My New Shiny Bicycle!

Young people and kids today have it made! They have every imaginable gadget ever invented; cell phones, flat screen tv's, mp3 players, computers, ipods and ipads-you name it they have it! Their self-image depends on how much they have. When I was growing up, we were very poor and definitely did not have the luxuries the kids have today. We were lucky to have dime store toys to play with.  We were happy to have friends who felt sorry for us and let us play with their toys.

We made go-carts out of pieces of wood found in the garbage, broken skates and any rope we could find. I remember riding these go-carts down the street going like a bat out of hell with no brakes and screaming my head off from the excitement. There were kids in our neighborhood that would lend us their bikes and their skates and anything else so that we could play with them. I never owned a bicycle of my own. Only learned to ride by borrowing an English Racer from a friend and teaching myself to ride.

So fast forward to today! For the first time in my life I now own a bicycle. I am 62 years old and just recently decided that I needed to have a bicycle to ride around the neighborhood and get some exercise. After all the many years in between raising children and trying to survive and exist, I never had the opportunity to have my own bicycle.

Today was a beautiful sunny day in central Florida. The weather up to now has been very cold and uncomfortable. I have been looking forward to the temperature getting warmer and more pleasant so that I could ride my, shiny new bike. You would think I was a little girl or something like that. So, today I rode around the neighborhood with my husband.

Oh, by the way, my husband gave me this bike for Christmas!

Today, I proudly rode my shiny, new bicycle around the neighborhood and I felt like a kid again. But, this time I get to keep the bicycle and ride it again tomorrow!!!