La versión español está después de la versión inglés.
SAN GERALDO ASKED me today which was considered better exercise, walking or bicycling. I was so proud of him for not gagging on the word “exercise.” He’s not buying a bicycle but the question made me take a stroll down Memory Lane. I’m missing one photo of my father on a tricycle when he was a little boy. I scanned it and put it somewhere “safe.” I hope to share it soon. It’s priceless.
SAN GERALDO ME preguntó hoy que se consideró mejor ejercicio, caminar o andar en bicicleta. Estaba tan orgulloso de él por no haber amordazado con la palabra “ejercicio”. Él no está comprando una bicicleta, pero la pregunta me hizo dar un paseo por el camino del recuerdo. Me falta una foto de mi padre en un triciclo cuando era un niño pequeño. Lo escaneé y lo puse en algún lugar “seguro”. Espero compartirlo pronto. No tiene precio.
MI PADRE, SCHWABACH, ALEMANIA, AGOSTO 1947.
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, 1954. ON MY SISTER DALE’S TRICYCLE.
EN EL TRICICLO DE MI HERMANA DALE.
1911. SG’S GRANDFATHER, GREAT-GREAT-GRANDMOTHER, GREAT-GRANDPARENTS, AND GREAT-UNCLES. / ABUELO, TATARA ABUELA, BISABUELOS, Y TIO ABUELOS DE SG.
SG’S FATHER AND UNCLE (ON THE HANDLEBARS), EARLY 1930S.
EL PADRE DE SG Y EL TÍO (EN LOS MANILLARES), AL PRINCIPIO DE LOS AÑOS 1930.
SG’s mom looks like the model in the billboard ad!! What a photo!
I, too, got my sister’s bicycle before I got my own ‘boy’s bike’. Wish I had known about that bar going across on the boy’s !!! Learned very quickly I tell you!! lol
Seems like cycling ran in SG’s family….time to get some I’d say.
I live that photo of Alice and the billboard. Ouch! I hated having a girls bike until I landed in the bar in my new boy’s bike!
I like all those bike pics. This is a fun post!
Kathleen,
I have got to find the one of my father when he was around 3!
I love these. They’ve gotten me a little melancholic though. I’ve often wondered, in my spare wonderings, why they put bars on boys’ bikes. I mean, the vulnerable fun parts on a male are on the outside, so what gives and why am I asking you? 🙂
Deedles,
Well, girl’s bikes were designed to accommodate their dresses. But I agree they should have remained ves the bar from all. Man did that hurt!
I think there is only one photo of my father on his bike in the late 1930s, someone stole the bike, and I don’t think he ever got over the loss. I have the first full size bike, my mother bought me when I was about 10, a red Schwinn Typhoon.
David,
I can’t believe you still have that bike! So wonderful. I also had a red Schwinn, but it was stolen from the storage room our first year in Brooklyn.
that 1985 pix; SEXY!
anne marie,
Sexy? Oh dear goddess!
Who knew you both come from a long line of cyclists?
Oh, and Hot Legs you two!
Bob,
Yeah, our legs are insured for millions. We bought bikes when we lived in Marina del Rey and would ride the beach bike path up and down the coast. Amazing. Then DC and Rock Creek Park. Never the same after that.
What a wonderful set of bicycle family photos! Makes me want to go through my photos and see what I can come up with too.
Girls’ bikes don’t have the bar so that we don’t need to swing our legs out behind us to mount the bike, but can demurely just lift our leg through the gap to the other pedal in a ladylike fashion. This arose when all females wore skirts, of course. No showing our bums and panties to the world!
That’s terrific, Debra! I did not know this and it makes sense. However, since one does not ride a bike by sitting only, what sadistic personage made that bar for men’s bikes? I’m thinking it’s the same person who invented corsets and bras and other such torture devices. I could be wrong 🙂
Deedles,
No, the corset and bra developers were men! The bar was left in simply to make women’s bikes different and somehow inferior.
Debra,
Well I may never had worn a skirt but I have parts that would have been very grateful if no bar had been nearby!
Much easier to ride a bike in Germany in 1947 than 1945.
Adam,
My father was there both times. He re-upped after the war and wanted to make a career of it, but my mother sad “no.”
Why was Uncle Davy still in Germany in 1947? I thought he fought in the Bridge Too Far battle etc.. they made him stay behind an extra two years?
Kenosha,
He re-enlisted, to my mother’s dismay. He would have made a career of it if not for her. The Army even wrote to try to convince her. Your father told me that story about 10 years ago. It was news to me. But we checked my father’s war records and timeline and, although he saw major combat and received lots of medals, he wasn’t there for that battle.
What a great collection of shots; I love them all.
Wilma,
I really enjoyed putting this together. Thanks!
Me thinks your Converse were really PF Flyers. Much cooler.
Pat,
Really? I know I had converse in later years. This is great!
Oh, I really loved all of these photos!
Judy,
Thanks. I really enjoyed pulling them together.
Who knew Memory Lane had been retrofitted with bike lanes!
Walt the Fourth,
I’m retrofitting everything.
A technical answer on why the top bar, is frame ridgeitity and weight. The top bar forms a strong triangle. The get the same stiffness without the top bar, requires extra reinforcement around the bottom bracket (crank.) Men generally weigh more than women, making the added frame strength desireable.
The pictures of your dad in uniform and all the old photos are amazing!!! You are so lucky to have such great history in your hands with these pictures.
My favorite bike was a pink huffy but it was built rugged like a boys bike. I was able to keep up with all the boys in neighborhood on my bike. I would have to dig to see if I have any photos.
hollihd:
Jerry and I both have so many historic family photos. The only photos I wish I had were old ones from my maternal grandparents. One of my cousins took all those and clearly won’t be sharing them with anyone! Groan…
Girl’s bikes are different than boy bikes? It’s been so long I guess I forgot. I vaguely remember the term “sissy bar”, and as insecure as I was about my masculinity, or lack thereof, growing up, wouldn’t have wanted such a thing on my bike, whatever it was.
Kirk:
The “sissy” bar was lower than the bar on a boy’s bike. If you ever slipped off the seat on your new boy’s bike and landed on the bar, you would never forget the difference!