A Rare Sight

Yesterday was Election Day and for kids, more important, a day off from school. When I was leaving for work yesterday I walked outside and as I was getting into my car a bunch of boys passed me by riding their bikes up the street. They looked about 12 or so and were so excited, a beautiful day on their own. No adult supervision, fun and adventure on a beautiful sunny day off from school.

If that moment was captured in a movie, there would be beautiful music playing and birds chirping away in the background. You would see my face beaming as they passed me by and you would actually notice the difference in my body movements, the energy of those boys passed right into me. It was a piece of yesterday. I don't see kids riding bikes in my neighborhood, a nice neighborhood, but I'm sad to say that yesterday was the first time in the almost seven years I'm back in Staten Island that I have seen that. I see lots of bike riders in my neighborhood and Staten Island has beautiful trails and back roads where you can take great rides, families riding together, bike riders like my brother in law Bob, who can't get enough of it. Bobby has every kind of bike and has been riding since I met him. In fact after Linda and Bob's first date, my sisters and I were driving into our town to park the car and take the train to the ferry. It was a rainy day and puddles all over, Linda splashed a bike rider as she was driving, really bad, and said, "I think that's the guy I went out with last night". It was! Bob commuted from one side of the island to the Ferry and then rode to midtown every morning on his bike. He's still out there, every chance he gets and they live upstate in the mountains now, he's riding up and down some hills I don't even want to walk up and down, truly an amazing rider with a passion. I tease my sister all the time, when she was dating him she was going on bike rides with him all the time, since she's got married, I can't remember the last time she's mentioned riding her bike.

One rider in particular in my neighborhood, I must say I've noticed many times, he caught my sister in law and I obviously checking him out a few weeks ago, 20 or so, a beautiful sight.

A few years ago I noticed a bunch of boys walking into our town unsupervised. Another rare sight. They too were about 12 and probably got permission to walk into town, maybe about a mile or so from their neighborhood. Just walking down the street was so much fun for them, you could see it on their faces and they way they acted. They were on their own...too cool.

Again I understand why these are rare sights. I would be one of those moms following them, hiding behind trees, and parked cars. I worry about everything as it is, fuhgeddaboudit if I were a mom!

But seeing those boys riding their bikes brought back a little piece of yesteryear for me. When I was growing up, you would always see a gang of kids, younger and older than 12, riding all over the neighborhood, leaving our bikes outside of the store, sometimes using the kickstand, most times not, just dropping it down and running into the candy store or wherever and it would be there when you came out.

I was big bike rider for years. I used to ride my bike to my high school and I lived close to the Jersey side of the island and my school is by the Verrazano Bridge, it was a long ride but I loved it. My friend Linda especially loved when I took my bike to school and she would ride it in the halls and cafeteria, again part of our mischievous behavior patterns driving the teachers crazy. Unfortunately I had a really bad accident riding my bike home from school when I was about 16. My accidents are unique. I don't fall down stairs, always trip going up! In my teens I was an absolute kluts! My mom had in me the emergency room too many times to count. One time I told her I thought I broke my hand and she told me when it turns purple and falls off she would take me to the doctor. Well it turned purple, never fell off but she did take me to the doctor about 3 days later and it was broke. I remember when the doctor asked why we waited so long to come in I swung my head around and gave my mom a look, like see, I told you! My poor mom. She really had her hands full with the seven of us and here I was giving her a look like that! But again I was a kluts. When I had that cast on I tripped up the steps! I was walking up the stairs with a load of folded laundry in my good hand and tripped and instead of dropping the laundry or using my bad hand to stop the fall, I used my head, that's really using your head Tricia!

So after my bad accident, which by the way was crashing into a parked, yeah a parked car, I didn't ride for years. That accident occurred while riding a 10 speed bike. The kind where you had to lean down like a speed racer while you were riding and using the breaks. I was being speed racer, going down a big hill way too fast. I knew I was going too fast, but I had my school bag on my back, I thought I would flip if I leaned down and breaked from the weight of the bag on my back and turned into a street where there was a no parking zone but of course that doesn't mean anything to people and I crashed. I don't even remember seeing the car, just waking up in bad shape and spending the night in the hospital with a concussion and some other bad injuries.

My brother-in-law got me back to riding. First had me try Linda's old 10 speed and as soon as I got on I was nervous, but then I tried her mountain bike and I felt comfortable right away. The thicker tires make a big difference. If you hit a big rock on a ten speed it could mess you up, well me for sure. But the mountain bikes and all terrain have thicker wheels and you don't have to bend down like speed racers to ride or apply the breaks. I rode again for years until I moved back to Brooklyn, where the streets were just too crowded to ride, I got lazy, haven't done it now in too long and keep saying I've got to get out there.

That rare sight yesterday gave me a little jolt, it's time to get my bike out of my closet, dust it off, get out there and enjoy the fall before it's over. (By the way, I wear a helmet now! I'm getting back to a bit of my klutsy ways again, and besides it's the law. I know they are not the coolest looking helmets but who cares, we're not out there in a beauty contest, we're out there for our health and the pure fun of riding and if you're a kluts like me, it will keep you out of the hospital.)

PS: I keep my emergency information right inside my helmet, just in case!