As long as I'm on the subject of bikes (the last story), another bike story found its way up from the dusty files of my gray matter. As an "innocent sensitive" kid, I was often the target of many scams by my peers. The following is the one I'm most "famous" for. Every summer our grandmother would stay with us when her position at Miami University would close down for summer break. She would often buy us some really "swell" gifts! One memorable summer (for more ways than one as will be seen), she bought me a brand new English racing bicycle with 3 gears! (3 I could handle, but 15 is another matter)! It was green with narrow tires and could really "fly" down the road! I had it for about 1 month when an older kid who lived about a mile down the road spied it at our place and stopped in to discuss a really great "deal" he had for me. He had an OLD bike with a "spring in the top of the fork"! It really smoothed out the bumps as I took a "test ride" on it! It was really "cool" to have a real shock absorber on a bike, and I was immediately stricken by the "coolness" of it all! The kid said he would MAYBE consider a trade of his bike for mine! I was so excited about the "shock absorber" fork that I decided I didn't want to miss out on this, so I said OK! and volunteered to throw in my sister's bike (without her knowledge or consent), in case the kid changed his mind in the next 5 seconds! The wise crafty kid hesitated for a little while and said, "Wellllll...I guess I'd let this "gem" go for both bikes. Tim wasn't home to tell the kid to "get lost" (I'm sure the kid planned the timing). I was so excited to have something really "cool"! He asked if I was sure if it was. "OK with your Ma" and I said sure! (Heck, I didn't know since this took place between just the 2 of us). When Tim finally got home, I excitedly showed him my new "cool" bike with the "shock absorber" fork. He immediately noticed there was 1 pedal missing and there was just a metal stem and that the rear tire had an old garden hose inside it instead of a tube, and that the tires were very bald and thin (things I didn't notice in my initial excitement). Tim then asked me how much I had paid for this "bike". I very proudly said Nothing! (Hoping I could impress him that for once in my life I had gotten a good deal). I said I got it merely for trading my bike and volunteering to throw in Sue's bike for good measure! My "cool" bike with the "shock absorber" spring in the fork didn't last too long and shortly after, the spring broke and the whole front fork collapsed! I'm sure glad that kid moved away BEFORE I got my 1st CAR! (Just to see how far I've come in learning things "the hard way", if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't have volunteered to throw in Sue's bike! ;-)
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