I wish I still had my gold one with the speedometer. It was the fastest bicycle in town. She was proven in street races. Many of my best memories were made on that old bike. I would ride it to school almost every day that the weather was nice. After school I always made a pit stop at Darden Pharmacy to get a cherry coke, or sometimes vanilla. Then for the wonderful ride home down Old Distillery Road toward the lake. If I peddled hard for about a quarter mile I could coast for a mile. If I wanted to work a little harder I would peddle down the hill too and see how fast I could go. I could coast all the way to Distillery Road sometimes, but I always had to peddle up the hill that crested in front of the driveways of Herschel and Thelma Grace, and Buck and Melba Justice. One day I got to going almost 40 mph and actually passed an old guy on a tractor! He let out a loud $*%&#^@ as I roared by laughing. How I miss those days, oh such freedom ! I remember riding my bike to Rays barbershop for a haircut after school one day in the Spring of 1970; the same day the tornado roared through Robertson County, destroying homes, churches and barns. Mom sure was relieved when Ray called her to tell her I was ok. At least she was until he told her we were taking his car up the highway to see if we could see where the tornado came across Hwy 41. We were sitting in a line of traffic that ran from Experiment Station Road all the way back past the Moonlight Drive-in and the old truck stop, when the Channel 4 and Channel 5 live action cams news vans flew down the shoulder of the road with their emergency lights going. Well me and old Ray got close enough to see some big trees down and he decided we oughta head back to the shop. That was a day when I peddled all the way home, nearly 2 miles. The sky was still gray and the air was charged with ozone energy. At little boy prayed a lot that day too. I was sad to learn that my buddy Eddie Dorris had lost their house. I saw his picture on the front page of the newspaper that morning. School was dismissed for a day or two so I made a sign with that newspaper and stood out by the road with a coffee can taking up money for Eddie. A few people stopped and gave and I was able to give him a whole $10 when we went back to school. Felt good to give, it made for a peaceful ride home that day. The old bike had almost 700 miles when the speedometer broke. I wish I know what happened to that old bike. Memories light the corners of my mind, mistly water color memories, of the way we were.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 01:34:29 +0000
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