Muscatine

Great story LJ. Being a kid in the early fifties was a gift.  Now tell me...when you rode those bikes, did you use a wooden clothes pin to hook a playing card to the back frame so it would bang against the spokes and make you sound like a motorcycle?  Did your bike have only one speed?  Was it a Schwinn?  Ever have one of those radical little bikes with the banana seats and the hanger handlebars? Ever have a bike lock?  (I didn't figure I needed one back then) Remember the smell of the bike shop, kind of a grease/rubber/leather mix?  Was there a hill in town so steep that you avoided it for fear of going too fast?

Nigel:  Not sure if you meant just LJ to answer about the bikes, but I'll throw this in:

In the late 40's, early 50's I had a bike that was bought from Western Auto.  I think my Grandpa bought it.  Yep, we clipped playing cards to the fender braces so that they would flap on the spokes making that "motorcycle sound".   We also slipped the old bottle caps between the spokes and slid them down toward the hub.  You'd try to get enough to make circles of different colors all the way around the hub. I decorated the seat, after the bike got older, with a "wood burning kit".   Remember those? 

The hill, in town that I remember (we moved in in 1956 when I was 12) was what was called Main Street hill.  It was west of Green street, before 8th street was extended all the way through to Hershey.  It was black top and steep with a ravine on one side, just before 3rd street cut in.   One of my friends lost it going down that hill, with me riding along by his side.   I think his chain broke.  He shot off over the edge into the trees and ravine.   I thought he had killed himself.   But just had the normal painful kid injuries that you nursed yourself - afraid the parents would holler about if they knew how we got them.

Sorry to but in, but it's fun remembering.

A year or so after dad came home from winning WW2 (every kids dad won that war, to hear them tell it) he bought me a Hawthorn bike from Wards. One speed, no nonsense. I had that bike into my highschool days, until I got a driver's permit.