In my longish life I have only owned two bicycles.
My first one was given to me by my grandmother in Mexico City in 1956. It was a Raleigh. My mother, who put the photograph here in our album, did not date it but my guess is that it was near Christmas as I was photographed with a Santa Claus and the instant picture taken was bought by my mother.
It was at that time, when on my birthday, someone insisted in giving me a croquet game as a gift. I thought it was a game for girls. But with my friends, we invented the game of bicycle polo using the croquet mallets and the ball. We played the game on our street Sierra Madre which was in the nice neighbourhood of Colonia Chapultepec. Across from my house were a couple of boys that played with us. Their father had been a famous army general called General Rincón Gallardo.
That Raleigh made itself all the way to Nueva Rosita, Coahuila in 1957 when my mother was hired by American Smelting and Refining to teach in a two room schoolhouse there to the children of the engineers and employees of the company. My mother taught 8th, 7th and 6th grade. I had the unusual bad luck of being in the 8th grade with five other boys. She was hard on me.
One of the privileges of living in what was called la Colonia Americana is that we were given horses to ride. My horse refused to do anything leaving the stable. When I managed to get it a couple of miles into the desert it would only then gallop home. I stopped using the horse and accompanied my friends on their horses with my bike. I had a special liquid in the inner tubes that instantly repaired the desert leaks caused by spiky plants.
Once I got married in 1968 I found that while Rosemary could do anything.One thing she could not do and had not done as a little girl was ride a bicycle. That would explain why I did not have second bicycle until 7 years ago before we moved from Kerrisdale to our Kits duplex.
I made one mistake in my very nice Trek Bicycle which has a rubber belt instead of a chain. I bought it (feeling very English) with only the famous (at one time) 3 gear Sturmy-Archer hub.
Of late I cycle one hour every day. Those 3 gears mean I have to put extra effort when I ride my bike on the steady uphill going West at Point Grey Road. I take my Fuji cameras and shoot pictures. I ride all the way to Jericho Beach and back. Now when I place my head on the pillow at night I go to sleep instantly. This feels awfully good.
My daily bike ride, and going around the block with Niño, have become something of a purpose and order in my day that still seems vacant without the presence of my Rosemary.
In the mid 80s I took a photograph of a cyclist (he pressed the shutter, not me) that I am most proud of as this was shot before Go-Pros existed.
https://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2007/10/today-rebecca-lauren-rosemary-and-i.html
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| Nelson McLachlan |
