Mr. & Mrs. Carpenter hired me in 1958 when I was 15. Mr. Hamilton was still around and they were all wonderful to work for. It was a great experience. Mr. Hamilton (Hammy) didn't just own a bike shop, he had been involved in cross country races and other biking activities in his younger years.

In the shop, they would do specialty work and build unicycles for circus acts. There was a picture of me standing beside one of their creations that had to be close to 20' tall in a bike trade journal sometime in the late 1950's. One of his fun projects was welding a couple frames together which put the rider about 6' off the ground. They had used it for advertising. I still have a picture of me holding it with my mom sitting on it and you can still make out the "Hamilton's" sign they had attached to it.

Dr. Edward N. Tihen read and took notes from nearly every issue of Wichita's newspapers dating from 1872 to 1982. Dr. Tihen's notes reflect the people, places and events that have shaped Wichita's history.