A Two Pedal World: The Beginning (Book #1) by Paul Rega

Author:Paul Rega [Rega, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: memoirs, 1970's, coming of age, bike hike, the boys in the boat, boys and men, cycling, bicycle memoir, boy scouts, bike, true story, true accounts, boy adventure, scout, bsa, travel biographies & personal memoirs, travel essays & travelogues, bicycle touring, 1960's, values manners, action and adventure, growing up 1950's
Publisher: Deep Blue Publishing
Published: 2014-06-19T04:00:00+00:00

11

Jerry was born in 1941 on the North West side of Chicago and is where he started his education in the city’s harsh public school system. He would later attend St. Pascal School and Parish at North Melvina in Chicago near West Irving Park Road for sixth and seventh grade. It was a stone cold school, both in its appearance and how its students were treated. Jerry dreamed of returning to his old school. The parish building was ominous, constructed of grayish brown brick and a red tiled roof. The steeple towered over everything else in the area with a large bell in the middle at its peak. A massive gray cross, made of stone adorned its pinnacle.

The school was iconic in its stature having served the community since 1914. Jerry’s mother Marie, a staunch Catholic insisted that her children be educated in the more rigid ways of the Catholic school system. His experience at St. Pascal and the lessons he learned would follow him throughout his life. It was a very structured form of discipline, where nuns observed and dictated your every move.

In 1953, his family would move to the small town of Wood Dale, some 11 miles directly west. The population of the town at the time was only about 850 people. As a young boy, Jerry was surprised by the differences in culture and size of the two towns. It would become his new home for the next 26 years. When he and his family first drove into the small village, he noticed the Francis Farm on the north side, where several horses grazed. He and his younger brother Bob would attend Holy Ghost school, a little country church and school where Jerry would start the eighth grade.

The one story school was constructed of a faded orange brownish brick where many of the classrooms opened up to the outside. Jerry thought that was pretty neat, since he had come from such a different environment in Chicago. He was quickly becoming used to the country way of life and loved being able to run around outside his house without being supervised.

Despite his new seemingly serene and quiet surroundings in Wood Dale, he was reminded of the harsh reality of war, something he and his other classmates were forced to consider on a regular basis. The Soviet Union had exploded its first atomic bomb in 1949, and as a result, the American public was nervous. They were aware of the destruction that atomic bombs did to the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The new bombs the Soviets were setting off were the much more powerful and destructive H-Bombs. Air raid drills were conducted on a regular basis at many of the schools across the country, including Holy Ghost.

There were times when an ominous sounding bell would go off without any warning and everyone in the class had to run into the hallway and put their hands over their heads and try to protect themselves. If a bomb were to be dropped, the students were told not to look at the flash or they would go blind.

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