# Experiences! **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [May 18, 2001, 1:22pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/experiences/44323 "2001-05-18T13:22:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://unicyclist.com/uploads/default/original/3X/d/4/d44cf5a6365651cf6b50671d1ff0c84adf0c7726.png) [@system](https://unicyclist.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2001, 1:22pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/experiences/44323/1 "2001-05-18T13:22:29Z")
Hi folks, I enjoy reading about other’s experiences and happenings while riding out in public, i.e., Danny’s Coker commutes, so I thought I’d share one or two of ours. We are relatively new to the sport (just last year) but are having a great time learning and riding. We recently received a 5’ giraffe through an internet auction and are putting it to good use. Yesterday afternoon, my boys and I went on a ride, Brad (age 8) on his 18" wheel, me (age ??) on my 24 ", and Ben (age 11) on the giraffe. We headed for the tee-ball fields at the local school and rode the walking path trail around the fields. There were several tee-ball games in progress and many parents had their video cameras out to film their kids playing ball. For some reason, the boys and I were video taped quite a bit as we rode around the games. Purely accidental of course, we weren’t trying to show off or anything you know. We received many comments such as, “That’s totally cool!” to my favorite…the kids who start singing the circus theme music as they follow along. I even once received the ‘ol, “Hey you’re missing a wheel!” comment from one parent to which I promptly responded, “It’ll be along in a minute”. From the tee-ball fields, we headed for the little league fields and all the activity there. The ump at one field actually stopped one game for a brief moment to watch as we rode by. Ben made it quite a sight on his high one! It was a lot of fun. Everywhere we go, kids flock around and want to try the unicycles. Even when we got back to our driveway, we had 7 or 8 kids who had followed us back so we spent another hour in the driveway helping them try to ride. One of the kids from down the street tried to ride for the first time in our driveway last Monday. Last night, he was able to stay on top half the length of the driveway (about 40’). Wow! To cap it all off, last night was also newspaper delivery night. A photographer from the paper came out to the house to take a picture (several actually) of us riding our unicycles to deliver papers as a human interest story. Should be in this Sunday’s paper. Tonight, Ben has an end-of-the-year lock in at the school. He has permission to take the giraffe and put on a small performance for the rest of the kids. Should be fun for him. All this must be just the start of a long and fun summer! Bruce Edwards [http://move.to/daup](http://move.to/daup) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://unicyclist.com/uploads/default/original/3X/d/4/d44cf5a6365651cf6b50671d1ff0c84adf0c7726.png) [@system](https://unicyclist.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2001, 5:49am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/experiences/44323/2 "2001-05-19T05:49:58Z")
Bruce Edwards wrote: \> Yesterday afternoon, my boys and I went on a ride, Brad (age 8) on his \> 18" wheel, me (age ??) on my 24 "… Poor kid. Surely it’d be fairer if you rode an 18" as well 😉 \> There were several tee-ball games in progress Which leaves me with the burning question, what is tee-ball? There was a post recently on rec.juggling asking if tetherball is purely an American thing, and it occurred to me that tee-ball could be an abbreviation of tetherball. Even if it is, that poster didn’t actually explain what tetherball is, so I’m still not much the wiser. I did a Google search and found that tetherball seems to be a cross between Swingball, volleyball and Maypole dancing. Sound about right? \> Everywhere we go, kids flock around and want to try the unicycles. I almost collapsed in giggles yesterday when a kid of about 12 asked if he could have a go on my Coker. \> One of the kids from down the street tried to ride for the first time in \> our driveway last Monday. Last night, he was able to stay on top half \> the length of the driveway (about 40’). Wow! I think that’s one advantage of having kids of your own who ride. There’s at least on kid in my road who’d like to learn, but I think it’ll be 7 or 8 years before he’s tall enough to try my 20" and I’m not planning to buy a smaller unicycle until I’ve got kids of my own. \> All this must be just the start of a long and fun summer! Remember to keep a scrap book of all your unicycling newspaper appearances. They’re fun to look back on. – Danny Colyer (remove your.mind to reply) [http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/danny.html](http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/danny.html) “The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made” - Groucho Marx ---
**Author:** ![system](https://unicyclist.com/uploads/default/original/3X/d/4/d44cf5a6365651cf6b50671d1ff0c84adf0c7726.png) [@system](https://unicyclist.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2001, 7:06am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/experiences/44323/3 "2001-05-19T07:06:15Z")
\> Which leaves me with the burning question, what is tee-ball? ``` tee ball is a kids sport like baseball, but they get to hit the ball off of a rubber pole. the reason is probably because the kids are not coordinated enough to hit a moving ball yet. other than they get to hit the ball from a stationary point, i think it is just about the same. -Max A. Dingemans ``` ---
**Author:** ![system](https://unicyclist.com/uploads/default/original/3X/d/4/d44cf5a6365651cf6b50671d1ff0c84adf0c7726.png) [@system](https://unicyclist.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2001, 2:05pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/experiences/44323/4 "2001-05-19T14:05:54Z")
dingeman wrote: \> tee ball is a kids sport like baseball, but they get to hit the ball off of \> a rubber pole. Thanks. That’ll be why I’ve never heard of it. Baseball (or rounders as it was called when I was at school) is nowhere near as big in the UK as it is across the pond (it’s quite rare for anyone over the age of 10 to play it at all). Certainly not the sort of thing that many kids would have special equipment to practice with. – Danny Colyer (remove your.mind to reply) [http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/danny.html](http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/danny.html) “The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made” - Groucho Marx ---
**Author:** ![system](https://unicyclist.com/uploads/default/original/3X/d/4/d44cf5a6365651cf6b50671d1ff0c84adf0c7726.png) [@system](https://unicyclist.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2001, 5:43am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/experiences/44323/5 "2001-05-21T05:43:42Z")
\> I almost collapsed in giggles yesterday when a kid of about 12 asked if \> he could have a go on my Coker. \> I let this kid who was probably about 10 or 11 ride mine, with a couple of his mates holding him up. With the seat right down the lowest point (the middle length seatpost I think) he managed to ride off from them and a couple of metres along after a couple of tries. For some people it seems easier to keep the coker going once they’ve started than a normal unicycle with all the momentum it has. Then maybe it was just one of those annoying people who pick it up instantly! ---
**Author:** ![Innes\_Dunbar](https://unicyclist.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Innes\_Dunbar](https://unicyclist.com/u/Innes_Dunbar)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2001, 2:33pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/experiences/44323/6 "2001-05-21T14:33:21Z")
I was out on my Pashley Muni the other day, and a young girl quite seriously said " Did you break your bike?“. That was a new one on me, beats the normal " You forgot your other wheel”, do people really think we have never heard that one before? Innes ---
**Author:** ![system](https://unicyclist.com/uploads/default/original/3X/d/4/d44cf5a6365651cf6b50671d1ff0c84adf0c7726.png) [@system](https://unicyclist.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2001, 2:55pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/experiences/44323/7 "2001-05-21T14:55:14Z")
Danny Colyer wrote: \> Bruce Edwards wrote: \> \> Yesterday afternoon, my boys and I went on a ride, Brad (age 8) on his \> \> 18" wheel, me (age ??) on my 24 "… \> \> Poor kid. Surely it’d be fairer if you rode an 18" as well I do tend to ride slowly when riding with the boys. Good balance practice for me. Bruce