Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Christmas 1963, San Diego, CA.

I scanned this from a copy of the original photograph that my Mother still has. The copy I have isn’t very good. I added some contrast and sharpening in photoshop to help it a bit.
On the back of the photo my mom wrote:
Big Bike for Deborah
Trike for Rebecca
Tractor for David
Riding horse for Ke-ke
Christmas 1963

This bike was awesome. It was blue with white metallic trim, streamers on the handle bars, and white wall tires. Anyone familiar with San Diego knows it’s hilly. Our house was in the country then on top of a what I thought was a mountain, but was a good size hill. Probably about 500 ft high.
There was a flight of stairs from the driveway to the front door. I remember man handling this big bike down the stairs then hanging onto the bike for dear life as I walked it- yes walked half way down the hill- far too timid to dare try riding down the whole hill on my maiden voyage! I had just sat on the on the seat and was ready to let er’ rip down the down the hill when my father shouted from the top of the stairs ” Deborah, bring her up, we’ll take the training wheels off!”
After many crashes, bruises, scrapes, and hours I learned to ride my new Big Blue Bike without ever riding her with training wheels. A Christmas I will never forget.