My family had the tradition of each sibling got a new bicycle on their tenth birthday. In spite of my Dad's meager salary, he always bought Schwinns because he knew they would last indefinately and we were taught to take care of things.
Picked out my bike a couple months ahead of time at the Schwinn dealer in St. Joseph Mich. It was a copper 26" 3-Speed. (same color as the StingRay posted at the top of the thread). I couldn't touch both feet on the ground and I almost dumped it the first time I took it down the street.
A couple years after I had left home, my brother in-law asked me if he could have it for riding out in the country where they lived. I said sure. The last time I saw it was leaning up next to their goat shed about ten years after that. They moved away a couple years later and I'm pretty sure my old Schwinn was left behind.
My two next younger brothers each got Stingrays. One was a Lemon Krate 5-Speed, which I'm pretty sure had a 20" front wheel w/fender. And the other was a regular Red Stingray that had a coaster brake with a 2-Speed rear hub. You changed gears by lightly 'kicking back' on the pedals. To this day, I've never seen another bike with that option. Granted I don't go around shopping for old bicycles. It also had a cheater slick on it.
My youngest brother got a full size (27") 10-Speed for his first bike because they were just coming into vogue at that time.