My First BIke

MY FIRST BIKE



Back in the 40's, when I was abut nine or ten, I wanted a bike. I was the youngest of three boys and none of us had a bike. My parents just could not afford one and since I was the oldest, there was no hand me down.

I was getting fifty cents a week allowance. At least when I did all my chores without complaining I did. This I would use for my movies and candy and such. A movie was around 15 cents and a regular popcorn was a dime. My parents decided that if I saved half the money for a new bike they would go the other half.

Up the hill from our house and on the main street there was a small hardware owned by Mr Simmons. Simmons hardware it was called. Neat Huh?

My dad took me up there to see what he had. I can still remember that day and that hardware. I can remember the look of it and the smell of it. You know the smells of rubber and three and one oil and all.

We walked in and right in front of us were all these shiny new bikes!! I could not believe it! I had never even rode a bike as there were not many of my friends that owned one.

We were rather poor but we didn't really feel poor as I remember. Heck nobody had much. We lived in a basement house with no indoor plumbing, which was fine. We were the only ones with the basement house but many of my friends had outhouses too. We didn't feel deprived. That was just the way it was back then.

Back then not every kid had a bike either. The rich kids did, at least the ones we thought of as the rich kids. Skip Doyle and maybe the Dryer girls but they were sorta snobby, the girls were and skip was an overgrown bully.

I remember when my mother was pregnant with my brother skip. My mother wanted a girl but me and my brother Gary told her we wanted another brother. She asked why and we told her that he could help us whip Skip Doyle. She just didn't understand that. Skip was such a nice boy. We got our wish and it never worked out that we whipped Skip. The jerk ended up being a Police Captain in Pontiac and is now retired and rich. Inherited daddy's money. The Jerk.

Anyway back to the story. Mr Simmons came up and asked what we were interested in. I blurted out, "A new bike!" He pointed them out but I was already looking them over. It was like a dang dream. There must have been six or seven different styles of bikes. That meant there were six or seven bikes in the store. The store was small and back then they didn't stock many, just one for you to look at and then he would order one after you chose.

They were beautiful in my eyes and I can still see them. Actually I can only see one and it was a beauty. It was red and blue and had a chain guard and a basket and even had a horn on the double bar that was between your legs! An electric horn, not a silly thing with a rubber bulb you squeezed but a real electric Horn!

It was a twenty inch bike, I can not remember the brand and it was beautiful, in my eyes. I wanted it and I wanted it now but it was not gonna work like that.

I saw that my dad and Mr Simmons were getting a kick out of and they kept asking if I was sure and didn't I think the color was sorta sissy and such but I didn't care! There were even fancy colored string things hanging out of the handle grips. Skip Doyle didn't eve have them on his dumb old bike!!

Mr Simmons asked if I wanted to take it out front to see how it fit me and I said, "Hell yes I do" Well that about ruined the deal right there. My dad could curse like a trooper but no kid of his was gonna. Right :D

Well my dad pushed the bike out front and I sat on it. He said to take it for a spin. Take it for a spin? Heck I never rode a bike in my life and had no clue how to set one. I tried but kept falling over. I didn't try much because I was afraid I would scratch the bike but it was enough to just set on that beautiful blue and white bike.

When we went back in I was all excited. I had a bike and wanted to take it home. It was not how it was gonna happen though. My dad said I could have the bike as soon as I came up with half the money. That came to 16 dollars. Sixteen dollars was an incredible amount of money back in the 40's but it was the deal. My allowance was fifty cents, as I said and it would only take me 32 weeks to save the money!! :yikes: Thirty Two Weeks?? Man that was all summer!! My dad said it was over a half a year and I had better get to saving! Oh man what a pain.

All I could think about was that dang bike and most every day I would find some reason to go by Simmons Hardware to look at it. I took my friends up to see it. One at a time so I could see it more times. :D and they loved it. It was almost mine as I already had saved two dollars!!

I told my grandma and everyone else that I wanted money for Christmas. Back then our dream Christmas presents were Lincoln Logs and maybe an erector set. This was a little before slinkies and the gyroscopes came out so I could not wish for them. :D

I hunted for pop bottles which were worth two cents each and slowly the money added up. One problem was I still wanted to see Tom Mix and Roy Rogers and Gene and Johnny Mac Brown and I sure loved popcorn.:huh::huh:

Fall came and winter and I saved, sorta. I kept going up to Simmons Hardware and dreaming about MY bike. I was always worried that someone else would buy it but it never happened. I didn't understand about ordering and shipping and such but was sure someone would take my bike. Probably Skip Doyle. He was too big for a twenty inch though I figured.

It became spring and I still had not enough money. I was within a few bucks but it was slow going, with popcorn and such but it was adding up. I had one of those amber glass piggy banks and every few days I would take it under my covers with a kitchen knife and take out my money. You know, you could fish it out through the slot with the knife. I would count it and it was slowly growing. I sure the heck wished I didn't love popcorn though!

It became spring and soon school was out for the summer. Still I didn't have enough for a bike. I can not remember how much I had but I was a few dollars short. I think I was getting discouraged a bit.

One day and I remember it well, I was playing over at the Reynolds. They were neighbor kids who lived three houses away. We could see our house from there. As I said our house was a basement house and the roof was only three feet or so above ground level. I don't know what made me look toward home, maybe it was Eugene or Nadine Reynolds pointing or maybe I just looked but I could see my dad, on the other side of the house. Well I could see him from mid shoulder up moving from left to right but I could tell he was not walking. He was too short but he was moving smoothly. It looked odd.

All of a sudden I was a running toward home and yelling!! I just knew he was on a bike! My bike!! How could that be? I did not have enough money yet but he was on a dang bike!

I came a running around the corner and he was coming toward me grinning like a possum eating crap! He said, "What you yelling about boy?" I was half laughing and half crying and really tickled, as you can imagine.

He got off and said get on boy. And I got on. He gave a shove and I went a couple feet and fell down. I still did not know how to ride a dang bike!

My parents had finally payed the thing off and picked it up. I still had to pay them the money I owed on it, a couple bucks but it went faster as I had a basket and could hunt the bottles faster. I would take them to Larsons Store and trade them in and the money went home to my mother. What a summer that was.

It did not take me long to learn to ride that bike either. That is just something a young kid was meant to do.

I hope you enjoy this little post as much as I have enjoyed dragging up the memories.