guys my age

[Kbeitz]

I like the wheelie bars, looks like you need them. :D :D

Two speed with a 4hp briggs and reverse...

[Ox]

Does anybody remember the "Big Wheel" tricycle?  Low to the ground, plastic tires/wheels, all plastic actually.  Hand brake on the right.  This was our best toy, alongside an old bicycle for each of us a few years later.  We rode it so much the front drive "tire" had worn through to nothing and pretty much caved in and made it go "whump, whump, whump down the sidewalk.  This is when I was around 5 and 6 years old and folks divorced and ma moved to McGraw, NY in town so all we had was the sidewalk and the gravel church parking lot to play on.  The woods were at dad's but only went there every other weekend.  Finally dad got sole custody of us (thank the Lord) and we ended up back in the country again for the remainder (thank the Lord).

Sorry about that - supposed to be about toys and I went off onto my childhood history...I don't want to delete though...too much time involved...

[thecfarm]

I was a litle old old for the Big Wheels. But I still wanted one. I can still remember that boy skidding around sideways.

[Ljohnsaw]

Does anybody remember the "Big Wheel" tricycle? 

I wanted one bad but the youngest of 7 kids, not gonna happen.  We moved to NY  (Upper Westchester Co.) when I was 11.  They had a great thing there - Junk Days!  Every week!  My friends and I picked up old tricycles.  We pulled the front forks off and flipped the body over so it looked like the Big Wheel.  Wired on a piece of board for a seat.  Had to cut the peddles off because when we raced down the steep hills, it would make the front end vibrate too much.  We ended up putting "huts" on the back to be like a cab.  No brakes - we would stick the toes of our sneakers in between the wheel and the front forks if we were going too fast to drag our feet on the ground.  Plenty of accidents like getting your feet sucked under or locking up the front wheel and going end over!  Racing down the hills, you would cut off the others, sometimes causing a pile up.  Ah, the good old days!!!  Helmets, what were those?

[Deese]

My Grandfather (born in 1940) was one of 8 siblings and they didn't have much coming up. I remember him telling me that he used to run around the yard pushing a tire and he did it so much that he had made a trail around the house. He is still going strong. (No, not still pushing the tire!)

Haha, decided to nip that one in the bud!

[Kbeitz]

Best toy that I ever had was one I made myself. Wishing I still had it today.
This picture was taken around 1963. That's me in the seat.



 

[Deese]

Kbeitz--very cool.

[Ianab]

Big Wheel in action  :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfg-c6RrP7A

[kensfarm]

Kbeitz if you don't have a million dollars in collectibles.. you do in memories.. worth more then gold.  Thankyou for sharing.  We built a lot of down-hill racers that 2-3 could ride on.. the goal was to make everyone else crash.. if you made it to the bottom of the hill you won.

[coxy]

did anyone ever have bb gun wars 

[newoodguy78]

Yeah we did it was a unanimous decision to limit the number of pumps...unless you happened to miscount  ;)

[WV Sawmiller]

  My son had one of the big wheels when we lived on the USMC Base at Albany Ga. He rode it so much on the sidewalks there he wore it in two in the middle when would sit on the back/seat portion and pedal and steer with the front/wheel portion. I'd say we got the most value out of that toy out of any he ever had.

  Below are some toys I brought back from working in and vacationing throughout Africa. The kids there still make and play with homemade toys instead of having to be entertained with I-Pads and computer games.


 
   I brought this back from Guinea about 3.5 years ago on my last overseas assignment. The kid I bought it from had made it. The wheels are pop bottle lids. The axles are pieces of wire. The bed of the "truck" is an old can cut and bent into shape. The milk can is the cargo and can be removed. The string is attached and pulled on the stick. I first photographed the toy then asked him how much he would take for it. He wrote 1,000 francs on my hand and said Une mill francs (1,000 Guine francs - $.14). I thought about it and and told him "Dix Mille francs" paid him 10,000 francs ($1.40) and we were both happy.


 
This is the Acrobat. I bought it off a kid on the side of the road in Ethiopia on vacation with my wife and daughter there 5-6 years ago. It is hand carved out of local wood. The little man on top is strung on cord. The pivot peg is in the middle. When you squeeze the bottom of the parallel sticks the little man does flips or stops at the top of the "bar". All hand carved and split with a knife or basic hand tools.


 
This is a monkey (Sometimes they would be Geckos) and much more sophisticated than most Africa toys and made is a shop with modern tools. The monkey is strung on 2 parallel strings about 5' long with a stick about 6" long at the top to keep the strings spread. By alternately pulling and spreading one then the other bottom strings the monkey climbs up to the top. Release the tension on the strings and he slides back to the bottom. This one is hanging on a nail in my great room behind the love seat and the granddaughters fight to play with it when they are visiting. I bought this one at a gift shop in Douala (Doo Allah) Cameroon between 2000 and 2003 while living and working there.


 
This toy is the most complicated I have seen made by hand. It is made with coat hangers as a handle and gears and cams. The little man rides and when push the wheels rotate the alternating cams making it look like he is riding/pedaling a bicycle and simultaneously beating the drums with his little wire triangle shaped hands. The drums are old potted meat cans. I bought this at the Marche De Fluers (Flower Market) craft shop in Cameroon.


 
This is a carved frog with ridges on his back made in someone's shop and mostly sold to unsuspecting tourists. There is a hole bored in the middle and the stick is rubbed up and down and the hole can be covered and opened at will to vary the sound. These range in size from a couple inches long to 6-8 inches long. They sound very much like a live frog croaking.

[azmtnman]

did anyone ever have bb gun wars 

No. If we had gotten caught, we would have gotten them taken away.
But nobody ever said we couldn't shoot bottle rockets at each other!  ;D :D

[Kbeitz]

did anyone ever have bb gun wars 

I had one that I'll never forget. I was at a friends house having a war and
my friends mom came out of her home to call her son in for dinner.
I was hiding behind my friends moms car. My friend shot at me and
hit his moms cars windshield. The car was sitting in the hot sun and
the cars window exploded. His mom had no idea what was going on.
All she seen was her son running around the side of the barn with a
gun shooting at me. The exploding window took me right off my feet.
I though his mom was going to have a heart attack. 

[sandhills]

We decided to have a bb gun fight one day over one of our little farm ponds, no air rifles just the trusty Red Riders. The impossible shot, buddy pulled the trigger pointing straight in the air 20 yards from me and yep, hit me within a 1/4" of my right eye  :D.  Darts were another painful pastime, bottle rockets, well they didn't last too long. 

[Kbeitz]

We worked our way up to carbide canons...

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

We used to make Mud Balls. Put an M-80 in them....light it and throw it like a Hand Grenade.
It would blow mud all over you.

[plowboyswr]

This one just brought back the memories. Using Lincoln logs, books, and couch cushions to make up a stomper track all the way across the living and dining rooms all while running over hot wheels and other obstacles. Tonka trucks in the garden. Riding bikes around the section. Hooking sleds up behind the neighbors three wheeler and running up and down the road. So now I'm sitting here with a big  ;D