I will admit that the first time I saw someone riding a scooter down the road, I thought they looked like a dork. After all, I would never be caught riding one. Little did I know that it would be the perfect answer for my son.

My son had been living with his dad in an area where he could walk to any place he needed to go. He was seventeen and didn't have his drivers license yet. He came to live with us. We live out in the middle of no where. One of his requirements for living here with us is that he had to work. One problem, he had no way to get to work.

A thought occurred to us about him getting a moped. When we were looking into it, we found that a scooter might be closer to the answer for him. He was working but I was giving him rides to and from work. That got harder as time went on because I couldn't always be there in time to pick him up.

He saved about $500 and that is when we started looking for a scooter. He found one that he liked online and so we ordered it. When it got here and we put it together, well, it was a hilarious sight to see. This scooter looked like a kids bike with a tiny motor on it. I didn't really think it was big enough to hold his weight. He got on the scooter and headed down the road. The thing sounded like a lawn mower that was about to break down.

He went crazy on that thing. He would just hop on it and run up and down the road. My boyfriend is a firefighter. One night they got a fire call and when they were coming back up the road in the fire truck, they passed my son. They blew the horn at him to try and scare him. When my son looked up, he had the biggest smile on his face that you ever did want to see. This was his little bit of freedom.

The scooter got him back and forth to work for a while. The only real problem with it was the tires. They were so small and all the riding back and forth cost him a lot of tubes. They weren't easy to find either. Things also started to fall off of it. He would hit bumps and when he did something would hit the ground and fall off. It didn't have turn signals or a tail light. I bought him lights from thefirestore.com where I work and we put them on the back. Those lights didn't last long, I guess the ride was just too bumpy for them.

It eventually died and he bought a better one. One that went faster and was bigger. It lasted much longer than the first one. He got a lot of use out of the second one. But nothing makes me smile more than to think about how proud he was of that first itty bitty scooter. He was proud because he earned the money for it and it was his freedom. I won't soon forget hearing him start that thing up and happily jumping on it to run to the store.

Learn more about this author, Dawn Hawkins.
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