In my teen years, my friend John Foss and I were passing a yard sale when something caught his eye... a toy unicycle. I say it was a toy as it was made of pressed steel and had a non-pneumatic tire. It was painted red and white like the popular tricycles of the time. Still, something clicked within him, and he bought it and took it home.

My friend was determined to ride the thing. He tried hard, somewhat handicapped by the cheap construction of the toy, but ride it he did. He eventually saved up some money and bought a more official-type unicycle (used) and became very good at riding it.

"You oughta learn to ride it!" he said to me. I was, by some orders of magnitude, the more clumsy of the two of us, so the idea seemed intimidating.

Still, it looked kinda fun. And we had, since grammar school, rode our bicycles together all the time.

So the next thing you know, my friend is trying to teach me how to ride it. I fell down a lot (the first thing you need to learn is how to fall down... really) but I ended up getting the hang of it. John soon bought a newer unicycle and gave me the one we'd both been riding.

John soon learned to do trick riding. I didn't get a lot better, but just kept riding the unicycle the "normal" way. After we got out of high school, John went east and ended up riding in a circus for a while. I went downtown to pursue a cartooning career (I was originally roommates with my other high school pal, Don Simpson who also wanted to break into cartooning, but that's a story for another time.) The unicycle made for good transportation downtown, as you could easily take it into a building with you.

As my twenties passed, I rode the unicycle less and less. I had developed some hip problems that made it harder. At this age, I'm not certain I could ride one anymore.

When I was first learning to ride the unicycle, I knew it wouldn't be easy. I've always had a rough time doing anything that required physical coordination. But I figured that if I could do that, I could do anything.

Later I met one of John's friends from the circus. He was a professional juggler and he tried to teach me how to juggle. He assured me that anybody could learn. As it happened, I was never able to juggle for more than a few seconds at a time.