To celebrate Father’s Day yesterday my son Kevin invited me to ride bikes to Stone Mountain. While on the ride I received phone calls from his siblings Brian, Elisabeth and Philip, as well as my grandson Ransom. Wow! Happy Father’s Day!!!

I cannot recall ever riding bikes with my father, but he was central to instilling my love of cycling.

• When I was eight my dad presented me my first bike, a classic American cruiser with coaster brakes. It was green and white when he purchased it from the thrift shop on Barksdale AFB. But he totally dismantled and refurbished it. I remember the parts hanging on the clothesline – frame, fork, fenders – as he spray painted them bright red. I rode that bike everywhere for the next four years.
• Dad got transferred to Germany and for some reason chose to move the Phillips 3-speed he’d been riding to his work as a meteorologist on base. In Wiesbaden it became my bike and I rode it all over the city. It had a Sturmey-Archer transmission and one tiny internal hub part kept breaking. I located a bike shop in town near the old Roman wall that stocked the part. The owner had a cousin who lived in Texas and that connection became the basis for our many conversations about America. I subsequently commuted on that sturdy English bike throughout four years at Michigan State University.
• Shortly after Cheryl and I moved into our first house with our two young children, I expressed a wish for a “10-speed racer” and Dad again came through with a spiffy Japanese model that featured Sun Tour components. I joyfully rode it on countless excursions of purpose and pleasure until trading it for a Japanese upgrade in 1980.

I never rode with my dad, but I think I somehow got from him my love of cycling. Here’s a bit of what he wrote about cycling adventures from his youth.

I became a bike enthusiast and with a school friend covered many miles of country roads within a thirty mile radius of Bushnell, Illinois. The roads for the most part were graveled and were not the easiest to ride on. We frequently spent a day just riding. On one Saturday we packed lunches and other gear and road some 30 miles over to the Spoon River during the morning. We stopped at the river, had lunch and rested. The afternoon was spent pedaling home.

Summer nights provided opportunities for more pedaling adventures. The state roads were paved and were very lightly traveled. On several occasions, we biked south for seven miles, west nine miles to Macomb, north six miles and then nine miles east to Bushnell. It was a pleasant, easy ride with a minimum of changes in the grade.

I went riding yesterday with one of my children and – in a way – with all of my children and grandchildren. I also went riding with my Dad. Happy Father’s Day!