TBT: June 7, 2002

This photo is from the June 10th, 2002 edition of the Park Slope Courier. I forgot the picture was taken till I saw a stack of these papers in the lobby of a bank. I almost fell over when I saw my picture out of the corner of my eye

The race was a few days earlier on June 7, it happened to be my 39th birthday.

I remember changing the kids diapers on the roof of that stroller. They were 13 months old.They are in college now.

I pushed those kids a lot. I did hundreds of laps of Prospect Park with them in the stroller. I would bring apples. One only like to eat the outside the other only the inside. So they would share them one starting the apple and eating all the skin the other finishing it down to the core.

Often, I push them down to the Brooklyn Bridge, go over it, cross Manhattan at Warren Street, at the Hudson River I would make a left turn, then back up on the Brooklyn Bridge to go home. A lot of tourists took a picture.

One fall I needed to do some big mileage. When I got to the west side of Manhattan I said to the kids "Let's go see where big bird lives" we made a right turn at the Hudson River and headed up the brand-new parks to 59th St. and then I started to do a loop of Central Park. I hit the wall going up Cat Hill and thought I was going to die on the Harlem Hills. They were doing construction on the Westside subways so to go home I had to take stairs. Two downs and up. I didn't know that was going to be the last time I ever pushed them.

So my advice to parents who want to push their kids a lot is do it until they are potty trained. It's easy to find a place to change a diaper. Once the potty trained starts finding a bathroom can be a little bit more challenging.

And hey, while I have your attention, if you see a parent pushing a stroller don't make jokes about how those roles will one day be reversed.