Sharing Wheels

Frugality can be taken to extremes sometimes. Such is the story of a early childhood Easter; circa seven years old. Mom & Dad would prepare Easter baskets for us kids each year. We'd get the traditional chocolates, & other candies stashed inside plastic eggs. We got other things in our Easter baskets too; things that varied from year to year. None were as memorable as the year we were asked to share...Without even actually being asked. \Yep, we were simply each given one skate each (not one pair...rather, one skate) among the faux grass blades & plastic eggs in our pastel shaded Easter baskets.

It was an adjustable set of skates where there was a sliding feature connecting the toe portion to the heel portion via a wing nut. It was a bare bones skate - as in - it was just these metal pieces; the kid using the skates would need to be wearing their shoes while skating.

We couldn't skate together since we were sharing the pair & places to skate were complicated. Our family's back patio was the largest section that wasn't a dirt or grassy area. However, the patio wasn't all that ideal since it was made of patio stones like this one. They'd been in place for a number of years, so they'd begun offsetting, where one would be a few millimeters (or more) higher than the next one over. This made it a bit rough for a kid to accomplish adequate skating in the small section of patio that did exist.

We could skate on our street, though we'd have to stay to the side & there was only a stretch of about five houses where we could easily skate, otherwise we'd have to battle skating up a hill (after managing to successfully skate down it), so skating on our street didn't really happen. We were, after all, quite young, & that wing nut wasn't all that trusty. It would come loose just in the general skating we'd try on the patio. Our driveway was another location where we could skate, that is, if neither car was parked in it. In fact, it would be a better skating pad than the patio stones in the backyard. However, we generally didn't get to enjoy the driveway because, at that age, one parent was always with us at the house, which meant the vehicle they'd used to get to the house would've been parked on one side of the parking pad that was our driveway (& no one thought to park one on the street for a short period, or they didn't want to). And because it was right off the street. Which, though we were far from being on a main street, for us, as for safety, roller skating right along the street curb wasn't in our best interest.

Lo & behold, after extended concern that the skates wouldn't stay in place as we made our strides, those skates "went away".

*****

A family friend, one that had a great friendship, along with his wife, with Grandma... & Grandpa too, when he was still alive, happened to have a bicycle-built-for-two. When Mom stopped by their house for a visit, it was Spring or Summertime. The family friend happened to be dilly-dallying around in his detached garage & noticed my brother & I with Mom. As Mom headed inside to catch up with his wife, he caught our attention & wheeled out one of these.

He brought it into the street (&, like our street, also not a main street) & we "hopped on" as best we could since we'd never been on one before. My brother got on in the front; I biked from the back. A bicycle-built-for-two is one where both people need to work together to get the bike turning & moving along properly; it takes some special skill, especially when it's two siblings who are entering into double-digit ages, or just have & might not be all that stoked about suddenly participating in this activity - especially not together.

Our family friend coached us & encouraged us. We biked a bit; at least down their long street, maybe even around the block. At that age, especially as I was in an area I wasn't all that familiar with, & would have been lost had I been riding solo, it was nice to know I simply needed to maintain a reasonable pedaling speed. The neighborhood was completely flat, so coasting didn't really happen, yet neither did any aggressive pedaling either.

We finished up rounding a corner to see this man who'd been great friends with a grandfather we'd never had the chance to meet grinning from ear to ear with his head cocked to the side a bit & his hands clasped together before him in contentment, admiration, & love; his eyes glistened. For this, it was well worth pedaling in tandem with my brother. He held the bike steady once we reached his driveway & we climbed off.

Both of these items, the roller skates & the bicycle-built-for-two, we were to share & share we did.

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