Birthdays and a trip around the block
Happy birthday Elizabeth!! She's 6 already!! Riding around in her brand-new Schwinn bike, new helmet with knee and elbow pads.
I remember.
I remember my 6th birthday. New Schwinn bike complete with training wheels. No helmet or knee pads. One reflector on the back fender. Ready to go. My living room was a bicycle showroom. It was beautiful! I was ready to drive off the lot and explore the world around me. To discover a new frontier. Meaning: a trip around the block! By myself!! No mom to hold my hand. I was free! There was always something enchanting about the houses on Brown Avenue. Quite unlike our 21st Street side. They were much more majestic. We thought millionaires lived there. All rich people lived on Brown Ave. Ordinary folks like us lived on 21st St.
So with that in mind, I set forth on my maiden voyage around the block, new bike without helmet. Around to the other side. Riding by all those beautiful mansions. I wondered what they looked inside. It had to be breathtaking! The big white victorian home across the street and then....The biggest one of all! The big orange Agresti mansion at the end of the block. On the corner of Brown Ave. and Poplar Street. It was so huge! I thought the richest people in Erie had to live there! Oh how I wished to see what it looked like inside! An easy place for a 6-year old girl to get lost while exploring inside.
Then came the best part of the trip--the Poplar Street bike ramps!
Not an official place per se. It was made from overgrown tree roots lifting up the sidewalk. It was like a built-in bike park for us kids in the neighborhood! I would speed up as fast as I could to fly over the hills---and causing a few boo boo's along the way. Then it was back to 21st Street again--and home for some band-aids. But not for long. I was back riding around the block again and again.
Now for the story of when I was allowed to cross the street!
posted by Cathy at 12:14 PM
