Life Sketches by Terry Berkson
Not Far from the Tree...
I’ve been thinking a lot about my daughter Elizabeth lately—mainly in connection with bicycles. I’ve always had a thing for the bicycle and the freedom it offered me as a kid in Brooklyn which, for the most part, is as flat as Holland.
Up here in Richfield on the hill, it’s easy to leave and hard to peddle back but worth the effort. In the city, riding was a breeze and a three-speed touring bike was all you needed to get around. In recent years I grew to appreciate that it was good exercise, and with the absence of a motor, a silent, easy peddle down Ocean Parkway was almost like flying. Naturally I wanted to pass on my love of riding to my kids, so I bought my daughter a little two-wheeler for her fourth birthday and, to my delight, she mastered it almost immediately. Later, her brother Jonathan would inherit the bike with a crossbar installed.
On the Christmas of her tenth year, I went to Sears and bought Elizabeth a full size, 26-inch, candy-apple red touring bike and stood it under the tree. As a family, we had already done a lot of riding and I thought she’d be delighted to get a full-size bike like Alice’s. To my chagrin, she was disappointed because it wasn’t a 10-speed with one of those minimal seats and raked handle bars.
“I want a bike like Shari’s across the street,” Elizabeth complained.
