BICYCLE MEMORIES, THE GYPSIES ARE COMING & DAYDREAMING
July 16, 2014
By Olivene Godfrey
I am still trying to work the brakes on my new rollator. Remember Barry says I don't have an ounce of mechanical ability. Tam and Barry just automatically work the hand brakes. Barry remembers the stories I tell about my childhood bicycle adventures, and says I should remember how to use the brakes. I was only 6 years old when Santa brought my pretty, shiny bike. That was 80 years ago!
Earlier that year daddy bought 2 acres of land when a large farm on the outskirts of Chattanooga was divided into building lots. So, my parents told me Santa was going to bring me a pony. I didn't want a pony, I wanted a bike. What a thrill to find the bike next to the tree on Christmas morning. It had snowed during the night and our chert road wasn't a good place to learn to ride a bike. I was so tiny, I couldn't sit on the bike seat for my legs to reach the pedals. But, in a short time I learned to ride the bike and spent a lot of time riding it for several years. Most all of the couples who built houses in the subdivision had children, so we always had playmates.
In the summer, daddy had a big vegetable garden. I remember one hot summer when playing with a girl a few houses away. The annual news quickly spread. I was barefoot and rushed to tell my mother, "the gypsies are coming." Everyone remembered the rumor about a little blonde headed boy who had supposedly been kidnapped by the gypsies and his hair had been dyed black and his skin darkened with walnuts. (I am not making this up!) Several people every summer would swear they had seen that little boy. That summer I fell in daddy's garden when I was rushing home and caught my legs on sweet potato vines.
When I was older, and needed to escape from all the kids, I would go out to a vacant field of sage grass nearby. I would lay in the high grass and look at the cloud formations and daydream about my future. Many years later, I told my English friend, Annie, about my daydreaming. She told me she had done the same thing when she was young. She says she knew she would leave England. I doubt she could have dreamed that she would become a world traveler like she is now.
See you next time. Comments welcome. (As told to Tam)
By Olivene Godfrey
I am still trying to work the brakes on my new rollator. Remember Barry says I don't have an ounce of mechanical ability. Tam and Barry just automatically work the hand brakes. Barry remembers the stories I tell about my childhood bicycle adventures, and says I should remember how to use the brakes. I was only 6 years old when Santa brought my pretty, shiny bike. That was 80 years ago!
Earlier that year daddy bought 2 acres of land when a large farm on the outskirts of Chattanooga was divided into building lots. So, my parents told me Santa was going to bring me a pony. I didn't want a pony, I wanted a bike. What a thrill to find the bike next to the tree on Christmas morning. It had snowed during the night and our chert road wasn't a good place to learn to ride a bike. I was so tiny, I couldn't sit on the bike seat for my legs to reach the pedals. But, in a short time I learned to ride the bike and spent a lot of time riding it for several years. Most all of the couples who built houses in the subdivision had children, so we always had playmates.
In the summer, daddy had a big vegetable garden. I remember one hot summer when playing with a girl a few houses away. The annual news quickly spread. I was barefoot and rushed to tell my mother, "the gypsies are coming." Everyone remembered the rumor about a little blonde headed boy who had supposedly been kidnapped by the gypsies and his hair had been dyed black and his skin darkened with walnuts. (I am not making this up!) Several people every summer would swear they had seen that little boy. That summer I fell in daddy's garden when I was rushing home and caught my legs on sweet potato vines.
When I was older, and needed to escape from all the kids, I would go out to a vacant field of sage grass nearby. I would lay in the high grass and look at the cloud formations and daydream about my future. Many years later, I told my English friend, Annie, about my daydreaming. She told me she had done the same thing when she was young. She says she knew she would leave England. I doubt she could have dreamed that she would become a world traveler like she is now.
See you next time. Comments welcome. (As told to Tam)
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