OLDER THAN DIRT
My bikes, that is. Not me. Here's my first tricycle.
I do recall washing the first new car we ever bought - a Brookwood Station Wagon in the spring of 1958. This was taken shortly before they recalled it to overhaul its ill-fated TurboGlide transmission.
I can remember a bike in elementary school. But nothing about it. Oh wait, here's another photo (cough, cough, from the dust in the closet and in the album). It must have been around the same time, as you can see the Brookwood in the background.
Through middle school, which we called Junior High back then, I had this J C Higgins 3 speed. Of course mine didn't look this good all its life, due to the canyon behind our house. We didn't have dedicated off-road bikes back then - we just ruined our good bikes in the dirt.
Around 1970 (college for me) I constructed a look-alike to the Schwinn Manta Ray. Essentially this was a multi-speed StingRay for older kids. Mine didn't have the 5-speed derailleur shown here, as I preferred a Sturmey Archer internal hub transmission/brake assembly. BTW - this is a Schwinn ad and not me.
At this time I was working at Bicycles Unlimited in Ocean Beach. I must have had 20 bikes while I was there. It was started by two English couples, Chris and Sandy Newman together with Tony and Pat. T & P soon moved to Mira Mesa and are still running Black Mountain Bicycles. We carried all sorts of European stuff - English, Italian, etc.
The income allowed me to go upscale and I bought a nearly-new Schwinn Continental. Here it is in all its glory. This is the actual photo of my dorm room decor - bike and board. Gold shag carpet and nothing else but a gold Naugahyde chair.
I dug up a much nicer looking photo (on the web somewhere) but I see now that the owner must have taken off the nice seat. Or did I purchase and install the Brooks saddle on mine? Similar rack though, and stem-mounted shifters, and gigantic chain guard, chrome front fork, etc. etc.
I can remember at least 10-12 more bikes but nothing is clear and no photographs remain. With no cell phone cameras in those days, photos cost real money. And I didn't have very much at the time. (Spent it all on bicycles)
