BMX bikes and jumping people

If you were a teenage boy in the late 80's early 90's you probably had pictures like this on the wall of your bedroom.  I had these and others ( but we won't go into the details of those).  Motorcycles and fast cars were every adolescent boys fantasy.  But until you could drive or got any good job you had to settle for that mode of transportation called a bike.  At least you could make it a good bike.  Back them the mountain bike was just barley in the market.  Just the same the coveted bike of choice for us was the BMX.  The Mongoose BMX was the proche of bikes, and everyone wanted it.

We were head over heals in love with this bike.  It was expensive too.  I had a paper route and hard working parents and it was a little out of our reach.  I remember a neighbor kid did get one and it was the envy of every kid for miles around.  The best thing about the BMX was the ability to do tricks.  You had to be fearless.  Remember safety equipment was non existent in my era.  Nothing like a good smack in the head by the pavement to remind you that you were still alive.  The best stunts were the home made jumps.  A good sturdy piece of plywood and some logs from the firewood pile and you had a good jump.  The higher the better.  And then there was the things you could jump.  PEOPLE!

This is not an actual picture of us.  I found it on the net.  It is a good rendition of exactly what we were up to.  And it is kind of comforting to know that we were not the only idiots around.

I remember one particular incident involving the above stupidity.

My parents were watching the neighbor boy while his parents were away for the weekend and we introduced him to our favorite past time.  He was too scared to lie with his face up so he layed down on his belly.  My older brother, Clint, was up and came roaring down the hill and around the corner.  We were all laying on the ground tense with anticipation.  He`s done it a hundred times what`s to worry about! Right!  well just as he is about to hit the jump his chain skips off and he loses desperately needed speed.  Hits the jump and comes off right in the back of the kids head.  Smashes his face into the gravel and infuses a gash between his eyes that needed stitches.  Needless to say my parents were not impressed at having to send this kid home after the parents got home with stitches between his eyes.  I don`t believe they were too impressed either.  I feel like I need to build a jump!