Memories of ride on cars Ebook

The Day I Built a Model T in my Backyard.
Ride on cars are a big thing nowdays. They’re precision made, molded plastic bodies some of which are replicas of of famous brands of cars, motorized, horns, radios and flashing lights. They range in price from OK to whoa! But I would like to see todays kids try and build their own “Porche” ride on car in their backyard with nothing but a hammer and nails!

About 45 years ago I built a Model T Ford in my back yard with my friend Ronny. Well….it was kind of a Model T. Well…no not really, it was a piece of junk but it was our piece of junk and we were as proud as hell! You see building ride on cars otherwise known as soapbox cars was our passion. We would take every opportunity to scrounge around junk yards and the local dump looking for good “bits” for our latest version of ride on car that surely this time was going to turn heads up on ‘The Hill’.

‘The Hill’ was the testing ground, the race track, the meeting place. A treeless hill on the edge of town that nature had specifically designed for young boys and girls to race ride on cars down. The grass was kept short by three sometimes nervous looking cows who somehow always managed to avoid being where the gathering kids and their ride on cars were.

Now this Model T Ford started life as 5 pieces of lumber of varying lengths (a saw wasn’t always easy to come by). Two axles and four wheels from an antique baby carriage, two pine banana boxes and a potato sac. We had the basic mechanics put together pretty quick because we had plenty of practice at getting that far. But this time we had a plan…the second banana box had given us the brilliant idea to enclose the drivers seat (which was the first banana box). Man were we gonna be the envy of ‘The Hill’. There wouldn’t be a ride on car that would come close!