Bicycles were a very big part of my life in my younger years. In Upton, I learned how to ride and how to skid to a sudden stop. My brothers and I and friends would ride as fast as we could down Wood Street, and brake hard, and see who could make the longest tire skid. We would navigate down Snake Hill on Prospect Street that led from the highest point of Wood Street into the town green of Upton. We would decorate our bikes for July 4th and make a motorcycle sound by using clothes pins to attach baseball cards to the frame of the bike such that the cards stuck out into the spokes. It wasn’t unusual for us to ride into town together. One time I rode with Johnny Page to his grandfather’s place outside Hopedale. I remember it was a long ride along busy Route 140 and he was very old and bed-ridden. He didn’t have any teeth and told us a story about how his hand got caught in a hay baler when he was our age and even showed us the scar to prove it. One time, Mom asked if we could get her frogs legs, so all three of us rode off to Froglesss Pond and caught some bullfrogs, killed them, and cut off their legs so she could make some Frogs Legs for dinner.

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