The poor UW–Madison professor with 6 kids (my father) had to be very frugal. Somehow, he got to know Mr. Schwinn, the president of the Schwinn bike company, and it was a rite of passage for each of the kids in our family to get a full-size single-speed narrow-tire Schwinn bike for the first Christmas after our 10th birthdays. For me, the year was 1950, which means I’ve been biking now for 72 years.