A Bicycle Built For One — Times Three

By Nancy K. Crevier

He spends his days traversing Church Hill Road and Sandy Hook Center, steadily pedaling a three-wheeled bicycle up and down the long and winding roads. His name is Billy Ready and he is a familiar personality in and around the Hook.

Says his neighbor, Marguerite Eldridge, who has lived near Mr Ready for over 20 years, “He likes to pick up the bottle and cans and bring them in to The Big Y,” she said. “It gives him something to do, keeps him busy, and gets him some spending money. You see him on his bike with a big bag of bottles and cans.”

Living on the same street as Mr Ready, she is aware whenever his bicycle is out of circulation.

“If he needs repairs, I just put it in the back of my car and we go up to the bike shop on Route 6 to get it fixed,” she says.

There comes a point, though, when more than repairs are required to keep Mr Ready’s wheels spinning. Seven years ago, Ms Eldridge and the late Charlie Allen, who was head of maintenance at Newtown High School, took up a collection for Mr Ready when they noticed his bicycle was more in than out of the shop.

This year, when Ms Eldridge observed that the many miles Mr Ready puts on his bicycle had taken a toll, she took it upon herself to put canisters in Sandy Hook businesses. Generous donations made it possible within three weeks to once again purchase a special, broad-wheeled cycle for the popular pedaler.

But Ms Eldridge was not the only one to notice Mr Ready’s transportation needed a reliable replacement. Mr Ready can be spotted this week on one of three new bicycles he received this Christmas season.

“I’m really happy,” said Mr Ready, as he paused a bright yellow bike on the crest of Church Hill Road Tuesday afternoon. “I’m going to ride them all. I got a blue one [bicycle] from someone in Newtown. This yellow one is the one everyone donated money for.” A third bicycle, he said, came from a big-hearted person in Florida.

 “All of the proprietors and the people who donated deserve a big ‘Thanks!’ for helping,” Ms Eldridge says. “Without them, it just couldn’t have happened.”