July 4, 2007

  • Independence!

        Grownup's Featured Content asks about "Independence."

        On this, Independence Day, I haven't much time to devote to the answer as I seem to be fettered with obligations.  (Are any of us ever really independent?)

        So I'll just say this:  Apparently I was born to struggle for independence.  As a child, I wanted it badly enough to kick, scream, fight, and write for it.

        I wanted it badly enough to enter every single contest I could find that offered the winner her very own bicycle.   There were at least 15 and I dutifully entered them all -- positive I'd win at least ONE of them.

        The Snow Crop entry blank instructed me to write, in twenty-five words or less, why I wanted a bicycle.

        And so I did.

        And won the only thing I've ever won!

    BlueColumbia

    Except MINE was brown.  I requested that color.
    Because who ever heard of a turqoise horse?

    Columbia2

        And suddenly, much to my mother's dismay, I had WHEELS!   I was FREE!   I could go wherever I wanted to go.  I could explore!  I could escape the boundaries of home whenever I chose!

        Which was often.

Comments (24)

  • that is awesome. really wonderful.

  • Dear Fifi,

    I never has a bike when I was a kid. My parents wouldn't let us out of the yard. They were pretty strict.

    When I was in junior high our school was a ways away from home, and I began to visit classmates for the first time after school. I would walk the longish walk home instead of taking the bus. At Steve's house, I got to ride his old stingray while he rode his new one. It was independence of a sort.

    At 16 though, with my driver's licence, there was a real Independence Day.(Except my parents were still strict, and wouldn't let me drive anywhere except to school and foot ball games.)

    Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

  • The only thing I ever won was a lobster from a grocery store when I was about 8 years old.  Too bad I don't like seafood.

  • Brown Bike of Independence, it has a nice rhytm.

  • Columbia bikes are the best.  It used to be so much fun to ride my bike.  Once I went a whole mile with no hands. 

  • Great post!

  • ryc: yeah, you would'a.

    "A place so filled with wonder..."

  • Excellent! I enjoyed reading this post. It is great to have a set of wheels!

  • Oh wonderful independence. I think in our youth it was much more available.
    Hugs, Tricia

  • Great post!

  • ryc: thanks... I won a bike once as a college student. But it turns out the owner had lost it and came back to claim it after the contest started. Even tho I won, all I got was an old Royal manual typewriter :(

  • ryc i guess. aw gee thanks. haha.
    Now, I don't feel stupid for what I said, I just felt bad that I did it to my friend, who wasn't really asking for that, haha. And then that chick had to respond to mine, so I had to respond to her, all still on his myspace... I felt like a jerk, and I couldn't even feel happy about him retracting his original post because... he's so nice and not political, haha. I just felt bad... But thanks, that's sort of an inspiring comment, haha. Peace.

  • Ah yes, sweeeeet freedom!

  • RYC: That list is a work in progress and has been... believe me, I didn't just create it.
    Thanks.
    Hugs, Tricia

  • Love your independence... and I am still looking for mine, I think!

    ryc- they had us on the news? wow.... it looks like we are free til Monday night... I think I will laze in the pool tomorrow...

  • Ah, yes.  I remember the freedom that came with my first bike, and how it grew when I got my first 10-speed.  And then my first car.  I've never felt the same love for a car as I did my bike, and so happy I have a bike again.  The world passes by too quickly in a car, and we're less inclined to travel the road less traveled or make our own route.  Great post! :)

  • I love your determination in entering all those contests until you finally won your bike.

  • Where's the banana seat??

    RYC: What insect?

  • RYC: "I'm thinking Praying Mantis. Because they can turn their heads ALL the way around!"

    And the female eats the male after copulation.

    (You ain't much older'n me! So I know they had banana seats.)

  • How cool! Nice post!

  • So you have always been independent? Remindsmeof the Reba McEntire song "I'mGonna Take That Mountain:" "

    I was born a stubborn soul, I ain't afraid of a grade nor a winding road that's all uphill."

  • What a prize! Not only did you have something material you also had your own piece of freedom.

  • Hi!
    Lovely post!
    Isabel

  • A glorious thing, still, a bike and some time and room to use it.

    You've got better luck than I do. I couldn't win indigestion at Taco Bell!

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