oldest daughter to Starbucks for an after dinner Tazo and stroll through the town square, when we passed a boy on a bike. What caught my attention was that he was guzzling down something from a bottle as he rode down the street. No hands on the wheel, just drinking and pedaling. He was perfectly balanced on the bike,at impulse power quenching his thirst. No hands!

I laughed out loud and my daughter asked me what was funny. I realized she was looking out her window in the opposite direction, oblivious to the biker. I told her what I had seen and how it reminded me of the days when I had mastered riding my ten speed with my hands up in the air.

In the town where I spent my teens, there were a series of three hills descending from my house for a mile and a half to the end. The first hill was the steepest. I would pedal as hard as I could in tenth gear until I was flying down the first hill. By the time I took my hands off of the bar and put them up into the air, I was traveling at 35 miles per hour.

It was exhilarating. It was also extremely risky. When I was twelve, I thought that bad things only happened to other people. I firmly believed that I was not going to crash as I raced madly down that hill. I think every boy goes through this time in his life when he believes that he is invincible. Crashing was not something I even thought about.

We didn?t wear bike helmets in the 70s. There were no laws and I am not even sure I had ever seen anyone wear one. I would not consider letting my 14 year old son go out without one. I wear a helmet while riding my Sears $99 wonder bike!

I grew up in the age when we traveled in the back of a Volkswagen bug in what we called the “well.” It was a space that barely fit two children between the back of the rear seat and the engine (which was in the back). It was a death trap. One good hit from the rear and? Well I won?t go there.

More tomorrow.