My first bicycle had training wheels, but it was black with neon splatter paint and a basket, and I loved it. A few months later I was visiting my Grandmother out-of-town when she told me that her neighbor’s grandson was visiting next door, so we went over with some sort of baked goods and he and I played with his race track for most of the afternoon. He asked me if I wanted to ride bikes the next day to which I replied with the excuse hat I couldn’t because I didn’t have a bike. My grandmother stepped in and said that I could use my older male cousin’s bike that was in her garage. Personally, I saw a few holes in her plan, one of those being that I hadn’t mastered the art of riding without training wheels, but she seemed confident so I skeptically agreed…

I then spent the rest of the evening practicing on a boy’s bike that was about 3 sizes too big for me with no brakes. When I finally mastered the art of staying on the bike, the problem of having no way to stop it quickly arose. Because it was so big I couldn’t drop my foot down without having to remove my other foot from the pedal which wouldn’t be a problem if not for the too high “boy bar” that required some momentum to swing my leg over. My solution: the street was lined with a curb so if I slowly ran into it I could fall off with just enough dignity to not make me want to be run over by aforementioned oversized bicycle.

From what I remember, the day with the grandson next door went fine, but what I really remember is feeling like I could maneuver anything from a big wheel to a Harley after my experience with that mammoth of a bicycle. When I got home it was clear that I was ready to take off the training wheels and thus was the official beginning of a childhood filled with driving through puddles after a long summer rain, trips down the dirt road to wade in the creek, and exploring every square inch of Jekyll Island, GA with my friends.

Almost every child has the memory of their first bicycle, or if not their first, at least their favorite 😉 Whether it was under the tree, in the back of a truck, or in Grandma’s garage – we all remember the first time we saw it and what it meant… FREEDOM! Here at Wild Souls, we hope our Outfit of the Day will bring you back to your first bicycle and capture the spirit of freedom you felt when you used to ride open wide with your hair blowing behind you.