Bicycle Bill Schwinn Ad – Sept. 1971

Do today's kids ride bicycles as much as we did when we were younger?

I don’t think so. In fact, I can’t even say that I've seen an actual kid riding a bike in a long time, at least in my travels in Lorain and Vermilion. The bikes I do see are ridden by adults, and often are equipped with a small motor so that they don’t need to be pedaled. (So much for the exercise factor.)

But bikes were pretty important to us when we were not quite old enough to drive, but wanted to see our friends or go somewhere. In those days, you weren’t shuttled around by your parents in an SUV.

I remember roaming far and wide with my friends on our bikes, even as far as Mill Hollow. Once, we went to Dog ’N Suds on our bikes. And many times I rode my bike to the Lorain Public Library on Sixth Street.

Scott Welko and I spent a lot of time fooling around with our bikes too – taking them apart, painting them, etc. So naturally that meant many trips to the Schwinn store operated by Bicycle Bill Schetter in the small shopping strip that was also home to Willow Hardware.

And speaking of Bicycle Bill, here’s yet another of those articles that ran in the Journal that were basically advertisements. It ran in the paper on September 27, 1971.

What’s kind of nice about the photo is that it includes Bill’s sister, Rachel, who kept the business going after Bill’s passing in 1986. Today, Rachel Schetter McNeely and her husband operate Bicycle Bill’s LLC in Vermilion. (Click here to visit the website.)