When Grandma Was A Little Girl - #19

Story #19 - The race on bikes – Glass in my head – ouch!
Have you ever had a bicycle race? It’s so fun to peddle as fast as you can and win at a race!

My dad thought competition between his children was healthy. He loved a good race! We had a circular driveway that went around the front and back of the house. I was about 8 years old. I loved riding a bicycle! I did not have a girl’s bike. I rode a boy’s bike. The driveway that circled our house was dirt and it had small rocks in it. I was very competitive. Everybody likes to win, right? Right! I was peddling as fast as I could and I was ahead of my twin brother Gayle. I made one small mistake. I took my eye off of the driveway in front of me and as I was going around the curve I looked back to see how close behind me my brother was. The next thing I knew I had a bad bike wreck! I lost the race! My brother rode past me on to victory!

I was wearing shorts. It was summer. My bike was on top of me and I was ground into the dirt and rocks! My hands and knees were badly skinned and bleeding. There was blood coming from my head. I was crying and screaming like a typical little girl. My dad and oldest brother Geoffrey came running over to me and picked the bike off of me and carried me into the house. I remember having dirt in my mouth and dirt all over me! My mom cleaned me up. I had a small piece of glass stuck in the right side of head above the temple (ear area). She picked it out with tweezers. I also had tiny bits of rock stuck in my knees where they ground into the dirt. I was a mess! I remember my mom washing my wounds and it just hurt so bad. The soap stung on my hands and knees. It took a few weeks to heal up from those scabs. I remember one knee had a scab over the whole kneecap. Every time I walked the scab would crack open and bleed a little bit. I still have the scar on my knee where I had that large scab. I couldn’t ride a bike for almost a month. Just as soon as I could, I got right back on the bike a rode it. I didn’t look back anymore when I raced. I learned my lesson the hard way!

I remember one more accident I had. This time I was about 10 years old. We had a cotton field across the street from us. Before they raised cotton on it, it was just an old dirt field with a dirt road shaped like a big horseshoe. My brothers and I would ride our bikes on it. My dad bought an old Cushman scooter. It was white and old and clunky but so much fun to ride! The tank held about one gallon of gas. I don’t remember having to shift gears on it. I just remember it having a gas throttle on the right handlebar and a left foot brake. We all took turns riding that thing around the field on that horseshoe shaped dirt road. I kept going faster and faster. My brothers told me that I better slow down going around the curves. Well I forgot to slow down this one time and as I went around the curve, it went over on its side and I had my leg pinned under the scooter and I couldn’t reach the gas throttle on the handlebars to turn it off and it was too heavy to lift up so I could scoot out from under it. So, I just had to sit there until they came to help me. While the scooter was down on its side, oil had spilled on the motor and it made a small smoke cloud coming from the scooter. My brothers came running down the road and yelling to me, “Are you alright? Are you okay?” They were really worried when they saw the smoke as they thought the scooter was on fire and I would get burned. When they got there, I was fine. The scooter was heavy and I couldn’t push it off myself. They turned the scooter off and lifted it off me. They were relieved I was okay. I remember I wanted to finish my turn but they wouldn’t let me. They let me ride behind them and they took me home. They said that I couldn’t ride it anymore because they thought I would wreck it and ruin it. I told dad when he got home and he said I could still ride it! See what a tomboy your grandmother was!