On the subject of nostalgia, there are three bikes that I vividly remember from my childhood. One I've written about somewhere here on the forum and was a Raleigh Chopper, stick shift and all! I was so jealous! Another one was a yellow Schwinn Lemon Peeler. The front suspension was killer. And the last one was a yellow Schwinn road bike. I don't know what the model was, but it had 10 speeds, drop bars and I was cautioned not to touch the shifters because I might accidentally "strip the gears".
Meanwhile, I owned a hand-me-down bronze-colored bike with one speed. I eventually painted it with day-glo spray paint in a resplendent pink and green. I used masking tape and came up with a striped pattern which was pleasing to my juvenile eyes. I also swapped out my front tire for a super-skinny slick. I guess that was cool at the time. Or maybe that was the only cheap tire we could find? I rode literally every day and never really did any maintenance other than airing up the tires. Couldn't kill that bike. Left it outside, all year round because I didn't know any better.
Ah, the good old days....