Free-wheeling
Those were the days when parents didn't worry about letting their kids outside the house. Me and my pal would wander here, there and everywhere. No-one accosted us; it seemed safe.
With four kids, my parents couldn't afford four bicycles, so we were bike-free... until...
I discovered an abandoned bicycle in the local woods, while wandering. It wasn't tip-top, but I wheeled it home, took it apart, repainted, oiled and got it to work.
Only one problem though; it was a girl's bike, without a crossbar. My brothers took the piss mercilessly, but I had a bike!
- Category: True Stories Told As Fiction
12 comments add one below
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Neville Hunt about 7 years ago
I painted it blue (for a boy), of course. :-)
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Jeff Taylor about 7 years ago
You were right. You had a bike... they didn't!! 😁
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Christopher about 7 years ago
I was blessed. I got a BMX bike with brakes on the handlebars for each tire. I can't tell you the number of times I squeezed the front tire brake instead of the rear one and wound up on the ground with the breath knocked out of me and my brand-new bike on top of me looking like it was trying to mate with me!
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Christopher about 7 years ago
Oh, great drabble, Neville. It brought back some fond (and not so fond!) memories.
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Neville Hunt about 7 years ago
Wow, Christopher, a BMX! That I could only dream of. My blue bike served me well and surviving the immature kiddy jibes was probably 'character forming' (better ask my shrink!).
Thanks, Jeff, it was particularly fun to cycle off leaving the brothers behind... and of course, after all the jibes they couldn't exactly ask me for a turn on it! Yeeha!
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Jeff Taylor about 7 years ago
Getting a bike was like getting a car. Suddenly you could get places really easily. Made me remember how excited I was with my first bike. A Raleigh Gresham Flyer.
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Christopher about 7 years ago
I wondered that as well, Drew, since Neville said that in his younger days he resembled Mr. Dylan.
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Neville Hunt about 7 years ago
Ah! I've been rumbled! The Freewheelin' album cover could have passed for me, then! Thanks for reading and commenting Drew and Christopher.
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Christopher about 7 years ago
You could've had a worse doppelganger. Dylan was just too cool back then. Still is, actually.
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Neville Hunt about 7 years ago
I love the video to the recent Duquesne Whistle; he really is so cool in that!
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Christopher about 7 years ago
I'll have to look that up. I haven't seen it yet.
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Neville Hunt about 7 years ago
Guys.... time to fess up. Drew, the Free Wheeling title was not a deliberate nod towards Mr Dylan. I was just an opportunist, claiming falsely that the coincidence was of my smartarse making. Shame on me! :-(
Now my tale is between my legs, metaphorically speaking... doggone it!
