Although I've never been a big fan of the French, Pierre had a very big influence on my life, as I'm sure he did yours. While we as a country celebrate July 4th as independence day for our country, most of us should celebrate Pierre Michaux accomplishment for giving us our individual independence. Do you know what he did yet? Have you guessed it? OK....I should give this Frenchman his due...Pierre Michaux invented the bicycle. Elizabeth West once said of the bicycle:
"When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.
Most of us have an affection for the bicycle. Mine began at the young age of 4 when we had just moved to the city of Atlanta, to the neighborhood of paradise called Kirkwood.
One of the new things I was about to experience that I had never known before was a sidewalk...Can you imagine this..Here I was in a neighborhood with houses built in the 1920, and these developers and builders had the foresight to put sidewalks in their subdivision. Man would again discover the usefulness of the sidewalk in the 1980s but let's save the the evolution of the sidewalk for another writing and get back to the bicycle.
I had a bike, I would guess about a 12 inch model, that someone had given me. It was of course used but the one thing I remember about it was it had a rear fender. I remember the fender because I still didn't know how to balance myself on the bike so I would sit on the fender and push myself with both feet instead of pedaling. As I was riding, or pushing, myself down toward the end of the street on my new found playground called a sidewalk there was a kid about my age playing in his yard. I quickly stopped said "hi" and he came running out to see, as he called it" my neat bike." His name was Jeff and thus began our friendship. This was the first time I had ever had a boy to play with. The only person I had to play with before this was my older sister Dianne, who I remember doing real dangerous and daring things like catching bumble bees in jars, and as she had now reached the ripe old age of 12, She was discovering she liked boys her own age more than bumble bees or spending time with a pesky little brother.
Jeff and I became best friends immediately and the number of 1st time thing we did and learned together is astonishing. The First thing we learned together was to ride that 12 inch bike and thus began the start of the independent life of a boy in the city. It wasn't but a year or two later I got a bigger bike. It was used also, but with this bigger and faster bike I became a more accomplished rider and graduated to riding in the street and thus expanding my world. A couple of years later, and the biggest event of my life, at least up until that time, happened.
.
I was a 7 year old at the time. It was Christmas morning and there in the living room beside the Christmas tree was the prettiest site any 7 year old has ever seen. It was red with a gas tank like bar that distinguishes a boy's bike from a girl's bike. There was a luggage rack over the rear fender and white handlebar grips with red tassels hanging down. And maybe the neatest thing of all was the emblem on the front that said it was a "RADAR" bike. There was no mistaking it. It was a RADAR even if you spelled it backwards. The ownership of this bike a few months later lead to my first endeavor
as an independent business man. I was allowed to have a paper route with the Atlanta Journal Newspaper. In 1956 the Journal ( Afternoon paper ) and Constitution (morning paper) were totally different and separate newspapers although they were owned by the same company. At the age of 8, I was the youngest person ever allowed to have a paper route in Atlanta and was written up in the paper because of this. At the time I thought all the credit for me being able to attain this position was my RADAR bicycle, but years later realized the credit had to go to Dad for his willingness to let me try new things.
The memories of that bike are many and I will share some of them with you in future post. I often thought if I had saved all those baseball cards, instead of attaching them to the bike so the spokes hitting them would make the noise of a motorcycle, I could have retired at an early age. I'm sure I ruined some valuable baseball cards.
My bikes carried me on many journeys in my childhood. Trips to downtown Decatur and downtown Atlanta. Trips to the movies in Kirkwood on a Saturday morning with a Capitola Token in my pocket. (If you don't remember a Capitola Token, one day I'll explain. I always think of these tokens as the first coupon for kids.) There were many trips I went on. As some of these trips come back to my mind, I remember sometimes starting out going to one place and ending up at another. That's what happened today. I started out to tell you about my relationship with Jeff, my first best friend, but ended up somewhere else. In fact, not only in writing or on a bike trip but even in life do we often start out with one destination in mind and end up at a totally different place. Sometimes we get lost or simply take a wrong turn. Sometimes when we come to an intersection, the road to the left just looks more interesting. When I got that RADAR bike I thought I was receiving one of the all time best gifts ever. Only later did I realize the better gift was the opportunity of the paper route and not only the opportunity to succeed, but the opportunity to fail. Stop and think about that a minute.......The opportunity to fail....... What a great opportunity. I sure wish I had realized earlier this gift that was given to me by Dad....I would have thanked him for this opportunity he gave me.
And thus, remember this my Grandchildren:
There is nothing wrong with failing at something. In fact...it's OK to fail. The part that is wrong is not trying at all or not learning from our mistakes. Get outside of the box...
and I LOVE YOU!!!!!!
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