My Brotherhood
When I was a kid, growing up in the Bronx wasn't easy. I came from a neighborhood where like most inner city areas was drug and crime infested and you did what ever you could to try to escape it. I had a tight knit circle of friends. All around my age, we all wanted to find any thing that would take us outside what we called "The Block" or our grimy neighborhood. We all couldn't afford bicycles so we did the next best thing, we walked around the neighborhood alleys and found a frame here, a rim there some handlebars and we would piece together a bicycle.
We did this till we all had bikes and trust me when I tell you we did this in one spring month, between the group we had and walking the city streets we found what we needed in no time. We would ride everywhere together. Most of our rides were hours away to a town up in Westchester County called Tuckahoe NY. On our way up, if any of us went flat, we would pull over and fix it together so we could do it fast and be back on the road to make time. One guy provided the patch kit, another the tools, another an air pump and all of us did some type of labor but the point being...we did it all together and we left NO one behind. When we arrived at our destination hungry and parched, we would all pull out our money and put it all together and believe me it didn't matter how much you contributed....we were all going to eat. Most times we would scrap up enough for a few bucks in cold cuts, a huge loaf of Italian bread and a 2 liter Pepsi cola which was some good eating for most of us. We would park our bikes right in front of the deli, sit on the side walk in a circle and with a pocket knife cut the bread into pieces, slap in a slice of ham and cheese and down the hatch it went! Forget cups, we all took swigs of the Pepsi bottle and passed it on. For the time we were on the road together...we were brothers. Black, White, Puerto Rican or Dominican, we had it all and it didn't mean a thing. We would do this day after day in the summer and when school started we would do it on the weekends. We would never let any one tell us we couldn't do it...not even our parents. We got to know so many people on these little adventures. From local towns people to the deli-man who gave us the cold cuts and hooked us up we made friends everywhere but most important...we created memories with brothers for life. Unfortunately...life happened and we moved on. Some were lucky enough to go to college or the military. Some just went on to jobs and having families, and some sadly passed.
Today...although with a different bike and new tight knit circle of friends, I still ride. We ride over long distances together even hitting our neighbor to the north Canada. If a bike breaks down then we all stop and leave no one behind. We all stop to eat and if one doesn't have....well we just don't let it happen cause we all pitch in and feast together! We laugh, we council and pray together as a family. We ride together with Jesus in our hearts and armor of god on our backs. We put the miles down hard! We have a trust, fellowship and honor that is earned together on the road racking up those miles making new friends along the way. I can't wait till we do it again in this upcoming season of 2017. We will do it together...thanks for reading... My Brotherhood!
Reign Riders CMC
Esprit De Corps
Revelation 5:10