Remember When-another memorable article by Richard Carpenter

I remember when Marty was 13 or 14 he played baseball out at the park by the St. Hospital. He did not want to walk all that way so we took his bike. I rode on the back and we coasted down Main St. hill N. to the park. Bummer part of this deal was I had to pedal back up that Main St. hill! Marty always got a ride home after the game with a friends parents. I will always remember this little adventure and how much I enjoyed it!

--- On Fri, 8/12/11, Richard Carpenter <carp3@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

The Bike Racks In Front Of Flory’s Face book has been abuzz lately with a theme titled, “you know you grew up in Nevada if you remember....” I went back through some of my archives, and found this growing up in Nevada story.   --------------------- Bike racks were common in my youth, and could be found all over town.  My favorite racks were located in front of Flory’s Drug Store.   ---------------------- Of the four, Nevada drug stores/soda fountain businesses located on the square, Flory’s was my favorite.  Each of the pharmacies had its own loyal clientele.  More often than not, this was due to the popularity of their soda fountains,  rather than for the medicines they dispensed.  Pharmacy business back then, was not nearly as important, as today.  We took fewer drugs because it cost money, most families did not have, and there wasn’t an explosion of new drugs like there has been in recent years. ------------------ I liked the Flory’s soda fountain because they had what I considered the best cherry coke in town, rivaled only by the “White Grill’s.”   ------------------ If you rode your bike to the square most any time of the day. there would be numerous bikes parked in racks, right in front of Flory’s.   ----------------------   As kids we rode our bikes everywhere.  Most families only had one vehicle, and it was rarely used for hauling kids places.  When you needed to go to school, you rode the bus, your bike, or you walked with friends.  There were none of the traffic jams like we see today at the local schools. ---------------- There were bike racks on each side of the square and in front of the Fox Theater.   Numerous racks could be found at all of the grade schools and at the new Junior Senior High School.  At the high school, they opened the lock on the football field every morning and after school for bikers, so no one could steal bikes.   -------------------- Funny thing about that, there were rarely many stolen bikes back then.  I think it had something to do with the fact that everybody’s bike was easily recognized.  We rode them so much they became like an extension of who we were, and most of our friends would have known which one was ours, the moment the saw it.   ------------------- At the hardware stores around the square, and places like Sears and Montgomery Wards, they sold bikes and the parts to keep them in good running order.  It was seldom that you could find a young boy in Nevada who did not know how to take off  a bike tire, and put in a new inner tube, or put on a patch.   ---------------------- There were some not to easy rides, for some of our bike trips.  The two worst rides were to Lyons Stadium and the pool at Radio Springs.  Now remember these bikes were almost all the kind that had only one speed.  If someone had a three speed, what we called an “English Bike,” it was really a big deal.  Our bikes were chain drive, with one speed, and of course foot brakes. --------------------- The hill on Ash Street from the corner of the present swimming pool, was a hard pull for a kid, all the way to Highland Street, and the turn to Lyons Stadium.  We always had our baseball gloves over our handle bars, in fact we rarely left home without them.  Baseball gloves were something you broke in just for your hand.  The smell and the feel was something you did not want very far from reach. ------------------- The ride to Radio Springs was the easy part, as the downhill section was on the way there.  It was after a long afternoon of swimming and playing, that you had to face that incredibly steep climb back up College.  Even though the ball field and the pool were on the edges of town, we rode our bikes anyway.  No one would keep us from our activities, and not having a ride from your mom in the family car,  was the norm not the exception. ----------------------- Bikes changed a little after I got older.   The guys who were about a decade behind me got into these smaller things that had little wheels and a something called a “banana seat.”  It looked like it took more pedal work to ride them, but they were everywhere. ------------------- Next was the era of the fifteen speeds and the dirt bikes.  None of us would ever do very much curb jumping on our old dinosaurs, they would have broken down.  These off-road models were made for that.  The young guys seemed to be able to climb or jump over anything. -------------------- Now as I look around Nevada, I see few bike riders.  Occasionally there are youngsters on their skateboards, but not very many bikes.  It is as if the time when young kids enjoyed the freedom and range our bikes afforded us, has come and gone.   -------------------- Some of the reasons are obvious.  We don’t let our kids out on their own very much anymore.  It is too dangerous today to let a kid roam, with all the dangerous people there are in the world.  Also kids today have grown up in a time when they are car pooled everywhere.  Just drive by the schools in the morning and evening and look at the traffic.   ----------------- The sad part is, that just like the “PAPER CUPS AND STRAWS,” we used for our cherry coke at Flory’s, the bike has almost disappeared for the present day Nevada kid.  I wonder how these young kids would feel if they got a chance to experience that same freedom that we enjoyed?   ----------------- I doubt that any of us will ever see one of those long double side bike racks around these parts ever again.  Too bad, like the hitching posts from the horse days, the generation that saw bike racks all over town, has passed.