Bicycle Riding Again!

As a teenager on the sometimes sweltering...always crowded streets of Georgetown...Guyana...it was an old three speed
"ticker" bicycle...that saved me from imploding from the reslessness I often felt. "Ticker"...because it made a ticking sound as you pedalled. If I remember correctly...the slow tick when you were in the highest of the gears...was supposed to be a mating call being sent out...but then again...there were many things that had that kind of significance...in that time of blazing
hormones. One of the most important trophies a bicycle bound male could muster...was having a lovely young woman
ensconsed sideways on the bar between saddle and handle...as you pushed relentlessly forward...destination unknown...
but available to be spotted by your peers...and looked upon as someone who finally seemed to be making hay. But I really
digress...these memories have been churned up by my having slipped out of the grey jaws of inertia...a little while ago...to
head out on my first ride on two wheels of the year. Despite all the daily exercise I do...I had fallen out of my bicycle riding
momentum and the months had flown by. It was a golden evening as I rode by...gardens with pink and red roses...daisies...
white...and the black eyed susan member of that clan...gorse...even deeper yellow in the evening light...grape vines and fig
trees in their prime...trees with coppery leaves that turned to dark flames when the sun was shining through them...and
many other manifestations of the "as good as it gets" part of the year on the West Coast. I'm happy to report that...despite my lack of practice...I was able to complete my ride...without once having to dismount when I hit one or two middling slopes...returning home...my legs and lungs well worked...a sweat on my brow...and memories of my teenage years...dancing in my head.................Quester.