PAWPAW'S MESSAGES TO MY GRANDSONS 60 - An Unexpected Bicycle Lesson

PAWPAW'S  MESSAGES TO MY GRANDSONS 60

Pawpaw loves Bryson, Connor and Archer!

Head Over Heels or

An Unexpected Bicycle Lesson 

   I played a number of sports in my childhood. For my birthday, I had received a ten speed European style bicycle from KMart of Gold Circle. I had a baseball game one day so I dressed in my uniform, tied my glove and spikes together and threw them over my handlebars. I began pedaling confidently toward the baseball field at the elementary school a mile away.   

   As I crossed over the railroad tracks on Main Street in my hometown, my spikes and glove slipped down too low and my glove inexplicably slid between my front wheel spokes. When the glove spun to the front axle / fork

(or whatever it is called) and the front wheel stopped turning immediately.

   Unfortunately, I was going fairly fast and the back wheel was still spinning forward. Suddenly, my back wheel was flying over my head! Both tires were in the air and my head was the closest thing to the asphalt and train tracks. I landed with a thud I both heard and felt. People driving cars on Main Street watched the whole crash but no one bothered to stop and check on me. 

   Luckily, I was young enough to still be made of mostly flexibility and rubber. I was hurt and bruised but amazingly no bones had broken. I got back on my bike and pedaled the rest of the way to the baseball field and played the game.

To put things in perspective, I am sixty years old now. I went to sleep last night feeling good. I woke this morning with throbbing tennis elbow in my left arm. I am right handed. How in the world could I go from being virtually made of indestructible rubber in childhood to being injured in my comfy bed in my sleep as an adult?