Friday, June 10, 2011

Friday Memories - My First Ride


This story in the Daily Camera reminded me of this semi-fond childhood memory.

I was 5 or 6, had just finally learned to ride a 2-wheeled bike, and spent an entire Saturday (no joke, I am not sure I stopped for anything but lunch) riding up and down our street in front of the house. It was awesome. I remember (this is one of my earliest memories) thinking "this is like flying!"

It was so much fun that I wondered what it would be like to ride *with my eyes closed* for just a minute, just to feel the gliding sensation even better.

The next thing I knew, I was in the bed (luckily the tailgate was down) of our neighbor's ghetto-ass lowrider truck (this is New Mexico in the 80s, what can I say...) I wasn't hurt, but I was terrified, and I started sobbing uncontrollably and ran inside - where my father asked me what had happened.

I knew that there was no way this horrible tragedy could be my fault, so I said the first thing that came to mind, and a quote that Sarah still mocks me with today: "It's not fair!"

Yes, indeed. It was not fair. But that was how my life of cycling began, with an ambush by a stealth lowrider.

2 comments:

LeeAB said...

"not fair", at least you were actually riding. My first memories of a bike are being released at the top of a short hill by my mom, my dad waiting at the bottom, and rolling straight into the corner of a very stationary dumpster.

Mission said...

Very funny! I did the same but avoided the lowrider, and hit a mailbox on my street.