It is no secret that I like warm weather. “Like” is no where near strong enough. I love it. The hotter the better. I am, to put it mildly, cold weather-averse. I come by it honestly. It runs in the family. My mother hated the cold. My father was not given to complaining. But even he was heard to allow that he didn’t like Winter much, and he was always a lot happier and easier to be around in Summer.
My poor daughter has it worse than I do. She is actually, literally, allergic to cold. If her skin is exposed to temps much below 50 degrees F, she will break out into hives. (Let me say here, I am proud her! She is tough. She is living on the bike, in this winter!)
Some years ago, when my daughter was about fifteen, we took a trip up to the north-east, to visit relatives. It was July. They were experiencing an unprecedented heat wave. Temps were going above 100 on a daily basis, and people were seriously suffering. This is an area where a “severe heat wave” is defined as three consecutive days above 90.
So it was hot. Do I need to mention that we’d brought our bikes along?
It was getting boring, so my daughter and I decided to go for a ride. Our family (particularly the northern branch) expressed horror. “It’s so hot out there! Why the airconditioner is on full blast, and it’s hot in here!” they all said. I’m afraid that my wonderful child and I gave them blank looks in return. What they were saying sounded like English, but the words didn’t make any sense.
There was another salvo fired. The nephews were going to be competing in a swim meet. We promised to be there. We knew where the event was to be, and we promised to ride there while we were out. The meet was to start at noon, and the boys wouldn’t be swimming until around 2:00 PM. We promised that we would be there in time.
The two of us went out into the sultry hot day, and proceeded to have a really nice ride. Yes, we were warm, but we were on our bikes, and staying hydrated and doused. There were plenty of stores around, so we could duck in and cool down if necessary, while replenishing our water.
We watched the time. We changed our routing, and arrived at the swim club at 2:45 PM. Surprise! The parking lot was empty! There was no one in sight. I was beginning to wonder if I’d managed to commit one of those huge, and politically catastrophic “family foux passé.” My while I was fumbling in my underseat bag for my phone (they were a lot bigger and clumsier then) my daughter noticed a sign on the club gate. Suddenly she was roaring with laughter!
“Dad!” she yelled, “You’re not gonna believe this! They cancelled the swim meet and closed the pool! Because it’s too hot to swim!”
We later learned that the temperature then was a (for that area) record high of 105 degrees F. We were out riding our bikes on a day when Delawareans considered it too hot to swim. Joy!
~ ~ ~
The first practical uses I put a bicycle to were going to school, going to the pool, and running small errands for my mother.
That last one was great. Mom was a light tipper, but she did tip. And it got me out of the house, and allowed me to ride my bike. Both good things. A ride to the store beats doing chores or homework… hands down!
I wasn’t always fond of going to school, but the time on the bike was great.
Going to the pool was wonderful! A hot summer day. I could take myself to the pool. I wasn’t dependent on parental transport. I could go when I wanted, stay (within limits) as long as I liked, and come home when I chose, and by any route that pleased me. At age ten and up this was freedom and independence.
I made mistakes. I learned from them. Sometimes I got home late, or neglected to inform parental authorities of my departures and whereabouts. I learned responsibility from that. I found that actions had consequences, choices always had implications, and to always cover my backside. Valuable stuff.
That’s a lot of what I remember about my young summers. Later on, my world would widen. I went farther on summer days. I could get out into the untraveled countryside. I found favorite fishing holes. I found wonderful creeks and streams to swim in. Some of this activity was unauthorized, and would have been frowned on, but I hurt no one, and no one was ever the wiser.
It wasn’t all idyllic. I had the occasional flat or mechanical problem. I learned to cope with those.
I would ride the bike to the woods, and then along fire roads, and trails. I may have even been “mountain biking,” but that hadn’t been invented yet.
I made a discovery. It can be far too hot to cut the lawn, but it is almost never too hot to ride a bike.
No comments:
Post a Comment