Lakefield, Minn.
By: Jeanie Wilcox
From: Zumbrota, MN
By: Jeanie Wilcox
From: Zumbrota, MN
My childhood occurred during the late 1950s to 1960s. It was a time when most mothers were home during the days of our summer vacations. All the kids in our neighborhood knew the boundaries we weren't allowed to go beyond; this gave us about 9 blocks to navigate. We would each have our bike (usually we got them for about our 6th or 7th birthday) as our means of transportation and we used them all day! We imagined them to be our cars, our horses or what ever means of transportation fit into our ride around the neighborhood games. We may be in one yard for a while and then move on to another. All the while we felt free and really roamed around. There was a mother at every home who could update others where we were. We might be sitting and talking at one house, move on to have mid-morning snacks at another, decide to play cops and robbers for a while and have a wild chase around the neighborhood. Oh yes, these had wipe outs and scraped knees or elbows. That led to a trip into the closest house to clean up the "boo-boo" and maybe a cookie before being sent on our way to spend the rest of the day outside riding our bikes. We felt like we were free to enjoy our summer weather. There wasn’t a lot of concern about supervised or organized play. As we grew older and could cross the highway – one of the barriers we couldn’t cross in our younger years, our bikes continued to be our means of transportation. Now they took us to the park for summer activities and tennis lessons, to the ball field for ball games and to the pool for lessons in the morning and open swims in the afternoon and evening.The days with our bikes were a great way to grow up and I am so glad I have those memories of the "early years" in a small Minnesota town.
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