My brother was the first to get wheeled vehicles in the family. He was the first to get a bicycle, first to get a motorcycle and the first to get a car. Once he got his first bike, he wouldn’t let me ride it. I thought he was being stingy, but maybe he knew I had never ridden one before. I remember a hand-me down tricycle that I tried to ride on the sidewalks on our block. The ride was a bumpy one, as the front wheel had little to no rubber on the tire. So, one morning I decided to beat my brother to the punch, so I arose from sleep before he did to take his new bike out. I walked it along the sidewalk past Baddour's, then next to the white bank building and up to the Main Street railroad crossing, as I knew it was downhill from the crossing. Thought to myself .. 'no better way to get a rolling start', since I didnt know how to pedal from a standstill. I was careful enough to make certain there was no traffic before I hopped on the bike and pushed off. The first time I crashed halfway down the incline on Main Street. Learning to keep my balance while pedaling seemed difficult, but I would then go back and try again. Unknown to me, Mr. Wise, the mayor of Hughes was watching from his drug store, which was a ring-side seat to my first failed attempts. After the third or fourth crash, he came out to ask me if I was okay and told me that I should stop trying to do it that way. I'm not sure if he was laughing at my efforts, but he didn’t try to stop me either. I told him I was fine, and I replied, “I almost got it”, so he let me be. The next try was a success. I maintained my balance and was pedaling like a ‘pro’. After that, my brother would let me ride his bike, but only after he was finished with it.
