Toys Built by My Dad

Back in my childhood years, my dad built all our toys by hand. He mounted a 5 horsepower, pull-start Briggs and Stratton engine on the go-cart frame he welded together.  The frame was lower than the axles to help keep it from turning over. The steering was dangerous and if you turned one way too far it reversed itself.  And the cart only had brakes on the rear axle.

We drove around in a dirt parking lot that is now the DMV at Roeding Park. We’d take large cardboard boxes and open them up flat.  Then at 20 miles an hour or so we would drive over the cardboard, and when the rear wheels were over it, we slammed on the brakes and cranked the steering wheel.  The results?  Spin out!

We tried to outdo each other in the number of times we spun completely around. This was an excellent way to drive by the seat of your pants, thus learning how to straighten out a vehicle in a spin out event.

In those days, driving instructions were to pump the brakes on the cars to keep the car from sliding sideways.  Today we are instructed not to pump the brakes!  Well in the go cart we pumped and pumped and pumped the brakes.  And spun and spun and spun we went.  Oh my, how times have changed!