Bicycle Basket
Bicycle Basket
I remember how excited I was as a child to get me first big bike. I had a tricycle and then a small bike to learn to ride on. For my eleventh birthday I received a full size bike. It was a three speed so I had to learn how to shift gears as well as use hand breaks. I wanted to spend as much time as possible on the bike. With my birthday money I bought a bicycle basket to put on the bike. By having the bicycle basket I could volunteer to go to the small general store in our town to pick up items for my mom.
One of my girlfriends and I would go bike riding everyday. We lived 4 blocks apart so we would meet half way between our two homes and would set out for our adventures. There was a gravel pit two miles out of town and this was often our destination. We would spend hours going through the rocks looking for agates and other treasures. My friend did not have a bicycle basket so the agates, quartz and other finds were put into my basket.
One day we found a very large rock that we thought was an agate. Our plan was to take the rock to my house and split it open with a hammer to see what we had. We had not noticed that a rain storm was brewing because we were so busy looking at the rocks on the ground. We went to our bikes and put the large rock in my bicycle basket and headed for home. About half way home the rain started. We were out in the country and had no where to go for shelter so we rode the bikes as fast as we could. As we were going down a large hill the wind started and the rock in the bicycle basket shifted. I lost control of the bike and tipped to the side. I had scrapes on my arm and leg from the road and all the rocks in the bicycle basket had spilled onto the road. We did not want to leave the treasures behind so we put them back in the bicycle basket in the pouring rain and continued on to my house.
My mother had been very worried about us and was just backing the car out of the garage to look for us when we came into the yard. I had blood running down my arm and leg from the fall. We went into the house so mom could clean me up and my friend called her mom to let her know she was safe. My mom could not believe the size of the rock that I had in my bicycle basket. We told her that we were sure that it was an agate and that we were going to split it open. My arm hurt so my friend started pounding the rock with the hammer. While she was doing this a piece of the rock flew into her eye. My mom put us both in the car and picked up my friend’s mom and we went to the doctor. My friend had to wear a patch on her eye and I had a broken arm from the fall. Our adventures with our bikes and my bicycle basket had to end for several weeks as we both healed from our injuries.
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