Grandmother’s Speedway

I remember a Care Bear three-wheeler with one big blue wheel in the front and two small blue wheels in the back. I believed that when my grandmother Elinor would push me down her dirt road I could go anywhere. She put a broom handle in the hole in the back of the three-wheeler to push me down the road. Then she would tell me to pedal as fast as I could while she ran behind me trying to keep up. I remember that I would feel like a racecar driver on a speedway passing every car in my way because I was the best.

My grandma would not just push me down the road for any reason though. We were going to visit her friend and neighbor, Cecil. I would beg her to take me because I got to be a racecar driver going there and when I got there, Cecil would always give me a cold refreshing Sprite and Ritz crackers. Cecil, my grandmother and I would sit on her porch and listen to the creek run, be glad when a breeze would blow to cool us off, and have the most fun that three girls could possibly have on a warm summer day.

All the way back to my grandmother’s house, my grandmother would yell “Erica LeAnn slow down. You are getting way too far ahead of me!” But I would laugh and pedal that much harder. This is my earliest and most special childhood memory because I shared it with such a special person who was my best friend throughout my life, until she passed away with cancer. I cherish the 21 years of my life spent with her.

But cancer will never take away this wonderful memory that I will hold in my heart forever. I now live on that same road that was my magical speedway. Sometimes as I drive up and down the road I still hear her calling, and I know I had the most wonderful grandmother in the world and will treasure those memories forever.

Erica Roten, Lansing, a member of Blue Ridge Electric