Schwinn

On my most recent drive home, I passed Larry's Bikes on a side street in St. Marys, Ohio. The proprietor, a retired man in a vinyl lawn chair next to a watering can, took a moment to recognize that I was a customer. This was easy to understand. Larry's Bikes is located in Larry's Front Yard. I had parked on the side of the road in a residential part of town. He was surprised when I began talking to him and not the younger neighbors.

Me: I'm looking for a road bike. I saw the teal Schwinn.

Man: That's not a road bike. The tires are 23 inches.

Me: I'll take it.

It is skinny and light weight. The gears change automatically, leading me to think that it's fixed. I didn't really understand what this term meant. I may not deserve this bike. Googling it, I found out that the Sprint is a lesser version of Varsity and/or Continental, the snobbiest of Schwinns. It was made in '75, before Taiwan really entered the picture. My faith in the bike increased.

The light weight threw me a bit the first time I pulled myself onto the skinny tires. I felt wobbly and vulnerable. I suggested a ride with Sam, one of my good friends. She too had just gotten a new bike, and we wanted to get comfortable on them, to look natural when we dodged cars and potholes.

The ride was my first time on Cardinal Greenway. We snaked through allies and a semi-circle of benches. We stumbled upon the Depot, a renovated train-station-turn-museum. We passed under a bridge. Three men were also under this bridge. In my memory, I see the orange glow of cigarettes, but I am sure that they are not cigarettes. This may not have happened. My mind fills in details that I wish were there. I felt confident on my bike. This hadn't happened for a while; I'd been paranoid since the car break-in.

The moral of this story is that the Greenway equals perfect nature/man-made nature picture opportunities. I am now online ordering a Holga. My roommate has one of them--a cheap, plastic, fixed-focus camera that gives you square, nostalgic pictures. The goal is that we will go riding and stop every few minutes to snap pictures through primary color lenses. It will also serve as the perfect way to document my stay in St. Louis: the whiteness of the apartment, the comfortable feel of the city's center, the coffee rings on the table.