[Dan in Pasadena]

My parents were born in '23 and '24. My dad (now 18 years gone) would relate than when he wanted a bike as a child his dad put him off and put him off. There just wasn't money for things like that. One day my grandfather brings a box home with a bunch of rusty bike parts in it and a frame and says, "Here's your bike, mijo" (spanish term of endearment). My dad was about 10 years old and managed to put it together. He would relate how he had no idea how to do it but would go look in the bike store window for ideas and later how he found a pint of black laquer (REAL lacquer in those days) and brush painted his bike, color sanded it and rubbed it out with old fashioned red rubbing compound. He spoke lovingly of that bicycle.

My mother wanted us kids to have everything she never had. It was a constant issue between my parents. I might be better off today if my dad had prevailed a bit more in those arguments.