Special thanks to my son.  At 11 years old he is an avid bike rider.  He rides his bike everywhere.  I always knew he loved to ride, but what I saw him recently do made me almost go out of my mind.  He was doing a WHEELIE up and down the sidewalk!  I yelled at him knowing he had no helmet, knee pads, elbow pads on (not that I can ever get him to ever wear them).  I guess in my mind he was still that 5 year old snotty-nosed kid riding with his training wheels to support him.

"What the hell are you doing wheelies for?!"  I screamed in terror.  "Oh come on Dad, you do a wheelie!" He protested.

I don't know what it was about his reply to me, but suddenly I remembered my past and my "bike days".  I remember a group of kids I use to ride with and practice each day doing new "tricks" on our bikes.  Heck, we use to play Joust using broomstick handles to try to throw into each others spokes to flip each of us off our bikes.  Helmet's?  What was that?  All I know is we had FUN!  And wheelies, I had to worked at it all summer, but I finally was able to do a wheelie all the way up my block in front of my house by the time I was 14! 

All of a sudden I found myself, a thirty-something father doing wheelies with his 11 year old.  Man were we having fun!  I learned a lot that afternoon.  Stop worrying about life and start doing wheelies!  Thanks Son!

Bradley Wheeler | 09.09.2005

 

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