因为住在舅外婆家，又不愿意转学，我从小学五年级直到高中毕业，都是在原来驻地学区上学。步行要25-30分钟左右。大约在初一下学期或初二上学期的时候，父母买了一辆自行车。是一辆《永久》17型的车子。车身相对短，可能是为年轻人设计的。那时自行车是老百姓家中很贵重的物品。一辆车150元左右。相比较而言，我第一年到工厂做学徒工，工资只有14元。学徒工资第二年16元，第三年19元。满师35元（二级工）。但是为了上学方便，还是买了车子。这样我可以骑车上学了。这是家里唯一的自行车。

有了自行车方便很多。除了上学以外，骑车可以做许多原来无法做的事情。

妈妈在五七干校的时候（弟弟也在那住了一阵），我经常骑车去看他们。干校离城里大概十多里地。出城后延公路骑一段。路还是好走的。然后要过运河。记得河上一座很高的步行桥，很多台阶，类似于下图中的桥。自行车必须扛在肩上才能过。

过桥以后就没有公路了，都是农村泥土路。骑车就会难些。农场是从一个湖改造而来。路，驻地，田地都是原来的湖底。泥土非常细腻，而且极少杂物。这样的路条件就比较差。有人形容这样的路“下雨像块糕，天好像把刀“。因为下雨后路非常泥泞，经常要赤脚才能走路。太阳出来，把下雨时留下的各种型状的脚印晒干后有的很尖利，像刀一样。到妈妈那里通常是在食堂吃顿中饭，讲讲话，然后回家。总是一件非常高兴的事情。一般总是一天的时间。

自行车也方便了我和同学的交流。我们在高二期间有一个高二学生组成的篮球队，十几个同学，由一个年轻老师带队，训练，经常出去比赛。有时去工厂，有时去学校，还有到外地去的。有了自行车，行动就比较方便。出去比赛大家就骑着自行车。没车的同学就座在别人的后座上。球队出去打球当然是为了比赛，但玩的因素也非常重要。记得有一次去另一个县城去和他们的县中校队比赛，路很远，要骑一个多小时，有的同学还是座在别人后座上的。二三十个人在公路上一路骑去，骑得很快。因为在公路上骑，和汽车共用道路，所以有时只能是排成一路，如同公路赛车一般。煞是好玩。

我们有几个同学还经常下课后骑了自行车去同学家玩，打扑克，或一起做其他事。

高中毕业后，这辆自行车也跟了我很多地方。我在一个商场做过一年营业员，在一个工厂打过几个月工，在另一个工厂做过一年正式学徒，大都是骑这辆自行车。我工作过的两个厂都有厂车，可以坐厂车上下班，但那样就极不方便。要到车站去等，要随厂车的时间。坐厂车的好处是有机会和大家聊天。我工作过的商场没有公车。如果不骑车，就只有走路上下班了。这几段经历另外再写。

The bike that helped me!

I lived in grandma’s house, but I didn’t want to transfer school. From 5th grade in elementary to the graduation of high school, I attended the schools at our original home, which was about 25-30 minutes walk away from grandma’s house. About the time towards the end of 1st year or the beginning of 2nd year in junior high, my parents bought me a bike. This was a “Forever” brand, Model 17. (See a similar one below in the picture.) It was a shorter bike (in length), probably designed for youth. Bikes then were expensive item in people’s live. A typical bike costed about 150 RMB. To put things in perspective, my monthly salary was 14 RMB when I started in a factory as a 1st-year apprentice. The second year would be 16 RMB per month, the third year 19 RMB. The monthly salary for a common factory work after completing the apprentice was 35 RMB as a Class 2 worker. Though expensive, for easy commute to school, my parents bought the bike for me so I could ride to school with less time. This was the only bike we had.

With bike, came many conveniences. I could do many things that would have been very difficult without it, in addition to commute to the school.

My mom lived in a re-education farm camp with my younger brother for a while. I often visited them riding my bike. The camp was probably 10 miles away from grandma’s home in the countryside. I’d ride on a motorway for a while, sharing traffic with all other motor vehicles and bikes. The road was in a decent condition. Then I had to across a big river, the well-known man-made canal. There was no motor way across the river. We had to pass a big, high pedestrian bridge that had many steps, similar to the one in the picture below. People had to put their bike on their shoulder to go over the bridge.

There was no motor way once cross the bridge, all roads were muddy walkways in a typical countryside at the time. It was difficult to bike. The farm camp was reconstructed from an old lake after draining the lake (I believe). The road, the residence houses, the farming fields were the bottom of the lake (it must have been a very shallow lake.) The soil was very fine, with very little other random objects. The road conditions were challenging. Someone called these roads “a sticky cake when raining; a knife when drying.” The road after raining was very slippery, one would have to walk with bare foot (the shoes would be stuck to the mud). After the sunshine, the dry road would leave various shapes of foot prints, some would be actually sharp and would feel hurt if one steps on them. I usually went on sunny days because biking on these roads in a raining day was just not possible. I would have lunch with mom and my brother in their cafeteria. We’d chat a bit afterwards. I’d then come home. It was often a day trip.

The bike also helped me with many other activities in and outside school. We had a basketball team in my 2nd year in high school. We had about a dozen students with a young high school teacher as our coach and leader. We’d practice and go out playing competitive games with others. We’d go to other high schools, business, factories, sometimes even in other towns. The bike helped me in many of these activities. We’d ride our bikes to these games. Fellow students who didn’t have a bike would ride on the (tiny) back seat of the bike. We traveled to may difference places in the city, and some places outside of the city. We enjoyed our time together very much as a group. One time we went for a game in a different town which was the county seat. We had a game with the county high school team. It was pretty far away. The bike ride would take more than an hour. We had about 20-30 people, some riding on the back seat of others. We even had a few high speed chases on the roadway. Because this was a public transportation road, bikes and motor vehicles shared the road. Sometimes we had to ride in a single file to avoid traffic, similar to the bike racing you’d see in Olympics. It was a lot of fun.

We often rode bikes to our classmates houses after school to play, some times pokes, some times other games.

The bike also took me to many places after high school. I worked in a department store as a sales clerk, in a factory for a few months, in another factory as a formal apprentice for a year. I rode my bike to all these places daily. The two factories that I worked in had commute buses. I could ride the bus to and from the factory, like many others did. But it was less convenient. You’d have to walk to the designated bus station and follow the bus schedule. One advantage of riding the commute bus was that you could chat with your fellow workers. The department store I worked for didn’t have a commute bus. Without bike, I’d have to walk to the work. I will write about these experiences separately.