Scooters and Go-Carts, South Philly Style

Ah, the wonderful world of plastic! Just about everything is made of it now, to where it's ended up polluting just about every ocean to the city street. With it comes the arguments: Ban the use of certain items like bags and straws or hold people responsible for using it and disposing of it. Those are arguments for other places. You'll find plenty of websites to argue your point.

Kids today have been ruined by plastics. What kid today builds his or her own scooter or go-cart? For that matter, who builds anything fun for themselves anymore? Of course, at that time, it was mainly a boys thing. Sometime during the 1970s, the Big Wheel hit the toy markets, and it was the beginning of the end of kids making their own ride from junk. Soon, there would be all kinds of peddling and battery-powered kids vehicles. During summertime days, we'd look forward to trash day, and no, we weren't crazy. Even in late spring or early- autumn, we'd make time after school. We had the opportunity to find things to use to build our rides. They weren't handsome-looking, but it gave us a chance to have some fun and at the same time, we learned how to make things, and which tools did what.

 If you're a child from the mid-seventies or older, you probably built one or more yourself. We used to scour the trash outside of people's homes on Wednesday, looking for material to build our go-carts and scooters. Or, we would go down the basement to see what we could find to put one together. One guy would provide the wheels, another the 2x4s and other choice trash. But we all worked together and got one built, then ran it into the ground until it fell apart. There were times when we built a few, and had or mothers asking "Where are you going to put that thing?" Our thoughts were the basement or back yard, while they were thinking "not in my house". They sometimes gave in, or else you'd take the risk of leaving it outside and someone taking it. And that was another great thing. We learned to work together and pool our resources. It wasn't ever boy for himself. The wheels were usually an old pair of our own roller skates. You remember the kind that went on top of your sneakers? Yep, those types of skates. The ones you needed a skate key to tighten. We were fortunate to find bigger wheels sometimes from discarded shopping carts or baby buggies and strollers for go-carts, but usually, it was the skates that got us rolling with scooters.

The bodies were again sometimes found in the trash, but sometimes they were pilfered from outside a nearby grocery store, but most times the store owner was willing to part with something. The bodies of our go-carts were sometimes produce crates or metal milk crates stacked. Much better than the produce crates that would fall apart after one or two collisions with something.

Some parents should get together and teach their kids the lost art of building scooters. Maybe have Boy Scout (sorry, I'm showing my age here, just Scout now) or Cub Scout dens or some other community groups have projects in building them and showing them off. There are so many modern materials to use, a kid could build something really funky. Then again, what to use for wheels? With the evolution of roller skates going from keyed models to the booted-types to roller blades, something else needs to replace the old skates. We're creative and industrious. Well, we can be, if we're willing. Dad's or grandfathers, get busy. It's times like this that I would like to have a couple of kids to show them what life was like, including building scooters. It's a bummer when some things just aren't possible. But oh, it would be nice! Now get busy!

 Photo found at Old Images of Philadelphia
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