Pubert!

 

Eric at 14

    In his early teen years, my brother, Eric, like most kids, rode his bicycle around town and beyond. Living in North Boston, it was a few miles to ride to the other hamlets – Patchin or Boston, to hang out with friends; and it was a couple of more miles in the other direction to pedal to Hamburg and meet up with other friends. And Eric often used the bike for his paper route which was just down Heinrich Road and around Valley Circle Lane. The bike was a practical and respectable form of transportation.

     A respectable form of transportation until, apparently, one got one's driver's license.

     Eric got his driver's license, some time during high school. And Mom and Dad had a 1963 Ford Fairlane that no one else was driving, and so Eric was soon using the Fairlane to motor about town running errands, going to school activities, and of course, meeting up with his friends. Eric's buddies got their licenses that same year too – and they were all riding around in old cars, new cars, any kind of car.

      But not bikes.

      After the acquiring of drivers' licenses, a new pastime came into play. I wouldn't say that Eric and his friends went looking for people on bikes – but it would just happen that they would, while driving along, see someone riding a bike. Now, if it was a little kid, I think he or she was exempt – but a teenager, adult, or senior citizen, male or female, were the targets of my brother and his friends. As the car passed the bike rider, the driver and any passengers who were present would yell out an open window “Pu-bert!”

      I did not understand this new attitude and pointed out to Eric that he was the boy on the bike not too many months earlier. But they all thought it was great sport.

      Of course, that was a long time ago now. Eric's own children are grown and have had their own driver's licenses for years – notably skipping right over the “Pubert!” stage.

Present Day Pubert

      This spring, Eric got his bike out as soon as winter subsided. On weekend mornings, he takes the path along the Ellicot Creek Trailway. Eric often rides with friends, and they have breakfast at a restaurant just off the path – their reward for all the great physical activity. Eric has a goal each year of a thousand miles or so to ride on the bike. With the reputation for bad weather that Western New York is known for , he sometimes has to race to get the miles in before winter – and yet sometimes Eric sneaks in a bike ride during a thaw, a few miles one day, a few miles another, and he finds it very satisfying.

    Pu-bert indeed.

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