Patriotism Liveson a Schwinn

Yesterday my friend Bryan and I rode bikes all over his neighborhood. It was the 4th of July and a perfect summer day, really clear and sunny and hot the way it gets in inland Sonoma County--much more like the summer days of my childhood than the ones here in the Easy Bay, where it takes until past noon for the fog to burn off. I rode his wife's Schwinn, which is the "Good Vibrations" model. It has boxy wire baskets on the back. Bryan rode his bike, which is "Hollywood." Hollywood. What a great name--really, do you think anyone in crummy old Hollywood rides cruisers around except for vatos?...I hadn't been on a bike in at least a year. We had a really cool brown Schwinn 5-speed with collapseable wire baskets on the back, but Joe rode it to Trader Joe's one day to quickly get eggs and milk. He didn't lock up the bike and guess what? Some dillhole stole it. That'll learn us...I love cruisers. They are so much easier to ride than fancy 10-speeds or mountain bikes--I hate those strap-in foot holders, and I hte that click-grind noise when you change gears. Cruisers are all about cruising. We pedaled over to the elemetary school and I rode around in circles on the playground, swerving gently between the basketball hoops...We pedaled all over, to this private pool and tennis club and to another high school and to another elementary school and past a few houses where Bryan used to live, plus past this creek where an older kid he knew once found a decomposing baby's head in a jar...Most of the time were'nt even on roads, but these little paved paths that criscrossed backyards and property lines. When we did ride on streets, they were quiet and wide with hardly any traffic. Houses had American flags out, but most everyone was either in their backyards or cowering inside in the coolness of the air conditioning...I didn't have a helmet on, plus I was wearing flip-flops. When I was little, my Mom wouldn't let me ride my bike in flip-flops, so yesterday I wore them on purpose. It is dangerous to wear flip-flops on a ten-speed, but on a cruiser on lazy neighborhood streets it's pretty okay. It's just fine. Good Vibrations was a little too small for me and my knees started to hurt, but we kept on going all over the place, just for fun. I felt like I was 10 again. It was the best. I don't think there's any better way to celebrate freedom and democracy than riding bikes for 2 hours on a patch of neighborhood that's probably 3 square miles. That's what America is all about. I love America and I'm taking it back, one cruiser at a time.