Tricks On Unicycles
When RD Vordick was growing up in Milllersview, a town of a few dozen people near San Angelo, the school only went through the 7th grade. “There was no baseball or any kind of sports, so the principal Mr. King bought 25 unicycles and told the kids to just ride them any way they wanted to,” says RD. “Mr. King paid for those himself. Later he bought a 6-foot unicycle. My friend Charles Hogan and I got to where we could get on that 6-footer in the middle of the gymnasium floor without any help and take off on it.”
The kids got to be very good at riding unicycles and devised all sorts of maneuvers. They became well known throughout the region and performed their unique presentations in parades, schools and colleges. They were a popular favorite during halftime at basketball games. “One of our tricks was called The Rattlesnake. We’d take a dozen eggs and spread them out on the gym floor spaced about 3 feet apart and ride unicycles in and out between the eggs. There was probably about 25 of us doing that. I don’t have a clue as to how many shows we did, but we only broke one egg. As a finale, Charles would be on the 6-footer and I’d be on the smaller one. I’d go by, pick the egg up and throw it up to him. He’d put it in the carton. We’d get the whole dozen eggs in the carton then he’d hand it to me and I’d go put it up. Sometimes we’d ride piggyback. I’d be on the 6-footer and Charles would be on my shoulders. We’d ride around and do some tricks and to dismount, I’d ride under the basketball goal and he’d grab hold of the goal, drop to the floor and I’d just keep riding out from under him. Sometimes we’d play football or basketball on the unicycles.”
They’d also jump rope on unicycles. “We’d have 2 people on unicycles twirling the rope and we’d come in with a unicycle, grab hold of the front and back of the seat and we could pick that unicycle up and skip the rope just like people would do but we were doing it on unicycles”
Sometimes they put on light shows. “We had red and blue lights on the spokes. They’d turn the lights out and all we’d have was just our lights on our unicycles and we’d go in all directions all over the gym floor.”
The school had a stone wall around the building about 8 inches wide. “Charles and I rode our unicycles on that wall just to see if we could do it.”
After graduating from the school at Millersview, students went to high school at Paint Rock. “We’d ride our unicycles in the hall, down stairs and just all over. We never did figure out how to go up the stairs on our unicycles.” RD and Charles rode their unicycles to and from high school in Paint Rock. “Seventeen miles one way. We were a little bit saddle-sore by the time we got home.”
For RD, those were some of the best memories of his growing up years. He got to keep his unicycle and rode it long after he finished high school in the mid 1960s.
“I always wanted to ride a bicycle without holding on the handle bars but I never learned how to do that.”