Family Tree by Signe Wilkinson for July 25, 2013

I’ve heard that emergency room doctors call helmetless motorcycle riders the same thing—organ donors.

Love “Donorcycles” and plan to steal it for future use. Thanks! Signe

Growing up, NOBODY wore helmets on bicycles. And nobody I knew ever got a head injury doing it. Scraped knees hands and elbows, yes, and they were just fine a few days later, but no head injuries. This mania for helmets for everything is overboard. So we get a few cuts and scrapes growing up, it’s not the end of the world or destruction of childhood.

I knew an 11 yr old boy, not wearing helmet while on bike, who was hit by a car. Permanent physical and brain damage, will always need care. Very sad.

I rode my first lightweight (called them “English” in the 50’s) till it wore out, helmet-less, but in small-town rural location and “then”. Agree with Saucy regarding hazards. More recently, wearing a helmet, I was watching overtaking cars in my helmet mounted mirrors (home-made) when I dropped the front wheel between bars of a storm drain grill. The bike dove into the pavement, and so did my face. Big chunk out of the helmet just above my right eye, but blood mess on my clothing was the most dramatic damage. My glasses cut the bridge of my nose and rolled the skin up so it bled profusely. Now wear safety glasses.