A true story (in memory of my precious mother Joyce -November 10, 1929- April 26, 1966)
It was just a tricycle, nothing special, the kind most children had in those days. But to him, it was a fire truck, a motorcycle, a race car, a police car, whatever his mind imagined it to be...
He was just a little boy, four years old, full of curiosity, full of wonder.
That tricycle was special. It was the first time she was able to buy her children the things most other children took for granted. Finally life for her was looking up.
Her life had never been easy. Raised in Oklahoma, daughter of a sharecropper, Native American, dirty injuns they called them............ but now she had a new life, a husband who loved her dearly, a hard worker who did his best to provide for her and their eight children, his cherished ones. But there never seemed to be enough for the special things. No, they never went hungry, thanks to her garden and her ability to take what was harvested, can the food, store it in the old refrigerator car that was left there from years before....... a crude method by today’s standard, but she did her best with what she had back then. She was also an accomplished seamstress who sewed most of her own and her children’s clothing. They were “poor” but they were happy and she loved her husband and children with all her heart.
The time came when money was scarce and she decided to get her first job since becoming a wife and mother. Back then it was unusual for most women to work outside the home, so it was a big step for her. But somehow that little job she took working as a waitress in a small hometown restaurant seemed to brighten her outlook. She was happy. She loved being able to give her children little gifts, to buy things to fix up her house, to finally buy a dress that she did not have to sew herself. She especially loved that first Christmas, when “Santa” was able to pile the presents under the tree like never before. How she loved the smiles on her childrens' faces when there was a knock on the door on Christmas Eve and there stood Santa with a huge sack of gifts for her eight children. What joy she felt !
Little did anyone know, that four months later, the Lord would take her home. A precious life, cut short way too soon.
So that tricycle became one little boy’s most cherished possession. Up and down the road he would ride........ride with the wind. The little Vroom motor cranked up to full speed! Yes, he believed it was real, that it made him go faster and faster............he could go anywhere on that tricycle.
One day his sister could not find him. She looked up and down the road where he usually rode his tricycle.........a safe road, a dead end. The only traffic being her father and her best friend’s father when they left for work in the morning and came home in the evening, and the occasional door to door salesman. He was not there. She looked in the field where she and her four brothers played baseball, she ran out to the woods, out to “hangman’s tree” where the kids had many adventures of the imagination........no sign of her little brother.
She grew more anxious by the minute. His tricycle was gone, but he was nowhere to be seen. She decided to walk down the road. Maybe he had gone to the neighbors, though he knew he was not supposed to wander off alone. Still he was a little boy, full of mischief and she had been left in charge of him, a child herself, not quite eleven years old.
As she began her walk down that mile long road, she spotted something in the distance, a small speck way up by the four lane highway. She began to run, running faster, till she felt her lungs would burst from the effort. As she got closer she saw him, her precious little brother, pedaling as fast as he could toward her, with the biggest grin on his face she had ever seen and a brown bag in one arm!!
She ran to him, grabbed him, hugged him. “Where have you been Stevie?? I have been looking for you!!!” He smiled, handed her the bag which was full of penny candy and nickel candy bars. “I buyed everyone candy. I rode my fire truck all the way to the store and I buyed candy for everyone!!” he said proudly. It hit her then.......he thought himself invincible on his special tricycle. He thought he could do anything..........he rode a mile, crossed a four lane highway , busy with semis most of the day........and he “buyed” candy!! She scolded him and told him NEVER to do such a thing again. His little eyes welled up with tears.
And as she hugged him tightly he looked her in the eye and said “It’s ok sissy. Mommy helped me cross the highway. She holded my hand and keeped me safe” She still believes to this day that Mommy DID keep him safe.
One summer she took a walk in the woods on the land that once belonged to her father, and there, just off the path sat the rusted tricycle in a place her little brother abandoned it one day when he decided he was a big boy now and did not need it anymore.
She stood there for awhile gazing down at it, a tear in her eye....
You cannot go back.........only forward.
(The picture is the actual tricycle as found in 2006 right where he abandoned it)
© 2010 Perfect Mind Storm
It was just a tricycle, nothing special, the kind most children had in those days. But to him, it was a fire truck, a motorcycle, a race car, a police car, whatever his mind imagined it to be...
He was just a little boy, four years old, full of curiosity, full of wonder.
That tricycle was special. It was the first time she was able to buy her children the things most other children took for granted. Finally life for her was looking up.
Her life had never been easy. Raised in Oklahoma, daughter of a sharecropper, Native American, dirty injuns they called them............ but now she had a new life, a husband who loved her dearly, a hard worker who did his best to provide for her and their eight children, his cherished ones. But there never seemed to be enough for the special things. No, they never went hungry, thanks to her garden and her ability to take what was harvested, can the food, store it in the old refrigerator car that was left there from years before....... a crude method by today’s standard, but she did her best with what she had back then. She was also an accomplished seamstress who sewed most of her own and her children’s clothing. They were “poor” but they were happy and she loved her husband and children with all her heart.
The time came when money was scarce and she decided to get her first job since becoming a wife and mother. Back then it was unusual for most women to work outside the home, so it was a big step for her. But somehow that little job she took working as a waitress in a small hometown restaurant seemed to brighten her outlook. She was happy. She loved being able to give her children little gifts, to buy things to fix up her house, to finally buy a dress that she did not have to sew herself. She especially loved that first Christmas, when “Santa” was able to pile the presents under the tree like never before. How she loved the smiles on her childrens' faces when there was a knock on the door on Christmas Eve and there stood Santa with a huge sack of gifts for her eight children. What joy she felt !
Little did anyone know, that four months later, the Lord would take her home. A precious life, cut short way too soon.
So that tricycle became one little boy’s most cherished possession. Up and down the road he would ride........ride with the wind. The little Vroom motor cranked up to full speed! Yes, he believed it was real, that it made him go faster and faster............he could go anywhere on that tricycle.
One day his sister could not find him. She looked up and down the road where he usually rode his tricycle.........a safe road, a dead end. The only traffic being her father and her best friend’s father when they left for work in the morning and came home in the evening, and the occasional door to door salesman. He was not there. She looked in the field where she and her four brothers played baseball, she ran out to the woods, out to “hangman’s tree” where the kids had many adventures of the imagination........no sign of her little brother.
She grew more anxious by the minute. His tricycle was gone, but he was nowhere to be seen. She decided to walk down the road. Maybe he had gone to the neighbors, though he knew he was not supposed to wander off alone. Still he was a little boy, full of mischief and she had been left in charge of him, a child herself, not quite eleven years old.
As she began her walk down that mile long road, she spotted something in the distance, a small speck way up by the four lane highway. She began to run, running faster, till she felt her lungs would burst from the effort. As she got closer she saw him, her precious little brother, pedaling as fast as he could toward her, with the biggest grin on his face she had ever seen and a brown bag in one arm!!
She ran to him, grabbed him, hugged him. “Where have you been Stevie?? I have been looking for you!!!” He smiled, handed her the bag which was full of penny candy and nickel candy bars. “I buyed everyone candy. I rode my fire truck all the way to the store and I buyed candy for everyone!!” he said proudly. It hit her then.......he thought himself invincible on his special tricycle. He thought he could do anything..........he rode a mile, crossed a four lane highway , busy with semis most of the day........and he “buyed” candy!! She scolded him and told him NEVER to do such a thing again. His little eyes welled up with tears.
And as she hugged him tightly he looked her in the eye and said “It’s ok sissy. Mommy helped me cross the highway. She holded my hand and keeped me safe” She still believes to this day that Mommy DID keep him safe.
One summer she took a walk in the woods on the land that once belonged to her father, and there, just off the path sat the rusted tricycle in a place her little brother abandoned it one day when he decided he was a big boy now and did not need it anymore.
She stood there for awhile gazing down at it, a tear in her eye....
You cannot go back.........only forward.
(The picture is the actual tricycle as found in 2006 right where he abandoned it)
© 2010 Perfect Mind Storm
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