Slim Jims, Milky Ways and Bluegrass

Missed the Saturday group ride. Rode with Casey, Ty and Ann instead. Left the house headed for the Dauset Trails Bluebird and Bluegrass Day. It's been awhile since I rode with a destination in mind. Almost all of the riding I've done the last few years has been for the exercise. There is nothing wrong with that, but riding with a destination in mind is more like the riding I did as a kid. We rode our bikes everywhere. We would ride them into the village of Greenlawn (it was 5 miles round trip). For a little bit of pocket change we could get a Milky Way, a bottle of soda and a Slim Jim. Our "English racers" with their 3-speed Sturmey Archer hubs, were all we needed to make it up the "hill" that stood between our neighborhood and town.

Our bicycles took us from house to house, neighborhood to neighborhood. My favorite bike was the Dunelt English racer. Got it for Christmas. It had chrome fenders, a Brooks leather seat, and a seat bag. It was even stolen once. Got it back, though. Whoever took it just needed a ride to town and they left it on the side of the road once they got to where ever they were going. My next bike was a Raleigh English racer. Bought it new for $65 with money earned cutting grass. Swapped out the Brooks seat on it with the old Brooks seat from my Dunelt.

The ride destinations got a little farther as we got a little older. On occasion we would make a trip to the Dairy Queen, maybe 10 miles round trip. Sometimes we would ride to the McDonald's (15 cents for a burger, 25 cents for a shake and 10 cents for fries.) Our bikes were our means of escape from the neighborhood and gave us a real taste of independence.

A Schwinn Varsity 10-speed was my choice to upgrade from the 3-speed Raleigh. It was a cool green color, had a Huret cable-drive speedometer (which really worked well) and a generator-powered chrome light and taillight. Every kid in the neighborhood had a 10-speed. Did my first century on that, although didn't know it was century. We just kept riding around the neighborhood one summer day to put 100 miles on our speedometers.

There were several thousand miles logged on that Varsity before someone stole it from the garage. Still had the Raleigh with the Brooks seat and it served me well even after getting my driver's license. Unlike today, a teen-age driver's license didn't come with a car.

I was thinking about all of this on the ride to Dauset Trails. It was pure fun, being a kid again, out for a bike ride, going to town for a Milky Way, a soda and a Slim Jim and a little bit of bluegrass music.