Summer and Bicycles

During summers at my grandparents’ Brookside Farm, I had a blue bike I named Betsy. This was the only bike of my youth because during the school year I lived in the city where because of traffic, and no one had yet heard of bike lanes, no one rode a bike.

I loved that bike and rode a lot of miles up and down the paved and dirt roads. One of my favorite destinations and turn around spots was the one room Blue School House.

Simple times – good memories – bad box permanent.

Betsy – 1950′s

That bike wasn’t a road, racing, mountain, or trail bike, and it didn’t have speeds unless you counted how fast I could pedal. It was just a bike.

Last year, I bought one of those bikes on a close-out sale at Camping World. I love it. When I tool around (mostly on flat surfaces) with the wind blowing in my face (if I’m going down hill), I feel young again (well younger) and think of all those wonderful years riding my bike at the farm.

A couple of weeks ago, my granddaughter, who had gotten too tall for her current bike, went off with her Dad to buy a new one.

Her Dad knows quite a bit about bikes especially since he just finished riding in a major bike race. It tired me out just thinking about the miles he rode, but then he is in his 30′s and is an athlete in top physical shape.

So, I was waiting to see what kind of bike they’d bring home. What would it be – road, trail, 9, 18, 30 speeds? I was surprised to see it was just a bike – absolutely beautiful – but just a bike.

My grandson, however, is not convinced this family bike riding thing is all that much fun. He’s not forgetting a recent spill at the beach that had him needing an ice bag and multiple Angry Bird band aids.

Starting to ride again at my age is a little challenging. My granddaughter can make those inclines a lot faster than I can, but she looks back, smiles and waits for me to catch up. She’s a sweetheart.

With regard to bicycles, I guess that saying about what’s old is new again is true right now.

I’m old enough to enjoy nostalgia, and I’m certainly enjoying this resurgence to a more simple time.

Photo Credits: Current good photos taken by the granddaughter. Bad photo of old photo taken by the grandmother.

Grandchildren and swings

What is it about swings that attract us? Is it the soothing gliding back and forth? Is it trying to see how high we can go? I don’t know, but this love affair has been going on for generations.

When I was a child, I sat on a glider on my grandparents’ front screened-in porch for hours swinging back and forth. If I was asked to hull strawberries, shell peas, or shuck corn, the glider was where I sat.

When my granddaughter was a baby, we had two swings – one in the front yard and one in the back. She’d swing as long as we’d push, and with two swings we could always find a shady spot.

Now she and her little brother swing on a play set my husband built them in their back yard or they swing on two disc swings attached to their favorite tree in the front yard.

This week, because they were outside playing and being so good while we gardened, we made them a tire swing in the back part of the yard.

Here in New England most of us have roof snow rakes which have a very, very long handle. So, with this handle, my daughter got a rope over a high branch. Then we rescued a tire out of the barn. After my daughter did some fancy knot tying, they were swinging again in a new part of the yard.

After a long New England winter, it is great to be outside again. The adults are busy gardening, and the grandkids are busy using their creative genius to figure out new ways to  have fun outside.

Summer is a good thing! Enjoy yours – I’m off to sit with the grandkids on my new glider my husband bought me for Mother’s Day.

This post has been linked to the GRAND Social blogging event.