My 9th birthday featured a shiny new Schwinn bicycle, immortalized in this Polaroid from Thornbury Toys in St. Matthews (Louisville).

This poster came along many years later (and is now in the Huffy museum), but in my rural “bike hikes” I fantasized about adding ham radio gear and camping packs. Newly obsessed with electronics, I wanted to integrate it into every part of my life… including the thing most associated with escape and adventure. In the 90s, as a playful throwback, I used to hang this poster on the wall behind the BEHEMOTH bicycle when on display at hamfests:

Introduced in 1955, the Huffy Radiobike included an AM radio in the “tank” behind the handlebars. It had three vacuum tubes, and turned on and off with a key.

Photographic history footnote: this is the back of the little folder containing the Schwinn photo, describing the marvels of the Polaroid Land camera:

Posted in Early Years