Leif on His First Bicycle - Sagamihara, Japan - July 4, 1981 - Age 6 and a half

Leif loved his brother's "Big Wheel and his two tricycles, but they were nothing compared with the speed and freedom a bicycle allowed him. He got his first bicycle, a used one we purchased from a family that was moving back to the USA, when he was six. He learned to ride quickly, showing that natural athletic ability and balance he was to have all of his childhood and youth. He tore around the neighborhood on it, loving that speed. He liked to wear this football helmet. That was in the days before bike helmets. None of us had them. I don't remember how we happened to have the football helmet, since neither of the boys played football, but Leif liked to pretend that it was a pilot's helmet. He used it a lot in imaginative play.

This photo was taken in the evening on the Fourth of July, 1981 in front of our quarters in the Sagamihara Family Housing Area. The street area was well lighted and on summer evenings, the kids in our neighborhood were often out late playing.