Welcome Back, Kotter

On 12/11/01, I met someone who indirectly touched the lives of many future unicyclists. Here is my original post to the unicyclist.com forum.

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I had the wonderful experience of meeting the person who inspired me to get my own unicycle nearly 22 years ago, Thomas Pennell. He is the one seen riding his uni down a Brooklyn street in the end credits of Welcome Back Kotter, and it was seeing him that made me realize (as a 13 year old) that a unicycle could be ridden outside of a circus.

The encounter: I was riding across the Brooklyn Bridge on my commute when he rode past on his bike and commented that I was able to go pretty fast. He mentioned that he used to ride, and I was just about to mention my club when he dropped the bombshell: "Did you ever see Welcome Back, Kotter?..." I couldn't believe my ears. I shrieked like a teenager girl bumping into Britney Spears at the mall and quickly asked if he could chat. We hopped off our wheels and talked and then got back on and rode together. He told me that he'd grown up in Brooklyn and that he'd been the first of a group of friends and family to ride a unicycle (same is true for me). He was 10 when he was filmed for WBK. I told him that he was my inspiration for buying a uni and that there are a lot of us who remember seeing him at the end of the show.

His sister also rode, and he mentioned that he rode past me to talk bc he wanted to order her a Coker -- she had told him about how she saw me whiz by her while she was biking across the bridge.

So he inspired me to ride, and I inspired his sister (and him?) to get back to unicycling. That is the coolest thing to happen to me in a long time. What a wonderful cycle....

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Afterthoughts (1/4/06):

I ran into Tom again while he was out for a bike ride a few years later, but he has never been out to join the uni club. He got his sister that Coker, as far as I know, but she hasn't made it to the club either. I did hear from her recently, however. I had put an old friend of Tom's in touch with him after many many years, and his sister wrote to thank me for reuniting the long-lost friends. I was thrilled to be able to help. Certainly the cycle continues....