Things My Daughter Taught Me

I’ll admit my chilly little secret. I love riding my bicycle in the winter. As a transplant from the north eastern Rust Belt and a veteran of “lake effect” big snow, the thrill of winter roads without snow and ice has never worn off.

I resumed riding with regularity in 1994 as a way to get my then, year and half old daughter, Ezra, into the air and out in the world. Our first ride with the rack mounted child seat occurred late that fall. After bundling Ezra up in her warmest clothes and buckling her helmet, without pinching her neck in the clasp, we rode out to Golden Gate Park through the Panhandle decked in autumn tones. We stopped at the Pagoda at Stowe Lake to eat goldfish crackers and drink juice. On cue, raindrops began ticking down against the jade colored tile roof of the pagoda.

The sun was setting. We were not prepared. No raingear for Ezra. No light for the bike. Worry consumed me on our ride home; the enveloping dark, the volume of rain, the cold. Ezra, I thought, is going to be scarred by this and would rather be with her mother. Anxiety hit me faster then the rain; I’ve ruined her cycling experience - forever. I imagined my face on a not-wanted poster, “Worst Dad Ever.” As a rational counter point to my perceived failure as a human, cyclist, and father, Ezra transcended my petty worries, “Dad, can I have-a-gum?”

Somehow we made it home alive. Along the way Ezra noticed something of the other cyclists. Debarking from her kid seat she asked, “Dad you have a dingy bell?”

“No.” Ezra looks puzzled.

“You have a blinky light?”

“No.”

Oddly, Ezra’s face assumes a strange resemblance to my old high school Vice Principal, “Dad. Get a blinky light… And a dingy bell.”

Sheepishly. “Yes dear.”

Eventually Ezzie out grew her kiddy seat. Her first bike tires were about as big as a five-cent pieces. We practiced riding bikes at Crissy Field. And as things go, her bike too, received a dingy bell, and a blinky light. Ezra out grew her first bike; we purchased another, then another.

Our first ride resonates still; it instilled in me a few ideas that I keep to this day. First, despite the rain and cold we had a great time. I was thrilled as she pointed out dogs and birds and other bikes along the way. Second, she was right about the bell and light. I can extrapolate and say, that when I eliminate extraneous loose ends my time on the bike goes better; lights, bell, helmet (my preference), good tires, working brakes. My city bike also sports fenders and an incredibly fashionable basket.

I’ll ride this winter, happy in the stinging cold wind and the profound near silence of the bike, strobbing bright, on the dark morning streets.