As a kid who grew up in Macomb, and attended grade school during the 1950s, bicycles were an immensely important part of my life.
I got my first bicycle back in 1952, when I was just six years old and in the first grade. I had saved money that I earned by doing odd jobs around the neighborhood, mostly for elderly folks who lived nearby. I had cleaned garages, collected soda bottles (which were worth two cents each), swept porches and walks, took out garbage, and weeded vegetable and flower gardens. In other words, if a small kid could do something to earn a little money, I did it.
My friend Steve Hunt, of Colchester, who was a year or two older, had gotten a new 24-inch bicycle, and because I was fortunate enough to have earned six dollars from all my jobs, I had enough money to purchase his old one. It was a twenty-inch bike. A year or two later, he got another, larger bike—a 26-inch one—and I purchased his older, 24-inch one for twenty dollars. So, I was learning how had work could help you get things you really wanted.
Later, in the fourth grade, in 1955, I got hired to do a newspaper route, with the Chicago Daily News. So, I was delivering papers around the Macomb square, six days a week, on Monday through Saturday. Because I then earned money on a regular weekly basis, I could afford a new bike. I bought a Sears and Roebuck 26-inch black and white bike, with a tank between the two bars that ran from the seat to where the handle bars were mounted. It cost me the sizable sum of $39.95! And of course, I rode it around town, both by myself and sometimes in the company of friends.
In the fifth grade, during 1956, I was still working at a paper route, but I was then working for the Peoria Journal Star, delivering seven days a week. So, I could now afford an English, three-speed, gear-shift bicycle—with a tire pump as well as front and rear hand brakes. It was a showy bike, with beautiful deep red and chrome colors, and as I proved time and again, it was a fast bike, too.
In 1957, at the end of the sixth grade, when I was still carrying papers for the Peoria Journal Star, I decided to acquire the bike to end all bikes—in my view. It was a red and chrome, three-speed, Schwinn bike, which cost me the ungodly sum of $99.95.
Of course, I did not have that much money at the age of twelve! So, I convinced my mom and dad to help me get a bank loan. We went to the Union National Bank in town, and with the bike as collateral, I got a one-year loan, which I gradually paid off with monthly payments that were due on the first day of the month, for a year. I do not remember exactly how much those payment were, but my income from delivering newspapers went to pay it off. I never missed a payment—so I learned about the importance of maintaining my financial responsibilities.
That was my last bike, as a boy, and I rode it through my increasingly busy time in the ninth grade. Of course, my Schwinn bike gave me the freedom to roam the entire city of
