The Hot Shot

My older, wiser, brother Curt celebrated a big birthday last week. I have many great memories of him but this one stands out as an especially funny one.

You know how there are childhood memories that seem absolutely perfect, then look at the picture and see a few flaws in what you thought was perfection?

I thought I had the best bike in Clifton. It was really cool. It had a banana seat and everything.

My mom made that shirt
 

A kid can do anything on a bike. Wow - such great memories of riding up around the church or school and those trails, ahhh the trails by Weatherspoons. If I was really brave, I even dared ride my bike across the street from Weatherspoons and ride on more bike trails clear down to Whiteheads. But, Whiteheads had two dogs: Queenie and Bowser and I may or may not have been slightly scared of dogs. On the other side of my house, I wasn't afraid of Murdock's dog, Butch. And, Gailey's dog Maggie, was really slow so I wasn't afraid of her either.

Today's memory isn't about the town dogs though, it's about bikes. Once, I was outside of the school playing, as usual, when Curt came up to me and took my bike for a spin. He drove it like a boss down the Weatherspoon's Bike Trail. When he got to the grand finale, the sweet jump at the end -- he went over the jump like a hot shot and the front bike tire became loose from the frame and rolled down the street towards The Twin Lakes Mercantile leaving Curt and bike eating dirt.

It didn't really help matters that the Twin Lakes Baseball team was watching practicing on the field near the trails.

Curt is still older and wiser. I think he keeps his distance from pedal bikes though :-)

And, maybe for my next memory - I'll go through the rest of the town dogs.