Every body had a bicycle but some had really nice ones. At least that was my take on it. I remember Larry, my brother, had a white Schwinn and I had a red one but not sure if it was a Schwinn. Billy Snyder had one of those fancy racing bicycles with thin wheels verses my fat wheels. It was always a challenge when you lived on a farm as there were stickers which would put holes in your tires so it seemed we were always fixing flat tires.
I remember that dad tried and tried to help me ride a bike but I was just was too clumsy. He would hold the bike while I tried to get on but as soon as he would push me to get started then let go I would fall over. Finally one day he put up two steel posts (actually they were wood posts as steel posts/T posts were not around yet) just far enough apart so that my rear tire would fit in between. This made it stable enough that I could climb on the bike and then take off. Probably one of the reasons I had so much trouble learning to ride a bike is that I was big for my age. To put it in a nice way, I was huge for my age. In the second grade I was over five foot tall and clumsy as can possibly be. I tried over and over to ride that bike and mostly struggling to get on it and get started before falling on the gravel. I tried to do it on grass but it was so hard to move on the grass that it was next to impossible but certainly easier on the knees and elbows. Using my dad's new invention I could get started and of course the faster I went the easier it was but ultimately I had to stop and that was disaster for a long time. I really did not care about the loss of blood because it was too important to conquer the bike. Ultimately I won but there was another problem. You probably are asking yourself why I did not use trainer wheels. Two reasons: The first is they bent when I fell over and I tore them up and second it was too expensive to keep buying more training wheels.
You see we lived on the dead end of a road one mile north and three west of Grainola on Beaver Creek. What that meant was to get anywhere I had to go up three hills and down three hills all covered in loose gravel to get where there was a choice on direction/an intersection of roads. Of course these were public roads and cars, trucks and animals all used them. If you are not from cattle country you don't know that there always seemed to be a calf, steer or cow out on the road or Vea Harris had lots of white geese that possessed the road. The good thing is usually you could see the dust in the air of a vehicle coming and you knew to get out of the way. Keep in mind the gravel roads were really one lane and you had to get over to the edge to let someone get by. I never gave it any thought but it was dangerous but I never knew of anyone getting hit by a car or truck. There were plenty of bike wrecks as once Larry bit the dust going down hill and had terrible cuts and bruises and it took weeks for him to heel.
But overall bicycles were freedom for us. Eddy Harris and I were always getting together for some sort of mischief. Of course you know if you have been reading my blogs for long that one of our favorite sports was gathering the eggs and throwing them. We got in a lot of trouble for that. One thing about Eddy and I is we were good at thinking up stuff to do. You will probably think we are crazy but Eddy and I figured out how to get rid of the giant piles of red ants. If you have never seen them you have no idea but they were big and there were thousands of ants. Well Eddy and I figured that if we got some gasoline (we tried diesel but it was not as much fun) and pour it down the hole we could lite it like a volcano. Don't try this as you will need to get licensed and certified and inspected by the United States government and pay some fees then fight for years to get permission and in the end you will lose your right to freedom of speech and it will probably violate someones personal rights. Was that political?
Eddy and I were never the sharpest rocks in the pile and besides a blind squirrel gets lucky every now and then and finds a nut but we were creative. I don't know if anyone taught us how but we could fix flats on those bicycles better than about anyone and we soon learned to fix regular tires as well from all the pickups, tractors, trucks and bicycles. It was especially easy when the Harris's got a tire repair machine like they had at the Duval Gas Station in Shidler.
Anyway, this was about the time we were 9 years old which will probably really shock you but we would try anything for fun. Our friendship never ended and now that Eddy has passed I still like to think about all of our good times like when we went prairie chicken hunting in the back of a flat bed pickup chasing the birds and shooting while driving. We never did kill any that way but it was a heck of a ride. Just for you we were probably half way grown by then, close to 13 or 14 years old.
Back to bicycles: My love for bikes and riding those gravel roads lasted even after I got my first car. Yes, my first vehicle was a car and not a pickup (truck for you city folks and again, yes, I am one now).
So what do you learn in the Osage?
gary@thepioneerman.com
www.thepioneerman.blogspot.com
I remember that dad tried and tried to help me ride a bike but I was just was too clumsy. He would hold the bike while I tried to get on but as soon as he would push me to get started then let go I would fall over. Finally one day he put up two steel posts (actually they were wood posts as steel posts/T posts were not around yet) just far enough apart so that my rear tire would fit in between. This made it stable enough that I could climb on the bike and then take off. Probably one of the reasons I had so much trouble learning to ride a bike is that I was big for my age. To put it in a nice way, I was huge for my age. In the second grade I was over five foot tall and clumsy as can possibly be. I tried over and over to ride that bike and mostly struggling to get on it and get started before falling on the gravel. I tried to do it on grass but it was so hard to move on the grass that it was next to impossible but certainly easier on the knees and elbows. Using my dad's new invention I could get started and of course the faster I went the easier it was but ultimately I had to stop and that was disaster for a long time. I really did not care about the loss of blood because it was too important to conquer the bike. Ultimately I won but there was another problem. You probably are asking yourself why I did not use trainer wheels. Two reasons: The first is they bent when I fell over and I tore them up and second it was too expensive to keep buying more training wheels.
You see we lived on the dead end of a road one mile north and three west of Grainola on Beaver Creek. What that meant was to get anywhere I had to go up three hills and down three hills all covered in loose gravel to get where there was a choice on direction/an intersection of roads. Of course these were public roads and cars, trucks and animals all used them. If you are not from cattle country you don't know that there always seemed to be a calf, steer or cow out on the road or Vea Harris had lots of white geese that possessed the road. The good thing is usually you could see the dust in the air of a vehicle coming and you knew to get out of the way. Keep in mind the gravel roads were really one lane and you had to get over to the edge to let someone get by. I never gave it any thought but it was dangerous but I never knew of anyone getting hit by a car or truck. There were plenty of bike wrecks as once Larry bit the dust going down hill and had terrible cuts and bruises and it took weeks for him to heel.
But overall bicycles were freedom for us. Eddy Harris and I were always getting together for some sort of mischief. Of course you know if you have been reading my blogs for long that one of our favorite sports was gathering the eggs and throwing them. We got in a lot of trouble for that. One thing about Eddy and I is we were good at thinking up stuff to do. You will probably think we are crazy but Eddy and I figured out how to get rid of the giant piles of red ants. If you have never seen them you have no idea but they were big and there were thousands of ants. Well Eddy and I figured that if we got some gasoline (we tried diesel but it was not as much fun) and pour it down the hole we could lite it like a volcano. Don't try this as you will need to get licensed and certified and inspected by the United States government and pay some fees then fight for years to get permission and in the end you will lose your right to freedom of speech and it will probably violate someones personal rights. Was that political?
Eddy and I were never the sharpest rocks in the pile and besides a blind squirrel gets lucky every now and then and finds a nut but we were creative. I don't know if anyone taught us how but we could fix flats on those bicycles better than about anyone and we soon learned to fix regular tires as well from all the pickups, tractors, trucks and bicycles. It was especially easy when the Harris's got a tire repair machine like they had at the Duval Gas Station in Shidler.
Anyway, this was about the time we were 9 years old which will probably really shock you but we would try anything for fun. Our friendship never ended and now that Eddy has passed I still like to think about all of our good times like when we went prairie chicken hunting in the back of a flat bed pickup chasing the birds and shooting while driving. We never did kill any that way but it was a heck of a ride. Just for you we were probably half way grown by then, close to 13 or 14 years old.
Back to bicycles: My love for bikes and riding those gravel roads lasted even after I got my first car. Yes, my first vehicle was a car and not a pickup (truck for you city folks and again, yes, I am one now).
So what do you learn in the Osage?
- Growing up is not hard to do but it can be hard on the folks
- Children today need to live in the country and grow up with an opportunity to have clean fun
- You can take a kid out of the country but you cannot take the country out of the kid
gary@thepioneerman.com
www.thepioneerman.blogspot.com
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