Hotfoot
Being an 80’s kid was pretty cool. It was all about the BMX for us 80’s boys. Video games were in their infancy, and expensive. If you were lucky, you hand the twin screen hand-held LCD game, Donkey Kong. My prized possession was a single screen ‘Fire Fire!’ game where you’d move left and right to bounce people who were jumping from a burning building into the back of an ambulance. We weren’t well off, with most of Mum’s pension going on dope and booze I imagine. It was a life of second hand clothes, second hand bikes and home haircuts. I have more school photo’s sporting the old ‘bowl cut’ than I care to remember.
Birthdays were low key events, and in fact, there’s really only one birthday I can remember as a child – My 11th.. I woke up that morning, trying not to feel too excited. I mean things had been tough for us, and I didn’t expect a lot. I made Mum a cup of coffee, as I’d been trained to do of a morning, and delivered it to her bedside. She said good morning, and gave me a hug, just like any other day, and I went off to make myself some breakfast. No mention of my birthday. I thought to myself, ‘Maybe she can’t afford to buy a present, and doesn’t want to wish me a happy birthday empty handed?’. I went about my day, a little down in the dumps, but hey, no need to worry, it’s just another day really. It is what it is. I wasn’t gonna say anything, and just let it be.
Around 10am, Mum asked if I could go to the shops and buy some milk. I had no bike at the time, which meant I’d have to walk up to the milk bar.
“Sure Mum, I’ll go.”
“AH! I can’t find my purse, I think I left it up at the sports store yesterday! Can you go there first and pick it up for me?”
Off I ran, worried that she might be wrong, and lost her purse all together. What little money we had, might be gone. Shit!
When I arrived at the sports store, my breath heaving from having run all the way, I blurted out “My Mum left her purse here yesterday! Do you have it?”
“Afraid not mate…..” He said, and my face dropped. “ But she told me to give you this…” wheeling out a brand new Hotfoot BMX from behind the counter. Black, with yellow pads, shiny chrome handlebars, and black tyres, still with the little nubs on them. Brand new. It looked beautiful. It smelled beautiful. It was beautiful!
I stared in disbelief… “What?”
“It’s yours mate. Happy Birthday, aye. Off you go.”
I’ll never forget the feeling of riding that brand spanking new BMX home for the first time, endorphins flowing through my veins, grinning from ear to ear. I found Mum waiting outside on the road for me to return. I stood up and took my hands off the handlebars and rode up to her, no handed, jumped off the bike and into her arms.
“Thanks Mum! Best. Birthday. Ever.”
Similar experience as a 7 year old and a Cyclops Scooter with pneumatic tyres. Some 62 years later I can still remember the feeling and the smell of still red paint.
Well written Lex.
Really good story Lex. Some of my best memories as a kid were getting round the neighbourhood to gather our group of friends all on our bikes. We would then go to the local bush tracks and spend the day making new jumps or berms or clearing the old overgrown tracks out. I never had a new bike, but my mother did find me a second hand chrome frame diamondback BMX. It was mint and I loved it. I still wonder what happened to the old bike. Eventually my friends and I all upgraded to a mountain bikes which gave us more speed and meant we could go further distances.
Those were the days mate. My old Hotfoot is in various pieces in the shed. I started restoring it about a decade ago, but life got in the way. Hopefully I’ll get back to it.