Bicycling.

I love bicycling even as a kid.  One of the earliest memory with bicycling was as a kid,  8 or so, I tried to give my little sister a ride on the back of the bike and she fell off and now she still has a scar on her Achilles.  I think this was before Park Side, I can't remember the exact time.  I do remembered one of the earliest bike I got was one of these that my parents bought from the flea market:

and they were gay as hell...
But when you were like 10 and  FOB it's no big.
I think the thing that was most aggravating at the time was not that it looks gay, nor that you have to press back to brake and but that the stem and handle were super shitty, I mean who doesn't like to hop on sidewalks and pop wheelies if you're a boy.  But what ends up happening is that the handles would slip loose and eventually roll around in the stem after a couple of hard wheelies.  I remembered that Huffy BMX was the shit, but it cost like $100 and these were like $20 at the flea market, so needless to say, all us Asian kids in Park side were rocking one of these.
Yet we went everywhere with it, we used to ride from Ivy Lane to Market st general store  for fun, on a one speed bike, that looks gay...on the crazy Harrisburg streets...with flip flops, shorts, tee shirts, of course no helmets-those are for puss.
I think the thing with bicycling is similar to the notion of owning a car, the concept of being able to go anywhere our hearts desire whenever, wherever we want to.  It's also a social tool as kids would get together and we would ride to places together, shooting the shit.  These were the best times...but it could be better on a 10-speed bike.

All that changed one day, I think this was when I was touched by an angel because this one day in Park Side, a guy was throwing away his mountain bike, I remembered it very specifically, it was a yellow Murray Mountain bike w/like... gears...I mean that's insane!  To this day I'm convinced that was an angel, and he was just throwing it away (who throws away a working bike in the projects?!), so of course I asked if I can have it and the angel gave it to me.  Man I felt so awesome, multiple speeds (it was so fast!), line brakes, a non rotating handle/stem, I felt like king of the world, F U in your banana seat bikes, punkass bitches...was how I felt at the time, if those words were in my lexicon at the time.

Then one day and to this day, my mom said this is the reason why we moved out of the ghetto, I was getting ready to bring my bike up 3 flights of stairs and these kids, being hoodrats, jumped me to take my most prized possession at the time.  I put up a fight and eventually they gave up and I kept my bike, w/cuts in my mouth and multiple bruise and bumps on my head.  I kept my bike, and this happened I think one more time, i forgot, but I still kept my bike through it all.  I never conceded my most prized possession.

The best part of the story is that the conclusion of the story was that I lend the bike to this kid (whom I still hate to this day and am NOT friends with) to go to the corner store, he came back saying someone stole it when he left it to go inside.  Man I was devastated, all that fight, for nothing and this kid never paid me back for it or anything.  I hate that kid.

All these memories came back because here in Colorado, there are more bike paths and bicycling is more common than it was back in the 17112.  I am able to get from my apt to places and see/do things w/o the need for my car, it is nice, especially in a lightweight bike with more than one speed.
So now it's like as I get older and can afford nicer things, I remembered all the things I've dreamed of having as a kid, and I enjoy what I have now a lot because they were once things I coveted.  That's pretty sweet, I'm glad I was able to grow up wanting things and then as an adult making it happen with my own hands, I'm glad that my parents didn't deprive me of that.  Having a goal and dream then making it reality is one of the best human emotion one can experience.  Now if only I can find bros to go riding together...