Today is the day.
Today holds so much promise.
My Dad is going to be my best friend.
He bought me a little red Schwinn bike and himself a Schwinn Flyer.
Now he is going to spend some time with me and we are going to have fun riding bikes together.
But before we can go riding I have to learn how to ride the bike first.
My dad thinks only sissies use training wheels so he said I don’t need them.
So we go down to Finkbiner park to learn to ride.
Just in case I fall down he decides that he needs to start me out on the grass of the baseball diamond.
He shows me how to sit on a bike explaining that you hold the handlebars like this.
Then you put your foot on one pedal while you get ready to start pumping as you have to keep moving forward so as not to fall over, now you are ready to go and I will give you a little push to help you start out so don’t forget that you steer by turning the handlebars and if you want to stop you have to reverse your leg motion and stomp down on the pedal.
I start out from launch keeping the bake upright but I have to use considerable force to propel the bike through the grass.
I must use the strength in my upper body to compensate the force of my leg propelling the pedal as I tightly grip the bicycle handlebars.
It is awkward pushing down with one leg and compensating with the opposite arm.
I am getting the hang of this and beginning to feel confident as I apply more strength and straighten out my wobbly course through the grass.
This is fun ! I feel like I am flying ! Oh no!
I have practically crossed the entire baseball diamond starting from the center outfield and am heading for the dugout.
Fear holds my little hands in stasis as just keeping upright as been my entire locus of concern.
Frozen I peddle full speed into the chain link fence lining the dugout.
Naturally my dad yells at me but luckily the belt doesn’t come flying off this time.
He tells me how stupid I am for not listening to his description of physical action and properly applying it in physical reality.
I tell him I didn’t know how to turn or use the brakes through tears.
We never really went bike riding together.
When I was in four grade I stripped all the extra weight off Dad’s Schwinn Flyer and started riding up to the mountains to explore along the streams.
athbhreith athbheochan 