I got this follow up email from the lady I bought it from....pretty interesting.
Steve,
The bike came from my friend Lisa (a 1st generation American from Chinese immigrants who settled in Portland, Oregon). Her brother, Alan, had parents who have always been very economy-minded (read: cheap!!). So it makes sense that the bike would have been a K-Mart purchase.
The parents bought the bike because at the time, that's what all the other kids were interested in. They wanted to get their bookworm son off his keester and outdoors. It never worked. The kid tried the bike, didn't care about it, so the parents took it and stored it in the attic from about the second week after it was purchased.
These folks saved everything...still do....
They went on to become wealthy landowners. The son never did get off his behind. Today he is a very successful day trader in the San Francisco area and does not even have a "real job." His sister is a prosthetics artist (makes fake hands, fingers, eyes/face pieces) for disfigured individuals.
The bike was in storage in Portand until 1999, when it was given to Lisa, who then gave it to me, thinking someone in my active family would enjoy it. She was wrong. No one wanted to ride the "silly, antiquated thing." Since it was shiny and red i used it for display purposes in my living room. I felt it made a nice contrast with the BMX and mountain bikes we had in the living room at the time. (We have now updated our decor and are moving toward rocks, not bicycles, as "accent items.")
Note that Lisa moved to the Seattle area about 1990 and i met her in 1994 at a park. We lived in the Seattle area until 1999 when an employment move took us to DFW.
So there's the long, drawn-out story for you.
Have fun,
Claire
Steve,
The bike came from my friend Lisa (a 1st generation American from Chinese immigrants who settled in Portland, Oregon). Her brother, Alan, had parents who have always been very economy-minded (read: cheap!!). So it makes sense that the bike would have been a K-Mart purchase.
The parents bought the bike because at the time, that's what all the other kids were interested in. They wanted to get their bookworm son off his keester and outdoors. It never worked. The kid tried the bike, didn't care about it, so the parents took it and stored it in the attic from about the second week after it was purchased.
These folks saved everything...still do....
They went on to become wealthy landowners. The son never did get off his behind. Today he is a very successful day trader in the San Francisco area and does not even have a "real job." His sister is a prosthetics artist (makes fake hands, fingers, eyes/face pieces) for disfigured individuals.
The bike was in storage in Portand until 1999, when it was given to Lisa, who then gave it to me, thinking someone in my active family would enjoy it. She was wrong. No one wanted to ride the "silly, antiquated thing." Since it was shiny and red i used it for display purposes in my living room. I felt it made a nice contrast with the BMX and mountain bikes we had in the living room at the time. (We have now updated our decor and are moving toward rocks, not bicycles, as "accent items.")
Note that Lisa moved to the Seattle area about 1990 and i met her in 1994 at a park. We lived in the Seattle area until 1999 when an employment move took us to DFW.
So there's the long, drawn-out story for you.
Have fun,
Claire
