What a way to learn how to ride a bike! Under drizzling rain with a bicycle with busted tires, no bike helmet, no one to teach or assist....just plain, pure guts. I was 8 years old then and we were residing at Plaza Militar. Kids love to frolic under the rain and in those streets slightly inundated by rainwater. That’s what my brothers, sisters, playmates, and I usually did during heavy downpours, oblivious of the intermittent thunder and lightning, when we were not in school. Household elders sometimes even joined us to enjoy the rain.

[photo by: theydidntjust]

It was during one of those downpours that I learned how to ride a bicycle. I don’t remember if we had a bike tire pump that was not working, or that nobody just attended to the problem. Anyway, what mattered most was the learning process under such an inviting atmosphere and pumping air into the tires and worrying about the damage it would inflict on the bike were the least of our concerns. I supposed that’s how children really are, a bit more on the irresponsible side.