I might have been on one today, on the Pelham Bay trail near the Bronx-Westchester border.
The temperature reached 25C—77F. It’s warm for this time of year, but the wind I pedaled into on my way up—and that pushed me home—made it feel less unseasonal.
Ridding that path, I thought of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.”
Yesterday, while out for an afternoon ride, I passed Sparr's Antiques & Militaria (How often have you seen a name like that?) as I have many times before. I couldn't help but to notice that they were displaying many of their wares outside, including something I hadn't seen in the shop before:
This, according to the owner is an "all original, except for the tires" Schwinn Spitfire--from 1957. He says "everything was overhauled," which, from the looks of it, I can believe. I couldn't help but to notice, though, some of the details unique to bikes like it:
Current reproductions of Schwinn cruisers usually have chromed, or at least chrome-like, rims. Also, the forks are tubular, in contrast to the bladed forks on Schwinns of yore.
Plus, the new reproductions don't seem to get the graceful sweep of the frame tubes' curve. It may not be a practical matter, but bikes like this one are all about style.
As is a shop like Sparr's, if in a different way.
It's been a while since I've been to church for anything but a wedding, funeral or memorial service. (At least they weren't my own!) But I have to admit that I at least stop and take notice when I see a cross looming over a landscape, like the Croix de Fer atop Mount Royal in Montreal.
For me, oversized crucifixes are both awe-inspiring and intimidating. On one hand, I am impressed with the effort it takes to build any large structure that stands out in its environment. On the other, I can't help but to think about people who've been tortured and killed while or by hanging, whether from an upright tree or crossed staffs.
Sometimes I wonder whether the person who constructed a large cross-like structure intended it to mean more than just its ostensible function--which, in this case, seems to have something to do with sails.
Somehow, seeing it over the water seems especially fitting today, the anniversary of Columbus' "discovery" of the Americas. (I think Vikings, and possibly even Phoenicians, got here before him. And neither they nor he "discovered" anything: There were plenty of people living on this side of the ocean already.) Colonizers claimed lands in the name of their church as well as the rulers of the countries from which they sailed.
Although I was pedaling into the wind when I saw this "cross" during a ride along the World's Fair Marina, my trek wasn't nearly as difficult as anything a "cross" represents!
