First big ride FREEDOM

.......... my sister tapped me on the shoulder as she. and some of her friends  were out and about town.  I've never forgotten that night on main street and I began my search for the motorcycle that I could ride down that highway of freedom and power.  A guy who lived a few houses down from us used to ride a motor cycle. I hadn't seen him riding it for a while.  I wondered what became of the motorcycle that he rode past our back-alley once in awhile.  After some checking and asking some friends I learned that that motorcycle was still around and sitting in his garage down the alley from us.  Getting up enough nerve I snuck down the street and took a look through the window of his garage and there in the corner on it's center stand sat the motorcycle of my dreams.  I'm not sure how it all came about but eventually the guy took the time to let me come into his garage and take a look at the bike.  Man it was a beauty it was a 85cc Bridgstone bike and he said that he would sell it to me for $50.00.  That was a lot of money back then,  but I was working for my uncle sometimes and walking the ditches along the highway to collect bottles in gunny sacks and getting money for them.  It didn't take too long to get the fifty dollars together.  Once I paid the guy for the bike I pushed it home.  It took a bit to get it home as the rear wheel was seized up and wouldn't turn.  We loaded it onto my Dad's truck and hauled it out to my uncles farm where he helped me to tear the rear wheel off and remove the old bearings.  Well where do you go find bearings for a British motorcycle in a small town.  So we started by checking at a hardware store and they sent us to the local garage where the owner took time as he usually did for everyone who needed parts.  And what do you know the bearing out of a Ford generator worked  just perfect.  My uncle paid him, and we were off, back to the farm and out to the Quonset where we had set the bike on a sheet of ply wood as the floor was all gravel. We started to clean up all the good parts and than my uncle helped me and showed me how to put the new bearings into their right spots. It wasn't long before we had it all together and it rolled out of that Quonset real nice. We then emptied the gas tank and flushed the old gas and some rusty stuff out, we then put it all back together and put in new gas.  We also drained the oil from the motor and filled it with new oil that my uncle had in big barrels in his tractor shop.  I watched as he grabbed a shiny metal container from off the counter and then with a clean rag he wiped out the container of any dust that may have gotten in it because he said, "we don't want any dirt in the clean oil as it could get into the motor.  He then took the big barrel that was on a wooden stand on it's side, opened the little bung to let air into it and then removed the big bung. As he turned that barrel with that shiny container under the large hole, the clean yellow gold oil poured out into the container until it was full.  Then he rolled the barrel back to where  it would not pour out and put the bungs back into place and tightened them up.  He then took an old block of wood and put it under the barrel to keep it from rolling away.  We grabbed a funnel and filled the bike motor with new oil. He also helped me to clean the points and plugs. We took the battery that had been hooked up to his little blue battery charger and set it back into the bike, hooked it up and tried the horn to see if we had power and yeper we had power.  We rolled it outside and turned on the key and the first few kicks nothing, but then as the fuel worked it's way through the carburetor it started to fire a bit then it started, WOW what a feeling, my first bike, and it runs too. With a bit of fear and looking forward to that incredible feeling of being on a motorcycle on the open road, I put on the old helmet and pulled in the clutch.  My foot engaged it into first gear and as I let the clutch out I was away, a bit jerky at first but I remember that first ride. It doesn't take long to catch on and then the freedom hits as the wind blows in your face and the road zooms by under your feet.  It felt so good  you didn't want to ever stop.   I had to ride the mile or so to my cousins house to show them my new bike.  After getting back to my uncles farm I thanked him and said goodbye to him and my aunt and I headed off back to town. I rode the bike on all the back roads to town, past a few friends farms hoping that someone would see me so I could show off my new bike.  Once I got near town I got off and proudly pushed my bike through town and parked it in our yard.......