By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

By the time you read this column, you'll know that towheaded C.J. Poe, a 10-year-old in 'Ewa Beach, wants a bicycle for Christmas — if he can wait that long. On the face of it, this makes no sense because C.J. is legally blind.

So you don't believe in miracles? That's your problem.

This one started when Joanne Shimizu, fourth-grade teacher at Iroquois Point Elementary, signed up her class for bicycle safety training. C.J. keeps up with his fellow fourth-graders by using a gizmo that magnifies the type in his textbooks. Otherwise, he's a normal student who hates homework.

Leslie Poe, his mother, said she'd never thought of getting him a bicycle until Marian Illsley, the special-education instructor, decided that C.J. should take the safety course like everybody else.

There was a great deal of head shaking while Illsley called around to see if she could find a tandem bicycle. Eki Cyclery, Hawai'i's pioneer cyclery on Dillingham Boulevard, offered the loan of a new tandem in its storeroom.

"Weren't you a little apprehensive about this?" I asked Mrs. Poe.

"No, C.J. needs the exercise," she said. "He spends too much time at computer games."

The bicycle safety course is conducted by members of the Hawaii Bicycling League. They travel around in a 1971 bread truck to about 40 schools teaching kids how to ride a bicycle safely.

C.J. took his first ride with instructor Lani Benson. The next day his mother got on board with him.

"My instructor runs the gears," he explained. "I pedal. The first time, I thought I was going to fall off. But it's not as hard as I thought it would be. The hardest part is to get on. The seat is high. Mom has to lean the bike over to get on."

Disaster struck on the second to last day of the course.

"We were going down the street and my instructor saw some glass," C.J. explained. "Then we got a flat tire and had to walk back. I was mad."

The next day, the instructors came early to fix the flat tire before class.

Mrs. Poe has become resigned to the inevitable: a bicycle for C.J. so he can ride with his sister, father or her. She said his Cub Scout Pack 121 will help raise money to buy him a tandem through the Rush-Miller Foundation on the Mainland.

The foundation provides bicycles for visually impaired children. The condition is that a person who gets a free bicycle must always wear a helmet while riding and has to buy a bicycle for the next blind youngster.

C.J.'s mother is more afraid he'll get bitten by an insect than fall off the bicycle.

"C.J. loves bugs," she said. "He's always turning over rocks. We have a houseful of tailless geckos."

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-0873.