[Jolly Amaranto]

My dad was about 14 years old growing up in Milwaukee. It was well into the depression years. The Milwaukee Journal news paper was offering a bicycle to paper delivery boys. If you stayed with the job for a year, the bike was yours. He had never ridden a bike before in his life but he really wanted one. So he applied for the job. Before any boy got the job, they had to prove that they could ride a bike. They put him on a brand new bike and away he went. A little wobbly at first but once he got going he managed to stay up. The street was on a hill and it was a terrifying ride to the bottom. He managed to take a corner, and once he was out of site, crashed into the back of a paddlers cart. The old guy pulling the cart came around and dusted my dad off, assessed the situation and gave him a pep talk. After some coaxing, and encouragement, my dad got back on the bike and rode back up the hill to take his new job. He sold the bike when he enlisted in the Army Air Corps at the beginning of WWII.