my big ole Schwinn bicycle
it weighed as much as I did. that's probably not true, but I could just barely pick it up when it was delivered. I say "when it was delivered" because one evening delivery men from Sears showed up and carried the bicycle to my granddaddy's porch and presented him with the bill. "I didn't order this," he said. somewhere else in Baton Rouge, some kid who'd gone to a lot of trouble to order a maroon and cream bicycle with white-wall tires and a tear-drop-shaped "tank" between the crossbars that showed it was a boy's bicycle was very disappointed. where was his bicycle? the Sears guys arrived and delivered the bicycle and presented the bill to my granddaddy and he was going to send it back! I begged and I pleaded and I danced my excitement, and my granddaddy grumbled and grumped and gruffed but gave in and bought the damned bicycle. that meant he and my mother and even my father had to spend time teaching me to ride the damned thing. I don't remember that part, except that we did it across the street in the Dufroq School's huge playground after all the kids and teachers were gone. and one day I could ride! I was wobbly and I fell and I got back up and on and was gone again. for a long while I was supposed to ride it just there, since no other kids meant I couldn't hurt anyone else. of course I broke that rule, and rode it around the block where we lived. and I did just fine until some poor soul backed their car out in front of me and I couldn't stop in time. damn.we had to replace my front wheel and front fender. I was so annoyed! the new fender almost matched the maroon and cream of the rest of the bicycle. and then another day some poor baby half my age walked out in front of me. oh geez! the baby didn't bend my front wheel or twist my fender, and I was damned lucky that I didn't hurt the baby either. what an unfortunate way to learn how dangerous the world is! for the baby and for me both. I think we must have left the bicycle with my granddaddy when we sashayed off to Brasil. but when the family got back together and moved to Clovis, New Mexico, pretty soon it showed up again, big and heavy and prone to bicycle-chain failures. that's not quite right. the bicycle chain itself never failed me, but it slid off the sprockets often. I was so glad when the bicycle mechanic showed me how to fix the chain myself! I explored nearly all of Clovis on that Schwinn! I explored a lot of near-Clovis on that Schwinn! it made possible my first paper route! and then we moved to Albuquerque, and I explored the neighborhood on that Schwinn. it didn't last very long in Albuquerque though.I was in the eighth grade when we arrived there, and I quickly learned that it wasn't cool. I had no idea what cool was, but I was very clear that I didn't want to be not cool. one day I parked it in the garage and just never took it out again. but damn! it sure carried me through a lot of growing up in this country!
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