This was not my Schwinn bicycle - just a picture of one I found on the WEB.Transportation Item Number 1
I mentioned in an earlier post that my brother, Ben, and I shared a bicycle during the early 1940s. That was because skinny rubber tires where hard to get making bicycles hard to get also. Our grandfather was fortunate to buy a new bike for us to share.
I was a newspaper delivery boy from 1943 to 1949 for The Daily Standard in Celina, Ohio. I was able to make money to support my "habits" and help pay my own way. I saved everything I could during these years in order to buy tangible things that would last me and make my life more enjoyable.
Right after World War II ended, my Uncle Carlan came home from the service to Celina and later offered me his Schwinn balloon tire bicycle for $30. I grabbed at it as I needed my own bicycle to do the paper route that I had walked up to this time. It was used, of course, but in excellent condition.
Recently a Teaching Pastor of Saddleback Church, Doug Fields, mentioned in a sermon that he had a bike from Montgomery Wards and then asked how many in the crowd had a "Schwinn". Of course there were a lot of us and he then made some remark about the "rich kids" had Schwinns. He was from the other side of the tracks! Schwinn was a very popular brand and was more expensive but not that much.
I had that bike until I bought a kit for a Whizzer Motor Bike that needed a different design than the Schwinn in order for the motor to fit. So I traded it for one that we could put the engine and accessories on. That story is next in my "Transportation" series.
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