The Inspiration When I was 12, I saw something on TV about a school where children were allowed to ride their unicycles down the hall. I specifically remember the TV image of children like the ones above, zooming down the school hallway, carrying books. Diary from 1970 I wasn't dreaming about that memory. I found nothing on the internet, but I did find the old diary.
November 21, 1970 "On the news they showed this school, where everyone rides on unicycles...through the halls! Well I've decided that I'll buy a unicycle and learn!" My Purchase After saving babysitting money, I bought a unicycle for $38.00. There are no photos of me on my unicycle, but here's photo of my brother on our street in Tallahassee. It looks flat, but my brother is just ready to climb a steep, curving hill right past our house. I didn't tackle the street for quite a while. Teaching Myself I learned on the driveway. And luckily by 1970 we were finally a 2-car family. When the cars were parked side by side in the drive I could go back and forth between the 2, reaching out for support when needed. I also remember being in the kitchen pedaling from one counter to the next. I wasn't allowed to skate in the house, but for some reason the unicycle wasn't banned from indoors. Eventually I mastered the steep hill. It was actually easier going up than down. Unicycles have no breaks, so it took some control going down. In Recent Years The unicycle disappeared after I left for college. Luckily I had lost interest and it wasn't missed. But as I neared my second childhood, (my 50th birthday) I began to long for that old unicycle. I wondered if it was like 2-wheelers and swimming...once you learn, you always know how. Revisiting my unicycle skills was on my list of 50 things to do to celebrate my 50th birthday. I was able to convince a teenage neighbor with a unicycle that I needed a turn. He was very kind and luckily there were no broken bones. And luckily there was no hill! St. Helen's Catholic School I dug a little deeper on the internet and found the school from my memory. Evidently from 1965 to 1985 this school in Newbury, Ohio taught unicycle riding in PE classes. Riding in the halls was indeed allowed. They had a unicycle team that performed at parades and events around the country.
What I would have given to have gone to a school like that!
2 Comments
P
12/30/2019 05:24:18 pm
are you in the black n white photos?...
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Beth
12/31/2019 10:24:38 am
Oh wow! You are in these photos?! I just found the pics on the Internet! Did you go to the school that I mentioned? For years I thought maybe my memories of seeing a news show about a school & unicycles, was just a dream. I was so glad when I eventually searched and found a little history!
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BARBIE BUCKET LIST
I was 8 years old when I got this embarrassing Barbie diary ... about 2 years before my real DIARY YEARS. (12 years of never missing a day) I was more into Trolls than Barbie, so I stashed it in a drawer and forgot about it. Over the years my family moved numerous times and this super mod diary ended up burried in boxes over and over. For at least 12 years, whenever I ran across it, I would grab a pencil and jot down something ridiculous on the corresponding day. It was like a never ending doodle pad, fillled with more nonsense than reflection. The penmanship and horrendous spelling makes it difficult to read today, but the best discovery is a Bucket List that began on April 27, 1974! Click on THE BEGINNING to see the LIST and how it evolved. Archives
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