Are there many, some, a few of us over 50??

[jeannierides]

I was born in 1950. I have a very tattered picture of me on my bike in my little shorts and gypsy-style halter top & pony tail! I'm still pining for those days!
We didn't get a tv until the 60's, but I remember going to my grandparents before that & seeing Edward R. Murrow on the news... Laugh-In, Hullabaloo were the silly programs of the decade. I was on the school bus to go home when I heard the news about JFK. I lost several friends in the Vietnam *conflict*, and a few more returned with serious emotional and physical disabilities.
I was absolutely NOT athletic at all... although I played ball with the neighborhood kids and rode my bike, I was very skinny and too much of a sissy to do anything remotely un-feminine! What a waste of time! I wish I had known how much fun I could have had!
I was 53 when I ran my first half marathon, and 54 when I got back on the bike...

Bike Goddess, you are my hero!

[Tater]

I just wanted to say to Bike Goddess, I want to be like you when I grow up! What an inspiration.

[mimitabby]

Ohh...you saw Jimmy hendrix, janis & the doors..ohh...I envy you!! Am i showing my young age?

Did any of you funky chickies go to Woodstock???
.

I actually had the tickets, I got them in the mail. But my guardian (long story)
wouldn't let me go.
I worked as a waitress at Howard Johnson's on the New Jersey Turnpike that summer and served lots of cute boys that day who were going to Woodstock. I was SOOOOOOO sad and jealous.

and YAY! Bike Goddess Rules !!

[nancielle]

we took off for France (en famille) in July as part of my 50th celebration year (yep, I celebrated the entire year! ).

Now that's my idea of a birthday celebration!

Not 50 yet (49 in July so catching up fast!)

I remember being sent home from kindergarten after the JFK assassination and the funeral being on every channel (all 3 of them.) Hearing my dad wake up my mom to tell her of RFK's assassination. Knowing when it was time to leave for school during the Viet Nam war when they announced the body count on the radio (always at 8:20 a.m. then on to Howard Cosell sports.)
Many of my classmates had older brothers who went to Viet Nam and none came home alive. One vivid memory from the seventh grade was of hearing that my best friend's brother had been blown up by a land mine. None of us could really grasp that.

Was a total spaz as far as athletics went (dad was a jock but apparently all of my siblings got that gene and it just passed me by!) but if we wanted to get anywhere we had to use our bikes or walk. We lived on a hill and all of us would go to the top and try to be the fastest getting to the bottom. We had a pool in my yard so we'd often spend afternoons there after riding (and only if an adult were present. Heaven help us if we broke that rule and none of the other parents on the street had any qualms about ratting out those who broke the rules.)

Didn't ride for the longest time (lack of time and the repeated thefts of various bikes, despite being locked) but took it up again a couple of years ago but on a limited basis, between classes, working & various community things I'd gotten involved with. Got into it a bit more after knee surgery last year when my surgeon suggested riding again (and swimming! just like when I was a kid) to strengthen the muscles around my knees. Now it's woven into the working, community things & the rest of my life stuff.

[Bike Goddess]

I just re read some of your stories and I too am inspired by what each of us has gone through in this crazy world. And here we are thrown together by a wonderful sport called cycling! How amazing is that!

I must say that this forum has renewed my love for women's groups (yeah, we had those "women's lib group meetings in the 60's and 70's too)and for the value I place on our friendships. There's just something special about being around all of you.

Saturday I rode with some women I'll be doing the STP with in July. It was so much fun. None of this hammering stuff, just riding along chatting away and enjoying the scenery. Yes, I ride with the guys too, but I must say it isn't the same. Just a different flavor if you will.

So, while I might inspire you, you all provide lots of inspiration for me!

Thanks, and keep on writing. This is an interesting thread that brings back many past memories for me too!

[Grog]

I must say that this forum has renewed my love for women's groups (yeah, we had those "women's lib group meetings in the 60's and 70's too)and for the value I place on our friendships. There's just something special about being around all of you.

Same here (although I am only 28).

[salsabike]

Bike Goddess, will you give us some identifying info so those of us on STP can say hi? I will be on a bright blue tandem with my husband, probably wearing red or yellow soccer jerseys.

And, by the way, a bunch of my friends went to Woodstock, but I was in the hospital having surgery when they did---although I have to say that my otherwise pretty liberal parents would NEVER have let me go anyway.

It was a ton of fun and I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

[Lise]

I was born in '53. At my 10th birthday party we saw a tape of Jack Ruby shooting Harvey Oswald.

You saw WHAT? And nowadays they give goodie bags. What are they thinking?

Seriously, though, what I remember of JFK's assasination is the sense (I was just 3 years old) that my parents felt powerless. That is a very scary feeling for a little kid. Then my dad died (of a brain tumor) in 1965, then RFK was killed, then MLK was killed, and it all seemed so crazy. There was that sort of cheesy song about "Have you seen my old friend John...Bobby....Martin..." in the '70s, but it summed it up for me. The 70s and 80s (for me) were a time of no living heroes, and a lot of science fiction.

Nobody's mentioned the moon walk--it was a hot summer night, July 9, 1969. We'd been at the pool in Des Plaines, and got the ultimate treat: Drumsticks. You know, the ice cream cone with vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate and nuts? To tell the truth, since Mom never let us get those, I don't remember if that one time we actually did, or if the moon walk later that night was such a cool experience that my memory just threw in a bonus memory of Drumsticks at the pool! But we came home and stayed up really late to watch Neil Armstrong take his first steps on the moon. Amazing. One of my favorite movies is A Walk On the Moon, about that summer.

[Fredwina]

I remember we were staying at a hotel in St. Louis when Dad called us in from the pool to watch it.
I also remember either JFK or RFK funeral. I was mad because they had pre-empted cartoons! the nerve!

[Bad JuJu]

I remember all that stuff--pretty clearly, for how long ago it was.

We were sent home from school early the day JFK was shot, and I think that's my first memory of an historical event that was covered by TV news, and the first time we had the TV on at other times of the day than in the evening--very strange!

The moonwalk was very exciting. When Project Mercury began (Alan Shepherd, John Glenn), whatever we were doing in school was always suspended so we could listen to or watch the launches/landings. By 1969, it had all gotten kind of old, so the moon walk made it exciting again.

I was in high school when MLK and then RFK were shot--a scary and solemn time. My friend and I had had such high hopes for RFK--we even contemplated hitchhiking to DC for his funeral. But our parents caught wind of the plan and nixed it.

And my twin brother went to Woodstock, but I stayed home. *sigh*

[Crankin]

I was staying with my aunt and uncle during the moon walk and Woodstock summer. My aunt had just had a baby and I was there to help them. I remember the moon walk so clearly, because my aunt had gone back into the hospital for something and I was exhausted from taking care of 2 kids plus a newborn (I was 15, almost 16). My uncle was totally obsessed with the moon landing. He was so amazed, I guess because as a child of the forties, it all seemed like science fiction to him. It's a really special memory, because he died young, at age 52. Even though he wasn't a blood relative, I felt very close to him. They would not let me go to Woodstock, even though they were younger than my parents, who probably would have let me go.
I saw Jimmy Hendrix at the Boston Garden in November 1968. Anyone else at that show?

[Bike Goddess]

I saw the Jefferson Airplane at the Fillmore Theatre in San Francisco. Remember them? What about the Kingston Trio? They used to play at a bar called Rossottis in Woodside. My ex husband was a manager for awhile for Country Joe and the Fish. Oh the old days of jazz and funkie music!

Woodstock would have been fun!

[kjay]

Any of you remember Bobby Vee? Well, I grew up in somewhat the same area as he, and used to follow him around the state from performance to performance and then meet him afterwards (during his early years). He was really cute then. Never did like his music, though, except for one: Susie Baby. ;-)

[Bike Goddess]

Salsa bike- Look in the NWest section of rides- I posted there.

[nancielle]

Nobody's mentioned the moon walk--it was a hot summer night,
July 9, 1969.

It was a hot summer night but it was July 20th. I remember it because it was my 12th birthday and we were all having birthday cake as we watched Neil Armstrong take those steps.