The Good Old Days When We Built Our Own Ride On Cars by:Rick Lasslett
Back in the good old days my friend Ronny and I used to build our own ride on cars from old bits of lumber that dad had lying around in the garage
. We would scrounge the wheels and axles from the local dump along with anything else we thought would add flair, and then we would set to and build our "supercar".
Dad banned us from using his good tools after we had built our first machine. It took him days to find the hammer and he never did manage to get the rust off the saw! So we had to use whatever came to hand as tools (mostly found at the dump). Needless to say our finished "ride on cars" were not pretty. Neither were they safe! But man they were fun.
About a mile from our house was small hill with no trees on it, just grass kept short by the occassional cow munching contentedly away. It had a long slope on one side that went for about 300 yards with a track worn down the middle by years of ride on cars being raced down the hill by just about every kid in town.
As soon as the newly built ride on cars were ready for testing, mom would pack us a lunch box and send us off with a "be home in time for dinner or you'll be apologizing to your father!" Then we would be off, me pulling Ronny along then Ronny pulling me, until we got to 'The Hill'. The first test run would be very cautious with feet dragging along the ground as brakes just to make sure that she held together and steered in a straight line. If we made it to the bottom it was thumbs up for the 'Top Gun' attempt.
Honestly, some days I laughed so much I could hardly catch my breath. To see Ronny's back disappear down that track slightly swerving side to side then swerving more violently until he is in the rough and gullies, gets thrown out and ends up (usually) in a cow pat or two, is a memory that will be with me forever. How we didn't get hurt is a mystery to me now. But things were different back then. Mom and Dad weren't worried, they had patched up my scrapes and bruises before and there was never any real harm done. Except to the machine of course. They only had to roll once or twice and it was back to the garage for a complete rebuild.
These days the ride on cars are unrecognizable compared to the ones me and Ronny built. Highly colorful lightweight tough plastic bodies in practically every shape you could want. Pedals - electric motors - batteries - radios - lights - the list goes on.
But one thing is still the same. The fun that can be had!