Bicycle Adventures
In Fourth Grade, my parents buy me a Schwinn bicycle for Christmas. Maroon with cream trim. Joe Caasi’s folks also buy him one. Green with white trim. Dad takes me to the Pacific School playground for lessons. After a few spills, I get it.
Soon after, Joe and I venture forth. We cycle from our homes to Madrona Park along Lake Washington on to Mount Baker for a swim. We return home through the tunnel from the bridge, up Empire Way past the Yesler Library, another frequented place.
We pedal Sixteenth to Madison through the stately Capital Hill homes until reaching Volunteer Park and the Art Museum. Chinese camel statues with soldiers stand the entrance. We dismount and clamber aboard. Pretend we journey the Silk Road through Gobi sands, sneaking past the guards to treasure-filled rooms.
The museum holds remarkable Japanese screens with iconic blackbirds and terracotta statues from the graveyard period. I’m drawn to carved-ivory perfume bottles and horsehair paintbrushes.
We discover the greenhouse. Imagine ourselves in tropic jungle hunting boar. Wander bromeliad, palm, bird of paradise and ginger. Marvel at the Corpse Flower, Staghorn fern, hibiscus and orchid. Gardenia fragrances the air. We could be deep in a Philippine jungle.
We return along Fifteenth. Marilyn’s Freeze on Madison serves many flavored shakes. Not just chocolate, strawberry or vanilla. The offer root-beer, banana, raspberry and blackberry. It’s across from the Venetian Theater where I later watch Marilyn Monroe and Joseph Cotton in “Niagara” and wonder about my Italian cousins who live there. I wonder about Marilyn too.
No comments:
Post a Comment