Fifty Fridays #25

Bicycles.  Every kid wants to ride one when they see the bigger ones flying by.  I can remember how I longed for a bike when I was about seven.  That's when my best friend got hers.  She could whiz down the road so fast!  She tried to teach me and I remember ending up in a ditch.  Terrified that I had broken her bike.  Even more terrified to try again.  Our bikes then were very big for our size and we could just reach the pedals enough to make them work.  The rider had to sit up straight to hold the handlebars.  Hardly surprising that balance was difficult to achieve. But I did learn to ride.  And I did - and do - enjoy that flying sensation.

My mother loved her bike as well.  I know there was a photo of Mom as a teenager standing by her bike but I don't seem to have it.  She spent some time one summer cycling from Weymouth to Wolfeville.  It must have been a huge adventure.  I remember - vaguely - her telling me about it.  The story that sticks more in my mind is the one which explained the tiny blue dots that she had under the skin of one knee.  When she was little and learning to ride, she ran into a  parked car and fell on the road.  The dots were grit left in her leg.  I'm pretty sure she told me the story to comfort me when I thought I would never get the hang of bikes. And to encourage me to get up and try again.

As you can see, my mother loved to get on a bike from a very early age.  Here she is with her three big brothers: Howard, Seymour and Ira.  No chance of falling with that much support.  I believe the photo was taken in or around Pugwash given its farm-like setting.    I'm just not sure and there's no indication on the back of the picture. 

I always think of bikes and spring together.  Somehow, the weather is better for bike riding then.  There was no riding in the rain when I was a girl.  Of course, as I remember my childhood, there were no rainy days.  Fog, yes.  Snow, yes.  But no rain.  Really.  And I grew up in and around Vancouver..my memory must be very selective.