Cycle Completed: A vintage delivery bicycle that once traversed Kernersville's streets gets new life, and attention

In 1939, Stafford Grocery Store at 231 N. Main St. sold candy bars for 4 cents, a loaf of bread for 8 cents and a 25-pound bag of flour for 99 cents. Customers could dial the store's phone number, 2801, and order what they needed.

If the order was small enough, Lee Stafford, the owner, would send a delivery boy on a bicycle.

Garland Idol was 14 when he began a two-year stint delivering for his Uncle Lee. He said he would arrive at the grocery store on Friday after school and work until 9 p.m. On Saturdays, he delivered starting at 8 a.m. and finishing his work day at 11 p.m. after oiling the store floors.

"I was paid $2.75 a week, and they took out 5 cents for Social Security. Boy, that got me. I didn't think they should be taking out money for Social Security," said Idol, reflecting on the irony of collecting Social Security now. Idol, 85, still works three days a week at Farmers Hardware.

Lee Stafford closed his grocery store after World War II ended and the chain stores began taking away business. His daughter, Delores Stafford Clarke, ended up with the delivery bike.

She said that she and her husband, Carl "Ace" Clarke, hung the battered black bike in their garage, where it remained mostly forgotten for more than 50 years. Dust covered the frame, the tires rotted, the paint faded and chipped. The rear wheel's rim eventually disappeared.

Eighteen months ago, Kernersville resident Ivey Redmon was visiting the Clarkes and spotted the old bike with the oversize basket. Ace Clarke asked Redmon, who has long repaired bicycles as a hobby and side business, about the old Western Flyer.

"I was going to put it out, and Ivey said he could restore it. I asked him what it would cost to fix it," Clarke said.

Redmon estimated that a complete overhaul would cost $800. Ace Clarke consulted his daughters, and family members decided they didn't want to spend that much to restore the bike. So Clarke simply gave it to Redmon.

Redmon's own history in retail and his interest in restoring bicycles struck a chord. In the mid-1940s, Redmon, now 86, returned to Walkertown after serving in the military and opened a hardware/grocery store at Talley's Crossing. Eventually, Redmon opened an appliance business in Kernersville.

"I've been in the bicycle business since I was 14. We had a building on the farm that wasn't being used so I turned it into a bicycle shop. I made my spending money that way," he said.

It took Redmon more than 20 hours and $800 to restore the Stafford Grocery bike. Every part is original except for the rear wheel and the two tires, which Redmon said he found from a store in New York using an online search. The original seat is in mint condition. The new chrome shines brightly. Redmon recreated signs for the large front basket.

Many of Redmon's restored bikes go to underprivileged children. Last year, for example, Redmon donated 56 restored bikes through the Kernersville Exchange Club.

Sometimes he arrives home to discover that people have left bikes in his driveway as donations. Redmon cleans them up, makes sure they can be ridden and donates them to schools, churches and foster-care programs.

But such bikes as the Stafford Grocery Store's are special projects. Last year, Redmon's son rode the newly restored bike in the Fourth of July parade. Last week, the bike was on display at the Kernersville Harris Teeter supermarket. Another grocery store has asked to borrow it.

"I have no idea what I can do with it. I don't want to sell it. I want to keep it as memorabilia" of Kernersville, Redmon said.

"I think I want it back," Ace Clarke joked.

Garland Idol, who retired after two years of delivering groceries to start driving a school bus at age 16, remembers one particularly harrowing delivery on the bike.

"It had rained Friday night and cut out a ditch on Bodenhamer Street, which was a dirt road then. My basket was completely full of canned goods, and I had a 100-pound bag of flour on the top. I went head first into the ditch, landed on the flour and tore the whole bag up," Idol recalled.

He returned to the store and cleaned up the cans. His uncle replaced the flour without docking his pay.

"That's how Uncle Lee was,'' Idol said. "He was the No. 1 man in the area about being good to people."

■ Monica Young can be reached at cyoung9@triad.rr.com.