Lucky Day

A short while ago I was lamenting a lost opportunity when the bike I remembered from my childhood slipped through my fingers. I illustrated the story with an image I selected from Google Images. It was a photo of a nifty red Schwinn much like the one I remembered and much like the one that got away.

So, story over. Exit the program and return to Google Images to gaze once again at the image I'd lifted of the red bike; the kind of red bike with which I'd never be reunited.  It was then that I noticed the source: Craig's List. Ann Arbor Craig's List, to be exact.

Ann Arbor is about 70 miles from where I live. Unbelievable. After finding the full listing on Craig's List I contacted the seller and learned, why yes, the bike was still for sale.  It was like something out of Gone With the Wind.  I swear, I literally ran through the house yelling, "A door closes, a window opens! A door closes, a window opens!!"

As I sit writing this I can look into the next room and see an utterly sweet, red, 1957 Schwinn Tornado.  Yes, that red Schwinn Tornado, the one in the picture.  It is a child's model bike and I realize this is the one.  The bike that got away a few weeks ago was an adult model, not the one I would have been riding at age 6 or 7.  This Schwinn Tornado is the right size and style to have been my first bike way back when. This is the one!

As can only happen in these amazing and unlikely scenarios, the story gets better still. When my daughter went to pick the bike up, the owner informed her how this had been his first bike from new. His children had learned to ride on this bike and his grandchildren had learned to ride on this bike. He was concerned and wanted to know what was to become of this heirloom. He was happy to learn that another child would be using this as his first "big bike."

I'm thrilled. Next on the agenda will be a trip to the House of Wheels for a tune-up. Then we'll line-up the refurbishment.  It's already had a nifty hand brushed re-paint and, fortunately, the original striping still shows through. Those telltale markings should well serve as a template for a top-notch restoration paint job. This is going to be one delicious ride when finished.  Or rather, I should say, one swell bike!

I still need that big Schwinn, though.  Evan is never gonna let me get on his little Tornado.