Sean Dietrich (AKA – Sean of the South) is an author, blogger, musician, and redhead. Any of those characteristics can make one outstanding. Sean reportedly comes from humble beginnings and by his own admission, had a rough childhood. His father committed suicide when Sean was twelve years old. At the age of fourteen, the family moved from Missouri to Florida, and he dropped out of school and began doing construction work.
The trajectory of a child with that background is often surrounded by struggles and misfortune that lasts for a lifetime. Sean had the good fortune of falling in love with a girl who saw more in him than he saw in himself. With her encouragement and that of her extended family, he changed the trajectory of his life. His sense of humor, compassion, and thoughtful communication place him at the top of the leaderboard.
I've been reading his daily blog for several weeks and it is more than worth the investment of my time. Today he wrote: "…I'm glad to know that children still ride bikes. When I was a kid, an estimated 69 percent of American children between the ages of five and 14 rode bikes. Today, it's down to nine percent. The percentage drops every year.
He adds: "We kids had no technology. We had no social media. No smart phones. The bike was our internet, our phone, and our Instagram."
Ronnie and I both got an American Flyer Bicycle from Santa when we were in the first grade. At the time, our neighborhood didn't have sidewalks, so we rode our bikes in the street, but traffic wasn't much of an issue. You just had to be careful.
We lived three blocks from our elementary school, and we got there by walking. Our folks were a little overprotective. We weren't permitted to ride our bicycles to school. For that matter, I don't remember any kids that did.
We also lived close enough to our junior high / high school, that we walked uphill both ways through the snow, on those rare occasions that snow fell in our area. My mom ensured that we never passed up an opportunity to enjoy snow ice cream.
I grew up in a day when helmets were never paired with a bicycle. I didn't play football, so I missed having the experience of wearing a helmet. With parental guidance, we also had enough sense that we didn't ride our bicycles in traffic. Seriously, wouldn't you have to be passively suicidal to do that?
Initially, we rode our bicycles up and down the street for recreation. Eventually, we were given permission to "make the block". That's were out-of-sight/out-of-mind came into play. I sometimes stretched one block into two or maybe three. But I always stayed in our neighborhood. I didn't get out in any real traffic.
At the age of about 12, I got a paper route and I used my bicycle for that purpose. To that end, I stayed on residential streets when I was on my bike. I did not ride in traffic.
In today's world, even adults ride bicycles and many do in downtown Austin to commute to work. Maybe "crazy" is contagious. Of course, no one rides without a helmet, but they weave in and out of traffic as though they were king of the road. They also ride with our without a bike lane on the highway. I may be dumber than dirt, but I've lived long enough to know that bikes and cars don't mix.
One of the things I like about Denver is there are paved paths for bicycles and you can ride for miles and never need to mix bikes with traffic.
All My Best!
Don
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