WHO AM I? 2

Early Summer, 1968....

Vietnam, Kennedy, King, Chicago, and Claremont, Ca.

A boy and his bicycle out for a ride.....

A neighborhood bully turns a jump rope into a lasso and snags the back wheel of the boys bike....

The boy falls and bangs his head on the hard, hot, concrete....

And a police car turns the corner, at that exact moment, & thus an officer of the law snatches the boy in his arms, puts him in the back seat and roars off to Pomona Valley Hospital.....

I remember little Andy French, to this day, as being so horrified by his actions that he later apologized and we briefly became friends until I moved aways before the summer was over.

I remember, vaguely, being in a room at the hospital, under some device that scanned my head to see if my intelligence had raised or dropped a notch or 2 due to my collision with the pavement, or something to that effect.

My parents were scared to death, but I lived.... and even was smart enough to later go to college. :-)

1969 saw us move to a house in Pomona, Ca. that my family owned for the next 28 years. (Late comers can read part 1, here.)

Those first few years were hard as my Dad went insane and spent the last 18 years of his life in and out of mental institutions, and my Mother raised me and my 2 sisters alone.

During my teenage years I grew up very, very fast, helping my Mom.

In my photo collection there are NO pictures of me on a bicycle until JUNE 1993.

I remember having a 3-speed, thru Junior High, and 3 10-speeds from high school thru the 1980's, but don't ask me to tell you the models, or their colors because I can't remember.

I rode the bikes to the library, the store, work, and similar events.

I knew about bike lanes, but if you had told me there were other places to ride a bike than a public street I wouldn't have believed you, even as an adult in the early 80's.

It was in the early 1990's that I bought my first Mountain Bike.

It was an ACAPULCO GIANT, and was white.

The photos show me, my youngest sister, and her boyfriend riding our bikes around Puddingstone Lake, at Bonelli Park, in San Dimas, Ca.. It was June 1993.

My sister had been a long distance runner in High School in the mid 80's and she told me of a path around the lake used by runners, walkers, and cyclists.

So I started , once a week, riding from our house to, and around the lake, and back home, a 10 mile ride.

I found that I loved it! :-)

Sometime over the next 2 years I developed an interest in riding my bike further afield, and it was that interest that led me to books by Don and Sharron Brundige.

In a small, but significant, way my recreational life was about to change forever.....