These are the memories of the childhood years she'd spent, riding her bicycle, without the training wheels, the streets that bore witness to her coming of age, day by day…translated…
As I Road My Bicycle Down the Roads, the Tiny Training Wheels Gave Off a Loud Squeak, there's, that Loud Announcement that Declared My, Arrival……….
the Civic Avenue in its earlier days back in the sixties...photo from online
When I was younger, the families on my mother's side gave me a Giant bicycle. I still recalled, it had a bright yellow color, with the brand, "GIANT" on it. Being young, I'd wondered, why didn't the name get written in Chinese. The width, the bumps on the surface of the wheels, made it look rough, it also had a gear box on it, but can't recall how many different speeds. There's no basket at the helm. It was a bicycle that encouraged the child to go for that wild, ride. The adults worried I was too young, and hadn't yet learn to ride the bicycle, so they'd, added a pair of training wheels for me. As I'd ridden the bicycle out, the tiny training wheels gave off that loud squeal, and gave me that flair of being there before getting there. My route was, smaller than the local patrol areas, just back and forth right in front of the alley to my home.
At the time, I was already, over a hundred centimeters tall, a big kid, and, riding the bicycle with all four wheels, it'd felt, a bit, bashful. Or maybe, it's that sense of shame, I was quicky able to get the balance, and had lifted up the training wheels, I'd graduated into the two-wheel categories then, and at the same time, I'd left those, familiar streets, and, begun on my own adventure as a child. The Civic Avenue at the time was still a railroad track, about three streets away from my home. The tracks followed the alleys, and most of the locals would take walks or hung their laundry by the tracks, with almost no traffic, and this was, definitely the route, I would select, being too timid.
I'd ridden along that track, arrived to the Chinese Television Station. The CTS was made up of several buildings, without any fences, the locals are able to come and go. There would be the larger props, lying all over around the building, and tilting my head into that black door, there's nothing but black, you can't see a thing, but there's that surge of, cold air. It's just air-conditioning, but for a child, it'd become, a medium to an, alternative, reality.
It's actually quite close from my house to the T.V. station, no more than twenty-minute's walk in distance. I'd had that expectant mind of "don't know who I might bump into today", set the station as the destination of my adventures.
It's just that the business building of the CTS, was like the regular residential areas, with the adults away, the elderly and children napping at home, too quiet, that it wasn't, fun at all. There was that once, that I got, chased by a dog that came out of nowhere. And there wasn't a single soul around, I'd forgotten to scream and cry, just kept, pedaling, pedaling hard, like there was a fire started behind me, made my escape from the ferocious dogs that barked at me.
here's what the streets looked like current day...photo from online
The summers after I'd begun middle school, time became longer, but I'd, stopped feeling the motivations to ride the bicycle on my discovery trips. And, I'd, followed that alley out back, got to the railroad again, and, squeezed through the opening of the fences, crossing over the tracks, a bit further, I'd arrived to Zhongxiao E. Road, section four, and it was the time when the Eslite Bookstore had yet to get set up, I'd gone to the Yonghan Bookstore of that building. To get the air-conditioning, to read the novels standing up, to pass my long summers. As I'd read, I'd gotten into the plot of the novels, and, my legs no longer felt sore from standing up. As I came back out of the books, when I was on my way home, as a teen, and with the emotional ups and downs, watching those men and women who were dressed fashionably, shopping, I'd felt out of place, and flattened out my sweat shirts, shorts, and at the same time, I'd, pressed down on my head of hair that my mother had, trimmed, the ends that would, go all over the places.
Past midlife now, I walked by the Civics Avenue today, watching the traffic flow, the high end financial institutions, the Japanese beer house restaurants now take up this part of the city, and, for some unknown reasons, I was, reminded of everything here in the past…
illustration from UDN.com
So, these are the streets that bore witness to your coming of age, and, you'd felt like an adult, with your training wheels off, riding down this street, and now, you'd, returned back, as an adult, and there's that light scent of loss, that feel of the years gone away…
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