My first two wheel bike

The Climatron, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis

I don't know why, but I have quite a few memories from when I was 4 or 5. We lived on a street that was all of one block long, bound on the south end by Shenandoah and the north end by Flad. In the middle of the block was our two family flat and the intersection with Cleveland that ran west. There was no house or apartment in front of our house, just Cleveland, which was one way away from our house. Behind our house on the other side of the block was Alfred Avenue which ran the length of the backside of The Missouri Botanical Garden.

Commonly referred to as Shaw's Garden (in honor of Henry Shaw.who was only 18 when he came to St. Louis, and became one of the city’s largest landowners by age 40. Working with leading botanists, he planned, funded and built the Missouri Botanical Garden, which opened in 1859). The delivery entrance for trucks was on Alfred a few blocks away, and the 79 acres of Shaw's Garden made a wonderful summertime playground as long as we didn't get caught by the employees. They tolerated us as long as we didn't tear anything up.It was always warm and humid in The Climatron, even in winter. The flowers throughout the garden were beautiful. There was a Desert house, a Rose house and numerous other types of displays that we could walk through. But The Climatron was my favorite place to go.

And would you believe, I punched in the address and Google returned a picture of the front of that two family flat. That was home from the time I was two until I went away to college.

I was 4 when I wore out the tires on the hand me down tricycle I had. For my birthday, Dad got me a two wheel bike with training wheels. It looked like this:

It wasn't very long until I wanted to try it without the training wheels. With an audience of several neighbors and my Mom, Dad held his hand on the back of the seat to get me started down the alley on just two wheels. He said I was doing great. About that time I looked back and saw that he let go of the bike about 20 feet ago and I was on my own. As I looked back, the adults yelled, "look forward, look forward!". Me and the bike crashed to the concrete of the alley.

Although I had a few scrapes, what was most upsetting were the scratches in the paint on the bike and bent fender. My new bike. Dad was able to bend the fender back in place, and in our garage he had some red paint to touch up the scratches. It was as good as new. I rode that bike hard. In the alley, on the sidewalk and occasionally into the street. It's a miracle I was never struck by a car. One winter I even tried to ride that bike in the tire tracks in the snow on the street. That didn't work too well, I decided I needed snow tires and I put the bike back in the garage until spring.

So it goes.