To Buy a Bicycle

   When I was about 8 years old, I decided I wanted a bicycle. I had ridden a friend's bike at school and discovered I could do it, and I really want a bike in the worst kind of way. So my folks told me that if I wanted a bike, I would need to buy one, and a friend of the family had a bike he would sell me for $7. My allowance was only 25 cents a week, and I really did not want to wait 28 weeks to get that bike, so I asked my folks if there were things I could do to increase my income. I made a whole dollar when I mowed the lawn (it was about a quarter acre with a push mower) and I was rewarded for such things as helping with the dishes without complaining. I did not get extra money for doing my chores...those were the things that earned the quarter! I soon earned the $7 and took possession of the bike, and I loved that bike! It was by far the most precious thing I owned and I took very good care of it. Even though I did not completely understand the process, I somehow knew that I had earned that bike and because of the sweat which went into getting it, I cared for it as though it were brand new and expensive...I rode that bike, repaired that bike, and kept that bike until it finally wore completely out. I have since had other bikes, motorcycles, and cars, but none of them have been as valuable or taught me as much as that battered old green bike for which I worked and saved.

     I am sure there is a moral to this story somewhere, a moral about how the value of things is all relative or maybe about the innocence of a lost childhood...I don't know. What I do know is I remember with a great deal of fondness the spring and summer I worked as hard as an eight-year-old can work to buy a bicycle!