Some Losses We Never Get Over

[This blog post was inspired by Truddle’s blog post here. Thanks, Truddle.]

When I was in high school, I worked all summer long in the school office the summer between my freshman and sophomore years. I worked a six hour day, five days a week. I earned $2.65 an hour, which at that time, was a bit higher than minimum wage. Although I did spent some of the money, the bulk of it was saved up so that I could buy myself a bicycle at the end of summer. I didn’t drive and there were too many siblings ahead of me to even dream that I would have a car when I got my license, or that I would get my license at 16. My parents knew that as soon as we got our license we had to be insured so we didn’t get our license, regardless of our age, until it became necessary for us to drive.

At the end of the summer, I had enough to get my bicycle. I could have gotten any bicycle but I had my eye on a special one. It was a Peugeot. The bike I picked out was a white ten-speed and because I was rather short (and am) it was a bit tough getting a bike that fit me, or that I fit. At my height I should have been able to ride a 21 inch frame with bike. I couldn’t. My legs are short. So they had to find me a child’s bike. My Peugeot was an 18 inch frame. That was the only way I was able to fit my bike. It had Michelin tires and just about everything I wanted on my bike. I got some extra things, too, like a chain lock and a water bottle and those little clippy things that you put around your ankles, over your pants (it was the height of bell-bottoms!) The year was 1972. I paid $149 plus tax and accessories.

I had a ball writing my bike. My parents didn’t let us ride our bikes to school but we did get to ride other places. We even got to ride to school after school and on weekends. We just weren’t allowed to ride them on a daily basis. I rode my bike all over. It was an awesome bike and I took special pride in knowing that I had worked hard to earn the money for this bike. It was very satisfying.

When I went to college, I really got a lot of use out of my bike. The campus was very spread out and I had classes all over campus and no car. So I got a lot of use out of it. The summer after my third year of college, I was staying with a friend in Santa Monica because I was attending a couple of classes there. The bike was stored in my mother’s garage in Long Beach. One day I got a call from my mother telling me that my bike had been stolen. My mother had been in the garage cleaning it out and the phone rang. In the two minutes she was inside to answer the phone, someone walked by and rode my bike away. The neighbor saw them and yelled at them but they didn’t stop, then he came and told my mother.

When I think of it I still want to cry even though it has been over thirty years. I loved my bike. I wish I still had it now.