According to Wikipedia, bicycles now number about one billion worldwide, twice the number of automobiles. Fortunately today, I have one bicycle and two cars. Back in simpler times, I had one bicycle and no car.
No matter how you view it, there are a lot of different types of bicycles. There are urban and mountain bikes; touring and triathlon bikes; road bikes and trail bikes; lowriders and tall bikes. Then, there’s something call a recumbent—a bike that look like a chaise lounge on wheels.
For me there is only one real bike, a Schwinn Black Phantom. Call it nostalgic if you like but call it the classic cruiser bike of the 50s. Every kid dreamed of owning a Phantom with whitewall tires and a streamline fender light. Phantom’s were sleek and traveled fast. They had to be to get you home, from the far edge of your neighborhood, before your mother called out your name the third time. The third call was when she used your first- middle- and last name and you knew you did not want to hear that because it meant some form of disciple awaited.
When I was eleven or twelve my father went with me to the local Western Auto store where they sold Schwinn bikes. Schwinn was the Rolls Royce of bikes, or so it seem to the kids in the neighborhood.
I was ready to buy my Phantom, but they were sold out. The clerk said they only had the Green Hornet in stock. I was disappointed but the hornet wasn’t bad either, never mind that it was second best. I gave the clerk a $5.00 bill and agreed to pay $2 every Saturday until the note was paid. The money came out of my paper route. I had my first taste of credit, got the bike and pay two dollars every week for ever it seemed.
As time went by I enjoyed riding the bike but, I never loved it. My heart was set on owing a Phantom and I settled for a Hornet. My goal was to own the best bike and I chose the second best bike because I was unwilling to wait a short time for a new shipment of Phantoms to arrive. The Hornet also cost a little less than the best thing but the savings were soon forgotten.
I learned four valuable lessons from buying the second best bicycle. Lesson 1. Have patience. Had I waited a couple of weeks for the new shipment to arrive I would have gotten the bike I wanted. Lesson two. If what you really want costs a little more, don’t settle for a little savings. Price is quickly forgotten. Value has a long shelf life. Lesson 3. I know now, looking back over the years, that the “fastness” or speed of the bike was the result of how much energy I expended peddling. Phantoms and Hornets had a chain-driven sprocket with one speed— no derailleur offering multi gears. You peddled slow, you moved slow, you peddled fast you moved fast. The same is true of life today. Lesson four. Anything worth having is worth working for. I sometimes got tired delivering my newspapers, but I knew come Saturday, I had to have two dollars for the man at Western Auto.
I am sorry for those kids today who don’t have the opportunity to earn money from a paper route to buy a bicycle, but I am sorrier still for those kids that have a bicycle and did not earn the money to pay for it, for they will never know the joy of patience and the excitement of paying off a “note.” Unable to make the connection between effort and results; between cause and effect; between sweat and reward, they only know getting, never giving. Whenever I feel myself being impatient, as I sometimes do, I remember the words of John Quincy Adams, “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”
I peddle on.
HOG THOUGHT: Don’t mistake procrastination for patience or stubbornness for perseverance. While patience and perseverance move you toward your goal, procrastination and stubbornness prevent goal achievement.
HOG QUOTE: “Patience is the companion of wisdom.” — St. Augustine
HOG ACTION: Practice patience. It forces you to focus on the task at hand. Good things come to those that wait with purpose: end of story.
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