Young Jeremiah (J. D.) Clements Learns to Ride a Bike!

The narrow side street on the left in this photo shows the street where Jerry learned to ride a bike.

Here's how it happened:
Louis Perry, a boy who lived in the house behind the house shown here, in the area of the 20 mph speed limit sign shown in the photo, agreed to sell Jerry a used bicycle for $5.00. Five dollars for a used bicycle that was missing its left pedal! What a bargain!

Well, Jerry did not have five dollars all at once in those days, so he saved and saved until he had accumulated the sale price. Louis agreed to give Jerry lessons in how to ride a bike, and so Jerry learned on this little narrow gravel road in the photo. In addition to being a gravel road, it had dips and little hills and valleys, which seemed huge to a young boy just learning to master the art of bicycle riding. No easy task when the bike only has one pedal.

When Jerry's loving and generous Mama learned of the missing pedal, she gave him the seventy-five cents to buy a new pedal. Then Jerry had wheels!

The white house in the photo was where Chalk George lived, and he was an interesting fellow. He was tall, thin, always wore overalls, and always seemed to have a smart remark to make about everything. He had a younger brother named Buddy George.

Chalk would go down to the Silver Moon Cafe where Jerry worked, and order a 6 1/2-ounce Coke (known as a "Dope")and a tube-shaped packet of Tom's Toasted Peanuts. He would then tear off the top of the peanuts and pour the peanuts into the Coke, making the Coke fizz even more, and then eat and drink them both, pretty much at the same time. As he would drink the Coke, the peanuts would float on top, so he would eat a bite of them as he drank the Coke.

Chalk George would also order a "Dope and a Cream," which was a Coke and an ice cream cone. He would hold the ice cream cone sideways in his left hand, pointing to the right, and he would hold the coke bottle in his right hand. Then he would push the Coke bottle into the ice cream in the cone, and it would be forced into the bottle. It would fizz up and Chalk would drink Dope and eat ice cream at the same time.

Eating these two snacks the Chalk George way was both complicated and efficient at the same time.

Later Chalk worked at Oak Ridge National Labs in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Interestingly, Mauselle Harris, Lela and Ira Harris' daughter, also ended up working at Oak Ridge.