My grandparents bought me my first bike. I was 9, so it must have been 1950 or 51. Heavy, just pedals and handlebars and seat. You braked by standing back on the pedal that was rearmost.

My elderly grandmother (she must have been about 50 or so--it's a bit weird that I'm older now than she was then) rode it first, to show me how to get started and up to speed. Then my turn. The first time I rode it I crashed into the stone wall at the bottom of our dirt road. Sturdy bike--it was hardly scratched, though I was, a bit. Didn't use enough muscle on the reverse thrust and didn't start braking soon enough.

Gears? What gears? I didn't have a geared bicycle until I went to college. Zoomed all around campus from day job waiting tables to classes to second job copy writer for newspaper at night. Couldn't afford a car. That was for kids who didn't have to work their way through school, because daddy paid all the bills. (And I'm still working, 50 years later).

Have a great day friends! I'm off this morning to the VA with hubby, to find out what Palliative Care they can offer him.