Sadly, I see that JonBenet Ramsey is once again in the news.
Netflix plans a documentary on it, and some news agencies are reporting that there might be new DNA testing that could reveal a killer after all these years.
We lived in Boulder on that tragic day back in 1996, celebrating our first Christmas with our 5-month-old daughter. You can imagine how it hit first-time parents, not that it didn’t leave everyone feeling gut-punched.
A few years later, as my daughter neared the age to possibly learn to ride a bike, a close friend offered a child’s bike as a freebie. I graciously accepted and then she added, “Just so you know, it’s Jon Benet’s bike …”
Wow. Even writing that all these years later a flood of emotion swells up from deep within surging up to watery eyes.
She made me promise I would never attempt to cash in from that knowledge, and that was the furthest thing from my mind. For some odd reason I thought my daughters — my youngest had been born — might somehow send, I don’t know, some positive vibes back to the universe by riding that bike.
Each of my girls learned to ride on it when we moved to Tennessee. I never mentioned its history. As we prepared to leave Tennessee, we had a massive garage sale to pare down our belongings.
I gave the bike to a woman who worked in a modest job at the elementary school, who wanted it for her granddaughter. She begged to pay me for it. Five bucks, four bucks, three bucks, two bucks — how about at least a quarter?
No, the bike deserves to live on and on. Something tells me it has done just that, brightening up the smiles of who knows how many little kids out there, and introducing them to the joys we savor: riding a bike.
This week’s question: Have you ever owned a famous or infamous bike?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Raz has refused any compensation for this article.
