Bill Ray

My First Bicycle Was a J.c. Higgins Bill Ray

A comedy about a 9-year-old boy who is disappointed and concerned about his social status in his grammar school and community because he receives a J. C. Higgins bicycle instead of a Schwinn. To make his point he compares his J. C. Higgins to America's laughable version of an automobile The Edsel. He talks about kids so desperate to not be associated with either the Edsel or the Higgins that they invented "Edsel Escape Diving". This was a precision move designed by kids so that when the parents slowed the family Edsel in order to pull into the school yard, the kids would leap from the car while it was still in motion. The purpose for that little maneuver was to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the joke that Detroit played on an unsuspecting public.