This is Going to Hurt

It was a nice sunny day with just a hint of a breeze that day in the summer of 1973. It was the summer of my fifteenth birthday. I was cool, as cool as a 15 year old can be. I was wearing my typical wardrobe, blue jeans, white tee shirt and of course tennis shoes.

I always got a new pair of tennis shoes every summer and come school time in the fall that pair of tennis shoes would always be worn out. My tennis shoes never spent much time on the rug by the back door, my tennis shoes were always on my feet taking me somewhere. On this particular day they had taken me down to the neighbors to the south.

I rode my trusty bike down to the neighbors house. This isn't just any old bike, this is a Schwinn bike. A 20" Schwinn bike with knobby tires, banana seat and high rise handle bars. It was a beautiful gold Schwinn bike. A bike I had modified to go little faster than most 20" banana seat bikes. At that time I didn't know much about gears and physics but I did know if you put a larger sprocket on the front where the peddles are and a smaller sprocket on the back the bike would go faster. This Schwinn bike was a tough old bike. Oh I broke a couple of front axles on it, wore out a sprocket and chain, and blew out a couple of tires but we always got it back on the road again. That bike only stopped at night when it got dark out. And then at times my brother would ride it up and down the driveway after dark until someone told him to come inside. Needless to say that bike had a lot of miles on it.

Myself and my brother had gotten the bike for Christmas about the time I was six or seven years old. Our sisters had gotten one too with the only difference being theirs was a girls bike and had a pretty white basket on the front. We would ride the bikes in the house until the day came when one of the girls ran into a wall. That was the end of that as dad kicked both bikes out the door never to see the inside of the house again.

The time was about 4:00 in the afternoon and and that meant it would soon be supper time. Every family in the neighborhood had a regular supper time. Ours happened to be 4:30 to 5:00. The neighbors to the south about 5:30 and the neighbors across the road 6:00. You didn't miss supper either. Everybody was expected to be there and not only that you had to eat at least one of every item mom made for supper that night. That could be an ordeal at times.

I started for home with the ride being just about a 1/4 of a mile. Like most 15 year old boys you can't consider yourself cool unless you can ride without your hands on the handle bars and I was no exception. I could ride for miles without grabbing the handle bars. It really wasn't all the hard to do, you can even turn corners without using the handle bars. I usually kept my hands down on the front part of the banana seat or on my knees. It was also cool to pop wheelies and if that wasn't enough you needed to ride that wheelie too. I couldn't ride wheelies as far as some 15 year boys could do at the time but I could go for a little ways.

I was about half the way home when I got this brilliant idea. What if I could not only ride without any hands on the handle bars but what if I could do it and ride a wheelie at the same time? Sounds like something you would only see in a circus and at the time it sounded fairly easy, especially to a cool 15 year old boy on his gold colored Schwinn bike with the banana seat and high rise handle bars.

I waited for my right foot to come around to be at the top of the peddle stroke and grabbed the front of the banana seat. When my foot was in the proper position I pushed down a little harder with my right foot and pulled up slightly on the banana seat with my hands. Wow, that front tire came off the ground real easy. It was at least 12" off the ground. This is where the problem starts, this is also where I start to learn about physics. As the front tire is comfortably 12" off the ground and I was admiring my own abilities to ride no handed and pop a wheelie at the same time the front handle bars suddenly turned 90 degrees. Normally not a problem, just grab the handle bars and straighten them out right? The only problem is I missed the handle bars. And when I missed the handle bars this is where the physics part kicked in. A little known phenomenon called gravity decided to kick in. I can still remember thinking to myself "This is going to hurt." Down comes the front end of the bike with the tire still 90 degrees from the proper direction for good rotation and digs into the gravel road for an immediate stop. Up to this point in my life I had never had the pleasure of going over the handle bars of a bike. Like I said up to this point as I went over the handle bars and landed on my right arm. I am greatful for a right arm it actually saved most of my body from getting torn up. Oh that right arm made up for it. Blood covered my entire right arm. The only other marks on me was a small scrap on my chin. The second worse thing about wiping out on a gravel road wasn't hitting the ground or the blood or the pain, it was all the gravel stuck in my arm. I just knew it was going to have to come out and that was going to hurt worse than the actual wipe out.

Oh, the worse thing about wiping out? Dad saw me do it. He watched me ride no handed, saw me pop the wheelie and watched the crash. What did he say?

"That was pretty stupid now put the bike away you're grounded for a week."

He didn't care I was bleeding all up and down my arm or the pain I was in. He didn't bother to ask if I broke anything or if I might need stitches. Nope, just told me how stupid I was. He was probably right but I really didn't need to be told that right at that time. Punishment? I thought I had enough punishment for what I had done but apparently he didn't. To be honest I didn't care at the time I just wanted to get into the house and get cleaned up.

Mom wanted to clean me up but I refused to let her. I was going to do it myself. I knew if she did it the pain would be unbearable because she would scrub away. If I did it I could be as gentle as I needed to be.

I got myself cleaned up and went out and sat at the supper table to eat. I was still bleeding but at least it wasn't near as much as earlier. I ate supper that night in pain and left handed, and had I to listen to dad laugh at me all through supper. The punishment never stops.

To make matters worse I was suppose to go to my girlfriends house that night to go swimming. It was great, a girlfriend with a in ground swimming pool. The only reason I had this girlfriend was to go swimming in their pool. I was told there was no way I was allowed to go into a swimming pool with the way my arm was looking. I would be staying home that night. The punishment never stops.

I survived that nice sunny day the summer I turned fifteen. I still carry the scars from that accident as a reminder it may not be the coolest thing to ride no handed and pop wheelies at the same time. The bike? Like I said before it was a 20" gold Schwinn banana seat bike with high rise handle bars. It was tough, didn't hurt it a bit.

At this point in my life this was the worst accident I had ever been into caused by myself. The worst would come 4 years later. But that is another story for another day.