PRISONER EXPRESS

Now that I've lived past my 40th year I spend a lot of time day dreaming of my idle childhood days. For the most part, my younger days were not all that hard or bad. In fact, there were many good days.

The two strongest people in my life were my Mom and Grandmother. They pretty much taught me everything about life: how to cook, wash clothes, pay bills, treat women, love and be loved. I was 11 years old when I go t my first bike. It was a Swinne 10 speed. Momma didn't like the idea of me riding other people's bikes, so she took me to a pawn shop and bought me a bike. The killer part was that it would not fit in the car...and she didn't want me to ride it home because it was about 8 maybe 10 miles from the house, plus I'd have to cross some 3 major intersections in a row. Would you believe that she actually told me to walk the bike home? I had to explain to her that the bike was meant to be ridden, and that I would be riding the bike all over the city...eventually. Well, what happened is that I got to ride my new bike home. After that, Momma grounded my bike for a week because she's my mom and had to check my attitude, after that I could only ride my bike with her permission, and each time I rode it out of her set boundaries, I was seriously punished. For about six months that bike spent more time chained up in my room than anywhere. And I never had more fun with any vehicle since.