Railroad tracks, a highway, and a tractor.

As a kid, did you ride a bicycle? Tell us about the bike, where you rode it, who you rode with, etc. Did you continue riding bikes as a grown-up?

When I was younger (6-10) I loved to ride my bike. I had a set area that I was allowed to ride my bike when I was by myself. It was a few blocks radius. Our house was in the middle. Gloria’s house was at the right end, she was my cousins’ grandma. Aunt Krista was at the left end. We knew just about everyone in the neighborhood at the time. Our yard was usually the one full of neighborhood kids’ bikes since they were often playing baseball in our backyard. We had the biggest yard and all the equipment (the bases, several balls, and several different bats, mitts, etc.

My sister is nine years older than me so when she went with me, I didn’t have restrictions on where I could ride my bike. I don’t remember going too far with her though. I remember she wrecked her bike going over railroad tracks and had gravel lodged in her knee. I don’t think she rode a bike often after that. If I went with my older brothers we were allowed to ride down between the railroad tracks that were over the small hill (the highway was on the other side of that) and Garfield School. We were always told not to go over those railroad tracks. One day, my older brothers were going out riding and I asked my mom if I could go with them. She looked at my brothers, “Don’t go over the tracks.” Then looked at me, “Stay with your brothers.”

My brothers were friends with a boy who lived on the other side of those tracks, right next to the highway. So when they went over the tracks, I followed them. I knew we shouldn’t have gone. I could have gone back home, after all those tracks were only 3 1/2 blocks from my house. It isn’t like I didn’t know the way home from there. We weren’t there long, I think my brothers were just seeing if their friend was home and if he wanted to hang out. By the time we got home, our mom already knew what we had done. Immediately, the three of us were grounded. I argued that I should not be in trouble since I stayed with my brothers like I was told to do. Mom pointed out that I knew we were not allowed to go by the highway without an adult so I was grounded too.

We had bikes on the farm. They didn’t belong to anyone, except Grandma and Grandpa. All the grandkids rode them. We rose those around the yard, down the ditches, and sometimes down the gravel road. Typically, I looped a big loop around the yard. I went down the driveway, between the garage and the house, out by the apple trees, along the fence to the pasture, to the back of the house, down the little ditch between the house and the path the to barnyard, and back up the driveway.

I got my own pair of roller skates when I was about eleven or twelve. I didn’t ride my bike much after that.

I don’t recall any specific bike that I had except for the little Ford tractor. All of my siblings and I started out on this little tractor (instead of a tricycle). We all loved it. Then all of my kids rode around on it as well. We still have it. It is in the garage at my parents’ house, waiting for their great-grandkids to ride it as well. That was the best “bike” I ever had.

My son Quinlan riding the same tractor I rode as a kid.

Is there something special that was handed down from your childhood to your kids?