[woofa.express]

I just longed for a bicycle.

Every kid at school had a bicycle, or so it seemed. The school bike racks were always full and I looked over them with some envy. I had a horse, but no saddle- I always took the animal to a fence or gate to climb then mount. The horse, named Pat was necessary for the stock work I helped with on our farm. Now more than 60 years have passed and I have, of course bought one. My very own bike.
When I drop our garden waste off at the local tip I check out the steel waste area and much to my wife’s protest I bring home what my wife calls trash. And of course, one mans trash is another’s treasure. With this newly acquired resource I have built a number of outdoor tables and bench seats and a small shed. It’s all most handy and I enjoy making it. Just hate to see waste.
Now back to bicycles. There is sometimes up to 50 in this trash heap. When all this trash is removed for recycle but it doesn’t take long for the bicycles and waste to build up again. I remember a Rotary Club auction. Bicycles weren’t selling so they were bundled into lots of six and still difficult to sell and making little money. This change from my childhood: Affluence. Squander and extravagance.
I made sure all my kids had cycles, starting with chain driven three wheelers prior to bicycles. I had made a rack for them to park; they weren’t permitted to drop them on the ground. When they bought motorcars I insisted, like their bikes, they be put in the shed when parked.
And as a footnote, not related to the above story, I bought my kids their first motorcar. Not new, nor upmarket and quite well used. This was to help them get a start. My second, son, we call Moo, now aged 49, has been working in Hong Kong for the last 24 years and hasn’t needed one, nor permitted to have one. He is however permitted a golf buggy and because there is a strict maximum number permitted on the island where he lives, the cost is $400,000 each- that is for the licence to hold a number plate. He choose to use public transport and has saved a small fortune. I think you can delete the word small from that last sentence. They consume money as fast as council rates.