Tom Ptasinski’s Story

August 1992 I was a late bloomer when it came to a two wheeler, fear more than anything else. It just didn't seem scientifically possible to me to be able to ride on two wheels, I recall trying to make my mini-hot wheels motorcycles stand on their own and when they didn't, I figured my version scientific method had disproved this anomaly of two wheeled bike riding. Then I would watch out my window with longing and envy as all the other neighborhood kids rode around, with two wheels and to join them I'd have to show my measly training wheels.

Then, one summer eve, while I was waiting to be picked up at the Fiore's, Jen Fiore said enough was enough and that it was time I rode a bike like a "big boy>" I distinctly remember the way she said "big boy" as if to imply that I was still a child, I hopped on a really old Schwinn and gave it a try. I fell. I tried again, I fell again, and then Jen said she'd do what her dad did for her, she would hold the back of the seat and keeping me steady so that I could practice balancing myself. I thought it preposterous because she was skin and bones and I was anything but, yet, Jen could be quite persuasive when she wanted to be which is to say, when she decided to so something she did it whether you were in or not. As I began to push the pedals, I went over in my head how I was going to brace myself for a crash this time, that thought was interrupted, however, but the distance call of a voice, Jen's voice, and it was some ways behind me. I turned around to discover that I was indeed, riding a bike, two wheeled, all by myself and the weird part is that I'd felt I had known how to do it all my life. I realized Jen had tricked me, but that was instantly overtaken by the indescribable joy of finally being able to do what all the other kids could.