It's been a long time since I've written. For myself. As therapy and as a creative outlet. Maybe even just to kill time. This blog, This Old Blogger will serve as my writing buffet, with a little bit of this and a little bit of that. It won't be single focused and it won't be political, though I reserve the right to the occasional political digress. But, no longer am I focused on changing minds...mostly, I suppose, because I finally realized that most of us who read aren't looking to be changed so much as entertained.
I hope that I, This Old Blogger, can provide a tiny little spec of entertainment.
My Earliest Cycling Memory
I don't remember exactly how old I was at the time but I would have been in First Grade or younger. We lived at Mechanicsburg, PA, and I was around 6 or 7 years old when I received that reddish bike with solid rubber wheels. My memory is foggy on this, thus the description reddish. It might have been orange-ish or just had orange accents. Or no orange at all. Not that it really matters. It was a bike. My bike.
It wasn't a new bike. I had "discovered" it's hiding place several weeks (or a day or two) before my birthday party. But, none of that mattered. It was mine. It was new to me and I was excited.
The solid rubber tires have stayed with me. At the time, to my youthful perception, they added stability and strength to my bike. Obviously, it was faster because of these non-pneumatic tarmac huggers. The added heft wasn't something that caused me any grave concern back then.
I didn't realize it then.
I didn't realize it about 10 years later (which doesn't sound very long at all anymore) when I got my driver's license. I didn't even realize it around 2000 or so, when I threw my leg over a Trek 4500 hard tail mountain bike. I didn't realize it until very recently but my love and passion for all things cycling and bicycles started back with that first bike.
I'm no collector or deep-pocketed blowhard but my stable of bikes currently includes a Trek 5000 road bike, A Trek Sawyer fully-rigid mountain bike from the Gary Fisher Collection, a Globe Daily 01 single-speed city bike with basket(!) and my current daily driver: a 2014 Specialized Tarmac Expert SL4. Of course, my 9-year-old son rides a Felt Road bike (24-inch wheels) and a Trek MT mountain bike. The wife has an old Trek Navigator for trail use and a Specialized Vita in a beautiful orange. Not burnt orange or orange-ish or orange accents but a full-on Orange orange. I love her bike.
I love each of my bikes because they each have their own purpose. And each excels when used as intended.
I did it and so many other do to and I would guess that most Americans by their late teens have forgotten the joy of bicycling. I'm grateful that I'm one of the relative few who have picked it up again.
Beyond the obvious health benefits (balanced with the, hopefully obviously, risk of being on the open road) of cycling, I enjoy the ability to get around town under my own power.
There's a joy and camaraderie that comes from hanging out with fellow cyclists, whether on a leg-screaming hammerfest or a leisurely family-friendly dinner ride.
If you've been on the fence about riding a bike again, please get off said fence and dust off your old Schwinn, air the tires, lube the chain, take it for a spin and make new bicycling memories for yourself and your family.
Thank for reading and thanks for joining me.
I have other cycling memories from my childhood leading up to present day. I plan to share those with you. If you happened to stumble upon this page accidentally, I hope I didn't waste too much of your time. If you like what you read, please, subscribe and share.
