I was wheeling around the local college campus on my day off, practicing
/showing off in the plaza. After a while I went to the Student Union for a soda.
A guy with a group of friends blurted out softly “I wanna try that so bad!”,
leaving me the option of noticing or ignoring.
I said "Come on, then." and handed it to him. He said "It's been
years--wonder if I remember how", but after two false starts, he freemounted
and rode around in a wobbly circle, delighting his friends. He reminisced a
bit about him and his brother and their unicycling exploits and then asked
me if I knew how to ride backward. I gave a short demo of that and a few
other things, eliciting some oohs and aahs. This is the way unicycling in
public should be--I'd much rather be an Ambassador of Good Wheel and not the
butt of callous and unoriginal jokes.
I am switching to night shift so I took a nap this afternoon and stayed up
late, drinking cofffee to jolt my body clock forward (I don't drink it at
all normally). I went to an evening meeting and to a restuarant afterward
for coffee with some new friends I met there, which took me to about 11:30.
After that,since it was such a warm and calm night, I took the uni downtown.
After riding around for about an hour, I found my way to one of the college
hangouts and stood around outside playing Hacky-Sack for a couple of hours
with some total strangers. I'd never tried it before but they were all very
patient with me.
About 2am, nearly time for Last Call, I pulled my uni out from behind the
bar and did a little show for my new friends. Just about every skill I
possessed I demonstrated for them, and they loved it--especially walking the
wheel! One guy wanted to try it and I helped him get on, then grinned with
everyone else while he struggled to hang onto a lamp post and stay on top.
All in all one of the best days off I've had in a long time. Now it's 4am
and I need some sleep.
Dennis Kathrens