Cycling #4
2010 December 8
Two of the comments on my first cycling post were about my maternal granddad — a generous man who enriched my life until his death in 1969.
This is a photo that sits in my brother’s newspaper office. It’s my granddad, publisher of the Neosho Daily News, on a bicycle he was giving away to the carrier who sold the most new subscriptions. Please note the radio on the side of the bike!
Many years later, I would take over one of these paper routes. I’d ride my bike down to the square, grab 80 to 100 papers and deliver them to all the businesses and homes on and around the square. Forty years later I can pretty much retrace that route in my mind.
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That’s the bike I want! Forget your Specialized Sequoia. I want a cool bike with a radio on the side.
Got to love a Huffy Radio bike.
You can have your Trek, your iPod and your Bose speakers. Give me a Huffy Radio Bike!
(That, by the way, is a great photo.)
Our sons always won every contest our local paper ever had when they were carriers…and the years they spent throwing the paper gave them each a determination to do their work well. When the time came that I drove them instead of letting them ride their bikes (b/c of traffic on some streets), I found another bonus…for 20 minutes each day I had each child alone, and they talked the whole time…I learned what was going on at school, how they felt about various things, what was bothering them, what gave them joy. I wouldn’t take anything for that time with my sons!
Great photo! The background looks just like Mayberry.
Y’know, you kinda look a bit like you could be related…. ^_~
Annie – I guess it does! You half expect to see a sign for Floyd’s barber shop in the background.
Mike…I have enjoyed your cycling #1-4…let’s keep this going to at least #10.
Two quick memories …both growing up in Kilgore Texas…several of my friends during middle school decide we want to ride to the airport about 10 miles away one Saturday morning…we thought no problem…only my younger brother in elementary school was using his small banana seat sting ray bike..(oh how I wish we still had that) to ride…needless to say we had to get my parents to come get us at the airport…afterwards my bottom was sore..not from sitting in the saddle for 10 miles!!
Then in 1971 right out from highschool…myself and two other buddies after catching a ride to Tuscaloosa, Alabama rode back on I-20 (remember it’s 1971..what little of I-20 there was at that point) all 500 miles back to Kilgore. We were excited since we got our picture in the local paper upon our return. We were hoping for a parade or something..but only had a photograher to capture the moment. Great memories…
Let’s go riding!