Not the illegal-surveillance cop Stingray but the bicycle which in a non-powered, two-wheeled kind of way set the world on its ear as, wowzer, here is a whole different kind of bicycle and they were so much designed for girls. This one is the closest I could find to the one my sister had and it's even called Fair Lady. My sister's bike was more of a metallic blue and looked highly cool. Nothing was ever designed for girls except dolls but check this out.
In fact, this may be one of the earliest aspects of feminism going out to the people.
This one follows the Remember Your Bicycle article (completely or mostly benign) because I'm tickled to say that instigated a search for a Stingray and it was found in original and near-mint condition in an estate sale. The memory is all one word: FREEDOM. Once you turned the corner, you were invisible and there was only one rule: be back before dark. That was the same for just about every kid and that came with the kid's bicycle. No cellphones, no nothin'. Maybe you had that nine-volt AM transistor radio because those were the hot technology of the time and everyone had to have one, a radio you could hold in your hand. It was the beginning of the end of parents ever again hearing anything they wanted. It was glorious.
The tires were fatter to give a more comfortable ride even than a full-size ride and specifically not ten-speeds. The Stingray has a cushy seat and bigger than the springy seat full-size bicycles had so that was another item of comfort. They were even geared to make them easier to ride and this gave up the stunt which made them famous.
Pop a wheelie!
Riding a Stingray and with even a small sense of balance, you could pull the front wheel in the air and wheelie all the way down the street. Learning how to do it resulted in a certain measure of childhood road rashes but there was another casualty as popping wheelies became fashionable for all bicycles because only a real tough guy can do it with a full-size bicycle, right?
Note: remember the methiolate or the mercurochrome for antiseptic screaming pain and we all walked around painted red with it half the time. Mercurochrome is banned now (I think) because of the mercury in it.
That was the advent of more broken wheels, forks and other aspects of the front ends on bicycles than the world ever saw before. With the rich boys on their ten-speed bikes, it was a guaranteed broken bicycle but they were kids and they were idiots too. It's doubtful rich Sugar Daddy was quite so forgiving of Junior's transgressions in those days.
Maybe some remember a lad in high school and his wealthy parents bought him a really hot-shot Z-28 when they first came out and that was some seriously bad-ass Detroit iron. It didn't take long before he blew it up and unknown what actual damage but the general intimation was the motor. The wealthy parents were said to have been highly less-than-pleased and I believe it was quite some while before the car hit the road again.
BMX racers missed the point altogether and exerted great effort to take something kids were doing anyway for fun to turn it into some kind of pro exhibition for cash by jumping them higher from ramps, over bumps, etc. For me, that's nothing more than doing tricks for money and they will balance balls on their noses if the price is right.
And they will because these jobs dried up as well. Schwinn went bankrupt long ago and the Stingray was made in Chicago and at least some of the banana seats were made in Massachusetts. Not anymore.
The bike built by American unions and made famous by American kids was undercut by foreign imports which other cold-hearted greedy CEOs brought into America to undermine them. Poof went another American union. The people who built them now work for Walmart because service jobs of that nature have become the fastest growing sector in America. When Obama announces all these jobs, it means pigeon squat when it's low-end jobs like those.
The greedy Shylocks at the top of the pyramid laugh all the way to Goldman Sachs while they turn America into a nation of coolies, servile pissants whose only job is to be obedient and salute when they see the fucking flag. Might as well replace them with robots since they've trained them to be not much different.
America had balls but then the corporate CEOs ate them for breakfast and laughed their asses off.
In fact, this may be one of the earliest aspects of feminism going out to the people.
This one follows the Remember Your Bicycle article (completely or mostly benign) because I'm tickled to say that instigated a search for a Stingray and it was found in original and near-mint condition in an estate sale. The memory is all one word: FREEDOM. Once you turned the corner, you were invisible and there was only one rule: be back before dark. That was the same for just about every kid and that came with the kid's bicycle. No cellphones, no nothin'. Maybe you had that nine-volt AM transistor radio because those were the hot technology of the time and everyone had to have one, a radio you could hold in your hand. It was the beginning of the end of parents ever again hearing anything they wanted. It was glorious.
The tires were fatter to give a more comfortable ride even than a full-size ride and specifically not ten-speeds. The Stingray has a cushy seat and bigger than the springy seat full-size bicycles had so that was another item of comfort. They were even geared to make them easier to ride and this gave up the stunt which made them famous.
Pop a wheelie!
Riding a Stingray and with even a small sense of balance, you could pull the front wheel in the air and wheelie all the way down the street. Learning how to do it resulted in a certain measure of childhood road rashes but there was another casualty as popping wheelies became fashionable for all bicycles because only a real tough guy can do it with a full-size bicycle, right?
Note: remember the methiolate or the mercurochrome for antiseptic screaming pain and we all walked around painted red with it half the time. Mercurochrome is banned now (I think) because of the mercury in it.
That was the advent of more broken wheels, forks and other aspects of the front ends on bicycles than the world ever saw before. With the rich boys on their ten-speed bikes, it was a guaranteed broken bicycle but they were kids and they were idiots too. It's doubtful rich Sugar Daddy was quite so forgiving of Junior's transgressions in those days.
Maybe some remember a lad in high school and his wealthy parents bought him a really hot-shot Z-28 when they first came out and that was some seriously bad-ass Detroit iron. It didn't take long before he blew it up and unknown what actual damage but the general intimation was the motor. The wealthy parents were said to have been highly less-than-pleased and I believe it was quite some while before the car hit the road again.
BMX racers missed the point altogether and exerted great effort to take something kids were doing anyway for fun to turn it into some kind of pro exhibition for cash by jumping them higher from ramps, over bumps, etc. For me, that's nothing more than doing tricks for money and they will balance balls on their noses if the price is right.
And they will because these jobs dried up as well. Schwinn went bankrupt long ago and the Stingray was made in Chicago and at least some of the banana seats were made in Massachusetts. Not anymore.
The bike built by American unions and made famous by American kids was undercut by foreign imports which other cold-hearted greedy CEOs brought into America to undermine them. Poof went another American union. The people who built them now work for Walmart because service jobs of that nature have become the fastest growing sector in America. When Obama announces all these jobs, it means pigeon squat when it's low-end jobs like those.
The greedy Shylocks at the top of the pyramid laugh all the way to Goldman Sachs while they turn America into a nation of coolies, servile pissants whose only job is to be obedient and salute when they see the fucking flag. Might as well replace them with robots since they've trained them to be not much different.
America had balls but then the corporate CEOs ate them for breakfast and laughed their asses off.
2 comments:
The school I went to the Amberly Village and Indian Hill kids just asked for another one. And shaazzaaam new car new color
I imagine the rich boys think this does them some favor when they wave them off with the car and tell them quality time is next week.
Post a Comment