Cycling Pleasures

(I am dedicating this column to my "baby sister," who was the only one not along on this trip.  That is only because she was still five-and-a-half years from being born at the time it took place.)

With gasoline prices rising and conservation on most peoples' minds, wouldn't it be fun to get around like much of the world's population does - on a bicycle?

Well, I know that you can't get very far on a bike unless you're willing to expend a lot of time and energy.  And with few exceptions, there are no bike lanes to allow for cycling over long distances.  Vehicular traffic is also hazardous to your health on a bicycle, as was demonstrated by the British couple, Peter Root and Mary Thompson, who were recently killed in Thailand after cycling through over 27 countries since 2011.

I'm harking back to a past time when bicycling was not so dangerous in this country. In fact, I'm going to take you back to another time when gasoline was pricey and scarce, WWII.

My father wasn't able to serve in the military during the war, but he did two jobs that were equally important: he served as an air-raid warden, and he worked at the Bell Aircraft plant near Niagara Falls, NY, where he helped build P-39 Airacobra fighter planes.

My grandmother lived in a little town about 50 miles from our home in Buffalo.  With rations on fuel, we had no way to drive to her house to visit her.  My father decided one summer day in 1944 to get out the bicycles and pedal our way to Grandma's home.

I was 5-years-old and had just recently learned to ride my little bicycle with its 20-inch wheels. My two brothers were 7 and 8, and they both had full-sized bikes.  My little sister was only 2, so dad had her in a special seat behind his handlebars on his bike, and mom had her own bike with a picnic basket.

So, five bikes and six people started out on an epic journey from Buffalo to Peoria, the town where Grandma lived. 

Being the littlest bike rider, and owing to the smaller diameter of my wheels, I had a hard time keeping up with the rest of the family, so my two brothers had a rope that they used to tow me when I got too tired of pedaling.  I don't recall how often that was, but suspect that I was towed more than I pedaled.

There were no motels in those days, so the trip was to be completed in one day come hell or high water.  50 miles on a bicycle in one day was monumental, especially since we're talking about the old balloon tire bikes with no gear shift - one speed, as fast as you can pedal.  We didn't have any safety equipment like helmets, either

The long and the short of it is, we didn't make it all the way to grandma's.  We did get as far as the city of Batavia, about 10 miles short of our goal.  We got a lift from an uncle from there in his farm truck.

Our family bike trip was written up in the Bell Corporation company newspaper, complete with a photo.  I, of course, have no memory of the trip, but it must have been quite a feat in those days.  I doubt that you could get kids to do that today, and maybe it would be as difficult to talk a parent into it.  Oh, for those days gone by when we used to be able and willing to perform activities like a 50-mile bike trip.

Here is the original picture with caption as it appeared in the August 12, 1944 edition of Bell Aircraft News.

That's me on the far left with my little 20-inch bicycle. It looks like my dad had the 
skinny tires on his bike as apposed to those fat tires on the rest.