Episode #32: The Year Of The Unicycle

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 The year was 1968, the occasion was my 11th birthday and like any kid at that age, I wanted a birthday cake and a present. Here I am with the traditional birthday cake and ready to blow out the candles at our home in Irving, Texas. The photo below was taken at the kitchen table of our house with the cord to the wall mounted telephone hanging down behind me that seemed to be in a lot photos.


How, when, and why I chose to ask for a unicycle is a mystery to me now, but for some reason that is what I asked for on my birthday that year. I had absolutely no idea how to ride it or even how to get up on it, but I worked at it all day long and by the end of the day I was able to get up on the seat, but not even a close chance of riding it yet. I have no clue how many times I fell that day but I was determined to learn how to ride this thing. The picture below shows the only way I could sit on the seat and have both feet on the pedals at the same time, thanks to that tree next to my dad's Ford pickup.


I wish I could say that I mastered this thing the next day, but that would not be the truth. I struggled for a couple of days just getting on the seat and barely getting both feet on the pedals before I would fall. As luck would have it, the family that lived across the street included a daughter in her late teens or early 20s and one day the guy she was dating stopped to pick her up and saw me trying to get on my unicycle. He got out of his car and came right over in dress clothes and asked if he could ride it. I had seen him over there before and said sure. He got up on that thing and rode it like a champ even though is was a little small for him. He was very good and could ride it backwards as good as he could forward and I was amazed. He spent some time with me that late afternoon and showed me some tips on how to get up, balance myself and get going. Believe it or not, it turns out this guy had ridden a unicycle in a circus for a while. What are the chances of that? The tips he gave me cut my learning curve down to nothing and soon I was actually riding it. Not to say I could go as far as I wanted but I was riding it and each time I fell and get back up, my balance would improve and in a couple of days I was riding it up and down Priscilla street. The picture below was taken not long after that at my Grandpa's house in Oklahoma City and now I am the guy riding like a champ.


We lived only a block and a half from the school that we attended and we would walk everyday. But when school started that year which was only about a month later I was riding a unicycle to and from M.C. Lively Elementary School. Less than a year later we move from Irving and would be living in the country with only gravel county roads  around our house for well over a mile in any direction. After living there for a short while I took a hard fall and gained some pretty good road rash from the road gravel in front of our house, I did not ride it much after that. From then on I decided the safest and fastest way to go was on two wheels not just one.

 I know it is the packrat in me that won't allow me to throw it away and I still have it 56+ years later. It is all rusted and looks bad, but I still have it. In the picture below you can see my two unicycles. The one on the right is the 1968 model from Sears and Roebuck, with all the original equipment except the seat. The one one the right is the 2017 model from Amazon. They both currently hang in my shop.


Epilog-

The last time I rode a unicycle would have been several years ago on the concrete portion of our driveway when Jacob was still in Jr High school for the amazement of his friends. Thinking I would start riding it again more regularly I bought another one a few years ago, but I was already in my 60s and decided if I fell and broke something I would be very slow to heal and I was still working full time. Now that I am retired I just choose not to put myself in that situation, but who knows, I might give it a go one day.



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Comments

  1. StacyNovember 10, 2024 at 7:05 PM

    Love the photo of you on the unicycle at Grandpa Black’s house! Brings back great memories.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TonyNovember 11, 2024 at 2:53 PM

      Hey Stacy, I think any of the cousin group would recognize that driveway and remember the years we played there as kids. Thanks for the note and check back often for new stories.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousDecember 9, 2024 at 1:30 PM

    Wow, just wowTony. I never knew that about you, but I see there are a lot of things I don’t know about you. I did know you were a very determined person, but this gives new meaning to that term. Very interesting lol Tlc

    ReplyDelete

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