Saturday, 23 February 2008

• Who taught you how to ride a bike, and when?

  This is weird that my first official post back would be about this particular subject. Wow, Xanga has changed, but I can't wait to get back into it.
  
  So I tried to learn how to ride a bike in CA, but with the speedbumps and everything, I had a hard time actually getting off of my training wheels. I had a pink Strata scooter that I used instead of a bike that I adored.
  
  Fast forward to moving to Ohio. It's the mid to late 80s and no one on my block has even SEEN a scooter like mine, everyone is riding bikes... ten speeds. Girls and Boys younger than me even ri the ten speeds their older brothers and sisters have cast off. And there I am on my coolest possession, but it's just not cool back east.
  
  So I beg to learn to ride (at the age of 8) and actually persuade the gang of kids on our block (about 10 kids) to help me out. And once they'd heard I really didn't know how to ride, it wasn't really about me persuading as much as me getting on a bike. One of the leaders of the group was a girl named Michelle who was three years older. The shy, tom-boyish sister of a vicarious girl a year older than me, Michelle made it her goal to get me to ride on my bike by myself.
  
  We trained for weeks, on the circular court on the inside of my block. The training wheels came off. One day, all of the kids ran beside me, and I only let Michelle push me as they followed my progress like Secret Service Agents in a motorcade. And suddenly, I was riding. Looking behind me I got one last clear look at Michelle, who stood what seemed like miles away but was really only about thirty feet away as she smiled softly...watching as I rode away.
  
  The weird thing about this prompt is that my Mom saw her recently and said Michelle's been really depressed lately. So I offered to send a card. I wrote 'I hope all is going well and just wanted to let you know that I appreciate being so cool to a nerdy, annoying CA outsider--thanks especially for teaching me to ride a bike. It means a lot.to me.' It's sophmoric at best, but I didn't want the card to be overtly concerned because I think she'd be more nervous about that. She backs off a lot. The card plays "Day O" and it made me smile, so I hope it does her.
     

  I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

  • 8:17 PM
  • 55 Views
  • 0 eProps
  • 0 Comments