When I was a kid, my brothers, sisters, and friends rode our bikes all over town.
Miles and miles and miles a day.
Parents never had any idea of our destination or location. We could be anywhere within a 20-mile radius for hours at a time, and our parents never questioned where we were or what we were doing.
That sounds crazy, but here’s the crazy thing:
We were constantly chased by dogs.
When I told my students this, they didn’t believe me. I had to text my sister to confirm, which she did, of course.
We were chased by dogs constantly.
No leash law existed in Blackstone, Massachusetts, in the 1980s, so as we rode by particular homes, dogs would run across their yard and into the street to chase us down.
All the damn time.
Some homes were known to have dogs, so we would gain a head of steam before passing so we could outrun the monsters, but others surprised us, requiring us to pump hard, weave, and sometimes kick at the dog on our heels lest we get taken down and bitten by these angry canines.
Was this just my hometown, or were all people of a certain age chased by dogs on their bikes as kids?
