The longest thread ever

[wilson]

I didn't learn how to ride a bike until I was 32 years old.

[ClemmonsDevil]

(SIGH!)

You're welcome

[aimo]

I didn't learn how to ride a bike until I was 32 years old.

kermit on bike.jpg


Is this you?

[TruBlu]

I didn't learn how to ride a bike until I was 32 years old.

Due to the wheel having not been invented yet?

[wilson]

Due to the wheel having not been invented yet?

Hah, I'm not as old as some of you people...the tens digit in my age is still a 3 (for another little while...).

[wilson]

kermit on bike.jpg


Is this you?

It is not, but in today's "news that surprises noone," my pick of "I'd like to go on a bike ride with that celebrity" has Kermit in the #1 slot, followed more closely than you might think by Pee Wee Herman.

[ClemmonsDevil]

Hah, I'm not as old as some of you people...the tens digit in my age is still a 3 (for another little while...).

What?!?! Now I'm mad. I'm a short timer to keep it as a 4.

[ClemmonsDevil]

It is not, but in today's "news that surprises noone," my pick of "I'd like to go on a bike ride with that celebrity" has Kermit in the #1 slot, followed more closely than you might think by Pee Wee Herman.

I sat in front of him at a movie theater once.

[wilson]

What?!?! Now I'm mad. I'm a short timer to keep it as a 4.

So how old did you think I was?
Related: That's a really fun question to ask 7th graders. Their brains draw some interesting conclusions when asked to reason inductively.

[wilson]

I sat in front of him at a movie theater once.

[insert another hairy palm joke here]

[ClemmonsDevil]

So how old did you think I was?
Related: That's a really fun question to ask 7th graders. Their brains draw some interesting conclusions when asked to reason inductively.

I thought 38-42. I knew I was older.

[Phredd3]

While we're on the subject of bikes, I actually did really cool things with a bike when I was a kid. I lived in what is now called Denali National Park when I was in grades 5 through 8. The Park has a single access road which is about 90 miles long, only the first 12 of which are paved. My family took a bike trip out that road and back when I was ~11 years old. We carried backpacks on our bikes and took about 10 days for the trip, including a layover of a couple of days at the farthest campground on the route. Everyone else in the family had ten-speeds, but I was riding my trusty blue Schwinn Stingray monospeed, coaster-braked bike. It was geared the equivalent of about third gear for the rest of the family, so going up hills was no problem. But I had a heck of a time going fast enough on anything even slightly downhill. My family took a number of creek-side breaks waiting for me to catch up to them!

Just an amazing trip. I have many memories of great scenery, great people we met along the way, incredible (and occasionally slightly scary) animal encounters, and just a generally really fun time. It was about as cool a bike trip as one could take.

We did it again a couple years later, with bike bags this time, except we did it faster and by that time I had a ten-speed.

[ClemmonsDevil]

While we're on the subject of bikes, I actually did really cool things with a bike when I was a kid. I lived in what is now called Denali National Park when I was in grades 5 through 8. The Park has a single access road which is about 90 miles long, only the first 12 of which are paved. My family took a bike trip out that road and back when I was ~11 years old. We carried backpacks on our bikes and took about 10 days for the trip, including a layover of a couple of days at the farthest campground on the route. Everyone else in the family had ten-speeds, but I was riding my trusty blue Schwinn Stingray monospeed, coaster-braked bike. It was geared the equivalent of about third gear for the rest of the family, so going up hills was no problem. But I had a heck of a time going fast enough on anything even slightly downhill. My family took a number of creek-side breaks waiting for me to catch up to them!

Just an amazing trip. I have many memories of great scenery, great people we met along the way, incredible (and occasionally slightly scary) animal encounters, and just a generally really fun time. It was about as cool a bike trip as one could take.

We did it again a couple years later, with bike bags this time, except we did it faster and by that time I had a ten-speed.

Not to be a story topper because I know you can't compete with this, but I grew up within sight of Pilot Mountain.

[Phredd3]

Not to be a story topper because I know you can't compete with this, but I grew up within sight of Pilot Mountain.

I can't compete with Betsy Ross on a tricycle, either. I posted before reading that because I'm, you know, "working".

[wilson]

I thought 38-42. I knew I was older.

Well then, you were correct.
Later this week will be the one time in my life that I'll be able to accurately declare in gleefully overwrought 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' voice that I'm thirty nine and a half years ooooooollld.

[ClemmonsDevil]

I can't compete with Betsy Ross on a tricycle, either. I posted before reading that because I'm, you know, "working".

Hahaha! I am too. Not my fault I have an easy job.

[ClemmonsDevil]

Well then, you were correct.
Later this week will be the one time in my life that I'll be able to accurately declare in gleefully overwrought 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' voice that I'm thirty nine and a half years ooooooollld.

Enjoy the last 6 months of the good part of your life!

[YmoBeThere]

While we're on the subject of bikes, I actually did really cool things with a bike when I was a kid. I lived in what is now called Denali National Park when I was in grades 5 through 8. The Park has a single access road which is about 90 miles long, only the first 12 of which are paved. My family took a bike trip out that road and back when I was ~11 years old. We carried backpacks on our bikes and took about 10 days for the trip, including a layover of a couple of days at the farthest campground on the route. Everyone else in the family had ten-speeds, but I was riding my trusty blue Schwinn Stingray monospeed, coaster-braked bike. It was geared the equivalent of about third gear for the rest of the family, so going up hills was no problem. But I had a heck of a time going fast enough on anything even slightly downhill. My family took a number of creek-side breaks waiting for me to catch up to them!

Just an amazing trip. I have many memories of great scenery, great people we met along the way, incredible (and occasionally slightly scary) animal encounters, and just a generally really fun time. It was about as cool a bike trip as one could take.

We did it again a couple years later, with bike bags this time, except we did it faster and by that time I had a ten-speed.

Was the rest of the family fine with that, because you know, if y'all encountered a bear?

[ClemmonsDevil]

Was the rest of the family fine with that, because you know, if y'all encountered a bear?

I thought that. I don't mean to mess with you psychosocially or anyting, but is there a small chance they were trying to get rid of you?

[Bostondevil]

I had neon spoke straws on my 10-speed.

As for my tricycle, it was a two-time handmedown from my older brothers. It already had the South of the Border bumpersticker on the back step. When I was six, I could beat my 9 yo brother on his two-wheeler.

Aging myself again, in 1976, our local 'hood held a bicentennial celebration at the ballfield/shopping center (Bdevil knows of what I speak). There was a big tricycle race, but my parents had not brought my tricycle along with us, and they insisted there was not time to go back and get it. I had to borrow someone else's trike which was a POS, and the handlebars were too low for my long legs and my knees kept knocking them. I was HORRIBLE! The winner? A kid named BETSY ROSS. I kid you not. I lost to Betsy Ross on the 4th of July.

It still burns.

BTW, this story is going in my book, so consider it a sneak preview!

She does indeed. BD finished 3rd in the mile run that day. That was for the kids too old for tricycles. I also remember Betsy Ross winning the tricycle race. It made the local news, Frank Thompson reported on it. Frank Thompson was a long time local TV news reporter who was good at finding the heartwarming human interest stuff and he lived in our hood, so our 4th of July bash got the coverage.

I've reported here before that I came up with my own Bicentennial project, yes? I memorized Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and recited it my backyard on the 200th anniversary (April 18, 1975) while a group of neighborhood kids acted it out behind me. My younger brother was Paul Revere. We performed for a few invited guests (mostly the parents of the kids who acted it out behind me). I'm going to do it again with some theater friends for the 250th. Don't know where yet - not my backyard though.

Btw, aimo, my younger brother won the 4th of July tricycle race one year, but he was too old by 1976. Looking back on it now, the 4th of July celebrations in our hood were fantastic. I've never lived anywhere else that did the 4th of July better than we did in the 1970s.