As easy as riding a bike

I learned to ride a bike in the front yard of our home on Sparrow Road.  My father took my sister Vickie and I at the same time with our bikes and announced that today was the  day we were going to be learning to ride our bikes.  Vickie and I were quite excited until the painful process began.  Dad would hold the bike upright for us to climb on, then we would peddle with him running behind us holding us upright.  For some inexplicable reason the hedges were like magnets to our bikes, we would head straight across the yard and no matter what we would end up headed straight into them.  With a good amount of time we managed to learn to control the steering better and to stay out of the hedges.  Finally Dad started letting us go at some point in our peddling.  Every time I realized he had let go I would crash but only when I realized he was not longer hanging on.  I began to have many scratches from the hedges and bruises from falling.  We did NOT have training wheels like they put on bikes years later.  I finally gave up that day when I crashed violently into the tree in the front yard which caused the handle bars to forcefully jerk left sending the left handlebar into my thigh taking out a scoop of flesh.  I cried and cried Mom tended to my leg and I swore off bikes for as long as it took for my thigh to heal. Of course that did not last too long as I loved bike riding.  I forced myself to endure the pain of learning and rode bikes for many years. 
As a side note I recently tried out a bike in Target (at age 58) by riding it up and down the isles of the toy and domestics departments.  I laughed and laughed.  It was a frightful experience as I was never sure who was going to come out the end of an isle.  I wasn't sure if it was a safe activity, I was sure it was an immature activity and it was for sure a fun activity but I was just glad I didn't get "caught".