| When we were kids, our village used to have a "Harvest Festival" every Labor Day weekend. There would be a parade with floats made on farm wagons (ours mostly) and pulled by tractors (some of ours too). There were fireworks and they made apple butter on the school athletic field with a big log fire and in a cauldron that looked as if it were loaned by a Witch! Tim, Tom, and I were riding our bikes around town swerving between people and generally being nuisances. We had balloons tied to the inside of our fender braces and wrapped so they would be pressing against the front bike wheel spokes to make our bikes sound like motorcycles (at least until the balloons burst after 100 feet or so). We were riding at a fast pace down Center Street with Tim ahead of us and Tim turned his head back to us and said, "Hey, look! They still have thier Christmas decorations up..." As soon as he got to the word "up", he crashed his bike into the back of a parked station wagon and flew up over the handlebars and ricocheted off the back window of the vehicle and ended up sprawled out flat on the road! He picked his bike off the ground and we noticed that the front fork was bent and it left an elongated dent behind the lower front fender where it had bounced off the bike frame. (Back in those days ALL bikes had fenders and chainguards just like mine does now). The next Saturday, Tim, Tom, and I hitchiked (our usual mode of transportation for trips too long for bicycles) 8 miles to Norwalk where the nearest bicycle shop was and Tim bought a new fork for his Schwinn bike. This was a rather expensive purchase for us in those days! We hitchiked back home and shortly after we got back, Tim realized he had left the new fork in the guy's car that gave us the ride back! We never saw him or the new fork again! Tim just shrugged it off and continued to ride his Schwinn bike the rest of its' days with a bent front fork and an elongated dent behind the bottom of the front fender. This was a constant reminder of his instant of inattention! Back in our youth we never "Sweat the small stuff"! |
