I have say I feel a bit guilty that I cannot even remember the fate of my converted Dragster/BMX hybrid, especially considering the new understanding we are developing regarding the sheer amount of crap we shovel into landfills every day. No doubt it sits even now, several metres below the surface of some kid’s soccer field built with the best of intentions on top of whatever landfill it ended up in, slowly leeching chemicals into the soil.
As I may have previously suggested – sucks to be the property of school
aged boys.
Whatever. At some point both it and my brother’s bike became too small/rusted/dangerous
to be ridden any more, and as Christmas rolled around sometime in the early
eighties we were both the recipients of brand new two wheeled transportation.
Here’s another thing that sucks – being the parents of ungrateful school
aged boys. See, in choosing what type of bike to purchase each of us, my parents
mistakenly attempted to apply logic to the situation. They noticed that I had
been riding my bike all over the place as time went by and quite sensibly
decided that since I seemed to quite enjoy this, the best option for me would
be a 10 speed road bike. So I could do more of this thing I seemed to enjoy
doing.
My brother on the other hand, while still riding his bike, was less
concerned with long trips to the shops or whatever and so they got him an
actual proper BMX.
To my parents, who spent not a small amount of money to purchase me a
very nice, gold, 10 speed, Apollo 2 road bike, at a time when they might quite
legitimately have spent the cash on say, paying off the house they had built
for me to grow up in, I am very very sorry for the expression that slipped onto
my face when I realised my brother had got a BMX and I had. Not.
Bloody ingrate I was. And of course they were entirely correct. I rode that
thing everywhere. Shops, movies, school. Everywhere. It had actual gears you
could use to make it go up hills fast and other ones to make you go down hills even faster.
And 30 years later I’m about to try and build my next bike whilst
riding my current one more days than not and my brother’s last bike is sitting
out back of my parents house rusting away.
So good for you Mum and Dad.
NEXT: Dirty Thieving Bastards.....
My very first bike was sadly a well intentioned misjudgement by my parents and even today I still feel regret that I was unable at the time to give the appreciation for the sentiment but I just couldn't ride the bloody thing!!
ReplyDeleteI don't really know enough about bikes to say but I believe it was a simple road bike that they'd bought second hand and in secret painted bright red. The reality for a kid who'd never actually ridden before was that it was not a comfortable bike to learn on and after several attempts it was left in the corner.
They had even got me a little toy red bike as an accessory as they were quite proud of themselves. A couple of years later I would learn on a much smaller bike (it clicked immediately) and would get a proper BMX with stunt wheels which turned out to be my pride and joy.
My wife's first bike was likewise uncomfortable in the sense that it deposited her into the back of a parked car. She did not ride for a loooooong time after that.
Delete