We talkin' bout kids and home made toy, eh?
Well, I grew up on a farm and we didn't have money for toys. But we had
tools and an abundance of materials laying around. So we built things. All
kinds of things.
I went through a major weapons phase. Made hundreds of arrows and at least
fifteen bows. Also spears, throwing axes, tomahawks, swords, clubs, etc.
Most from wood, but I did do some metal work. Crude, but it worked. I
shaped the metal parts on a big, treadle grinding stone.
Went into the Boys Scouts and learned some woodcraft, knot tying, etc. So I
built signal towers, bridges and a couple camping structures covered with
fresh tree foliage. And it was rain proof too! This was back before
woodcraft became politically incorrect.
And forts? Nobody built bigger, badder snow forts than us. We had to clear
snow from various parts of the farm and ended up with huge piles of
compacted snow. These were often fifteen feet or more in height. So we
would have one person work the tractor and the rest of us used shovels to
sculpt these snow mountains into impressive fortifications. Then invited
the city kids out for a snowball fight. And we kicked their asses every
time!
Of course, there was a lot of hard work in the mix. Crops planted and
harvested, animals raised and slaughtered, food that was "put by" for the
winter, etc. But we were kids and we needed to play too. So we did.
And oh yes, I can not forget grandpa's swing he mad for us. It was two 30
foot poles stuck in the ground with a sing that could get up up well over
twenty feet. It was exhilarating. A lot of moms would not let their kids
onto this thing. But they would go inside and their kids would play on the
"prohibited" swing.
And I had a brother who used to love launching himself into space from
bicycle ramps. He just built them higher and higher until he crashed hard
enough so he could not ride a bike any more that day. He always was kinda
crazy. But we al had a touch of crazy in us.. How do present days wimp
survive their childhood?
Ahhhhhh....., a trip down memory lane. Sigh..., I must be getting old.
"Morgans" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:
>
> One winter, we had the perfect snowball type snow. Compacted and
> stuck together with just the right water content. It was a big snow,
> around a foot and a half.
>
> We went into the back yard and compacted the snow by stepping into it,
> then moving over a few inches and repeating , many times. Packed
> down, the snow was perhaps 6 inches thick. Then took snow shovels and
> cut blocks out of the compacted snow, and proceeded to make a real
> igloo, about 10 feet across and 5 foot high, completely closed at top
> with a vent for smoke, and a real ached entryway. Built a small fire
> in it and hung out, It was really cool, and it occupied us for a week
> or better until it thawed. I scoff at some of the survival show when
> they attempt to build snow structures.
I might have to try that one day... but I'll probably carve out a
compacted mound I make with the tractor. Same fun, just bigger toys. :-)
They're guessing a winter storm might be coming our way this weekend, but
from the description I don't think they know for sure. I suppose I
should get my snow handling stuff in gear.
Puckdropper
--
Make it to fit, don't make it fit.
On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 08:53:30 -0500, "G. Ross" <[email protected]>
>Takes me back to my teen days. I rode the wooden coaster at Omaha
>with TWO girls. Such a shaking and rattling it made. I was
>petrified, having never seen a roller coaster before. The second ride
>was free, but there were few takers.
I've been on one wooden roller coaster and it scared the crap out of
me. I rode it with a girlfriend so I had to pretend to be all brave
and try to laugh it off, but I don't think I was too successful.
Larry W <[email protected]> wrote:
> Brings back so many memories I don't know where to start but this is always
> one of my favorites. I gew up in a small Pennsylvania town in the hard
> coal region. The terrain is quite hilly in that area and there was a steep
> street that went through a few intersesctions, hitting its low point
> where it intersected with Market St, the main East-West drag through
> town and the street that I lived on. We would often take our home built
> soap-box cars up to the the first parallel street, one block higher,
> and wait til a freind on Market gave the all-clear, signaling that the
> street was clear of traffic and it was OK to ride on down, crossing
> Market St. and rolling into a front yard on the other side of Market St
> that that served as our deceleration area, so to speak. Sometimes we
> would haul the racer it up to the 2nd parallel street, which of course
> meant that 2 lookouts were needed, and you had to wait for 2 all
> clears to coincide so you could ride through both intersections.
> Sometimes we would also do this on bicycles.
>
> Well one day a braver than smart kid decided he would take his bicycle
> up to the THIRD parallel st, and set a New World Record For Bicycle Speed.
> 3 lookouts were posted, and sure enough, after some time, there was a
> brief period when all 3 intersections were simultaneously clear. The
> signals were given, the brave rider started down the hill, pedaling
> furiously at first to assist gravity as much as possible, until the
> bike was clearly going so fast that his pedaling was not keeping up
> with his road speed.
>
> Through the 1st intersection, faster & faster, then second. I think
> he actually was briefly airborne as he went theough the sligtly leveled
> out 2nd intersection before again going downhill and increasing speed
> even more on the race to the bottom. As he reached Market St, he
> must have been going 60 mph or more, or so it seemed to my young eyes.
> BUT, when he reached the run-out area, he had no control. Instead of
> slowing and turning in the yard and coming to a gradual safe stop,
> he continued in a straight path, unable to avoid the house situated
> at the back of this yard. As we watched with wide eyes and open mouths,
> he and his bicycle struck the front window of the house, AND WENT
> THROUGH IT! We stood there in shock, awed and completely silent. No
> one knew what to do or made a move.
>
> Then, after a few minutes, the front door of the house opened, and the
> kid hobbled outside, limping and bleeding, but miraculosly free of any
> major injury. He headed home, no doubt to receive an even worse
> punishement once he arrived there. A moment later, the homeowner came
> outside also, carrying the mangled remains of the bicycle, which he
> laid down on the sidewalk near the curb.
>
> It was quite a while before anyone road down that hill trying to set
> a speed record again after that... At least 3 weeks I would estimate.
>
>
>
Great memory
On 12/11/2013 9:19 AM, jloomis wrote:
> Love to se this kind of creativity for the young people.
> It brings back so many memories also.
> Like building forts, model airplanes, rockets, skate boards, you name it
> and we built it.
> A sand box with water in it, kept us occupied, and filthy for hours....
> Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, electric trains, and many more for indoor
> activity.....
> Once I was involved with making a robot.....
> Another time we were stringing wires from house to house for our own
> morris code....
> It goes on and on....
> Good for the parents who allowed such a great project in the back yard...
> john
>
> "Leon" wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
> http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/teen-boys-build-50-foot-long-backyard-roller-193834535--abc-news-topstories.html?vp=1
>
Ahhh forts. Every year after Christmas and before school started back
up we kids would gather all the discarded Christmas Trees and drag them
to "the woods". The woods was a vacant 3 acre lot behind our house. We
would dig huge holes next to a tree and build a te-pee around the hole
and tree with the Christmas trees. It was a really cool place to hang
out, 6 kids in the hole was a bit crowded however.
Leon wrote:
> http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/teen-boys-build-50-foot-long-backyard-roller-193834535--abc-news-topstories.html?vp=1
Takes me back to my teen days. I rode the wooden coaster at Omaha
with TWO girls. Such a shaking and rattling it made. I was
petrified, having never seen a roller coaster before. The second ride
was free, but there were few takers.
--
GW Ross
A penny saved is a penny.
On 12/11/2013 9:44 AM, Mike Marlow wrote:
> [email protected] wrote:
>> On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 09:51:46 -0500, "Mike Marlow"
>>> Wooden - and that scared the hell out of you??? You are clearly a
>>> rank amature. I've been on both wooden and on tubular steel roller
>>> coasters, and I've succeeded in becoming scared on either style. I
>>> love the thrill of them, but my fear of heights adds that added
>>> dimension...
>>
>> Well with all the shaking, rattling and noise of the wooden coasters,
>> it's no wonder some people don't like them. The smoothness of the
>> metal coasters was like a walk in the park compared to the wooden
>> ones. It's been at least 35 years since I've been on any kind of park
>> ride though, so I don't know how current coasters measure up.
>
> Both of our recollections are the defintion of how we see things, but for
> me - I never saw any smoothness,. It may have been there, but my other
> fears may have masked it...
>
You may be thinking of the old metal rail coasters, those were not too
smooth. When we still had Astroworld in Houston we had a huge wooden
roller coaster and it got your attention, very rough ride. It was fast
and made a lot of turns and drops. The rest of the park had tube steel
rails with no spaces between sections, those were as smooth as glass.
My favorite IIRC was Batman Escapes. You stood up, the rail was over
your head and you did 360's, the upside down kind.
On 12/11/2013 12:42 PM, G. Ross wrote:
> Lee Michaels wrote:
>> snip
>> And I had a brother who used to love launching himself into space from
>> bicycle ramps. He just built them higher and higher until he crashed
>> hard
>> enough so he could not ride a bike any more that day. He always was
>> kinda
>> crazy. But we al had a touch of crazy in us.. How do present days wimp
>> survive their childhood?
>>
>> Ahhhhhh....., a trip down memory lane. Sigh..., I must be getting old.
>>
>>
>>
> When my last son was going through the bicycle phase, his trick was to
> lean back and raise the front wheel and ride it like a unicycle. One
> day he fixed a flat on the front wheel and neglected to tighten the axle
> nuts. Then he wanted to show me his trick. He came down the neighbors'
> sloping driveway, lifted up the front end and his front wheel came off
> and rolled down the street. Eventually he had to let it down and the
> fork came down in the grass and the bike turned a flip. I said, "Hey,
> that's a neat trick."
>
> One of his friends was just crazy. His dad promised him $25 if he would
> ride his bike off the roof of the house. He did it without injury to
> himself, but his bike was toast.
>
Ummm Im looking at 60 next year. When I was 12=14 years old I could
ride my bike around the block on the back wheel. BTY we call those
wheelies. And then came the new rage, skate boards. I made mine from
an old key type shoe skate. taken apart, and nailed to an old 1x6 piece
of pine. I can't tall you how many miles I put on that thing. I
probably rode that thing for 6 months before saving enough money to get
a $5, store bought, skate board with softer wheels. LOL
On 12/11/2013 2:49 PM, Mike Marlow wrote:
> Lee Michaels wrote:
>
>>
>> And forts? Nobody built bigger, badder snow forts than us. We had
>> to clear snow from various parts of the farm and ended up with huge
>> piles of compacted snow. These were often fifteen feet or more in
>> height. So we would have one person work the tractor and the rest of
>> us used shovels to sculpt these snow mountains into impressive
>> fortifications. Then invited the city kids out for a snowball fight.
>> And we kicked their asses every time!
>
> Hah! Very cool! We built snow forts in snow banks that stood almost that
> high - within a foot or so of the power lines on the side of the road. Dug
> way down and built mighty fortresses that withstood the onslaught of the
> coming spring weather. We could nail anything driving by and thumb our
> noses at even the passing snow plows. We were way too cool...
>
>>
>> And I had a brother who used to love launching himself into space from
>> bicycle ramps. He just built them higher and higher until he crashed
>> hard enough so he could not ride a bike any more that day. He always
>> was kinda crazy. But we al had a touch of crazy in us.. How do
>> present days wimp survive their childhood?
>>
>> Ahhhhhh....., a trip down memory lane. Sigh..., I must be getting
>> old.
>
> Thank you sir. Today that would be considered a fearful memory. Or
> something your kids could not possible endure. To us - it was just a day.
> How in the hell did we possibly survive such things that are clearly so
> catastrophic today?
>
I'll telly you one thing, we did not get trophies unless we earn them.
On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 10:44:23 -0500, "Mike Marlow"
>Both of our recollections are the defination of how we see things, but for
>me - I never saw any smoothness,. It may have been there, but my other
>fears may have masked it...
To this day, I can distinctly remember thinking the damned car was
going to fly apart. Sure, I was scared too on the metal coasters, but
it wasn't the same fear of them falling to pieces on me.
Lee Michaels wrote:
> snip
> And I had a brother who used to love launching himself into space from
> bicycle ramps. He just built them higher and higher until he crashed hard
> enough so he could not ride a bike any more that day. He always was kinda
> crazy. But we al had a touch of crazy in us.. How do present days wimp
> survive their childhood?
>
> Ahhhhhh....., a trip down memory lane. Sigh..., I must be getting old.
>
>
>
When my last son was going through the bicycle phase, his trick was to
lean back and raise the front wheel and ride it like a unicycle. One
day he fixed a flat on the front wheel and neglected to tighten the
axle nuts. Then he wanted to show me his trick. He came down the
neighbors' sloping driveway, lifted up the front end and his front
wheel came off and rolled down the street. Eventually he had to let
it down and the fork came down in the grass and the bike turned a
flip. I said, "Hey, that's a neat trick."
One of his friends was just crazy. His dad promised him $25 if he
would ride his bike off the roof of the house. He did it without
injury to himself, but his bike was toast.
--
GW Ross
A penny saved is a penny.
Leon wrote:
> http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/teen-boys-build-50-foot-long-backyard-roller-193834535--abc-news-topstories.html?vp=1
As was stated by one of the people who left a comment on the Youtube site -
it takes me back to our younger years. We couldn't afford to buy cool
things so we had to improvise and build stuff that we were interested in.
Some of it was really stupid stuff that really did not require a lot of
engineering - like bike ramps that were inspired by seeing the Joey Chitwood
show or the Jack Kochman's Hell Drivers at that local fairground. Today
that would be considered dangerous - but back then we did it - *without*
bicycle helmets! We even made T-shirts with our "car number" on them with
magic markers.
We made our own rubber band guns - yes, we did play games that involved
killing an enemy. We weren't sensitive yet. We built forts out of
dead-fall tree limbs and the likes. As we got older, we built modified
versions of a fort for... shall we say... other uses...
Yup - we did clip playing cards into the spokes of our bikes with clothes
pins. More than one on each wheel so as to sound proper.
I could take any old scrap of anything to make something passable for my
intent, to emulate what the retailers were selling to people who could
afford to buy that stuff. My imagination sometimes had to fill in the gaps
a bit...
When I bought my first guitar amp, it was just a Fender brain. Really can't
even remember the model of the amp but I do remember that it used 6L6 tubes
for the amp stages. I had to build a speaker cabinet to fit under it. It
might not really have been as pretty as I now recall it to have been, but
back then I seem to recall it looked pretty good and of course - it sounded
great. Just ask me. Had none of the "proper" tools or knowledge to do this
kind of thing. Used my dad's table saw (now my son's table saw... so
freakin' cool!) for some of the work, a shitty jig saw for some of the
cuts - including cuts that should not have been made with a jig saw... Did
not even know about, or worry about the real design considerations of a
speaker cabinet. Just built a 2x12 cab to fit some speakers that I got from
somewhere. Sounded just like Led Zeplin in my basement. I think...
Just stupid ramblings of an old fart that can appreciate kids reaching out
and trying to do something, and without just going out and buying all of the
parts. Sorta creating something.
Hats off to these kids.
I have many more stories about things we created for entertainment as kids.
For a complete list, please send $14.49 to receive a complete price list per
item...
--
-Mike-
[email protected]
[email protected] wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 08:53:30 -0500, "G. Ross" <[email protected]>
>> Takes me back to my teen days. I rode the wooden coaster at Omaha
>> with TWO girls. Such a shaking and rattling it made. I was
>> petrified, having never seen a roller coaster before. The second
>> ride was free, but there were few takers.
>
> I've been on one wooden roller coaster and it scared the crap out of
> me. I rode it with a girlfriend so I had to pretend to be all brave
> and try to laugh it off, but I don't think I was too successful.
Wooden - and that scared the hell out of you??? You are clearly a rank
amature. I've been on both wooden and on tubular steel roller coasters, and
I've succeeded in becoming scared on either style. I love the thrill of
them, but my fear of heights adds that added dimension...
--
-Mike-
[email protected]
Love to se this kind of creativity for the young people.
It brings back so many memories also.
Like building forts, model airplanes, rockets, skate boards, you name it and
we built it.
A sand box with water in it, kept us occupied, and filthy for hours....
Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, electric trains, and many more for indoor
activity.....
Once I was involved with making a robot.....
Another time we were stringing wires from house to house for our own morris
code....
It goes on and on....
Good for the parents who allowed such a great project in the back yard...
john
"Leon" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/teen-boys-build-50-foot-long-backyard-roller-193834535--abc-news-topstories.html?vp=1
jloomis wrote:
> Love to se this kind of creativity for the young people.
> It brings back so many memories also.
> Like building forts, model airplanes, rockets, skate boards, you name
> it and we built it.
> A sand box with water in it, kept us occupied, and filthy for
> hours.... Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, electric trains, and many more
> for indoor activity.....
> Once I was involved with making a robot.....
> Another time we were stringing wires from house to house for our own
> morris code....
> It goes on and on....
> Good for the parents who allowed such a great project in the back
> yard... john
John - you must have grown up in my neighborhood and we didn't even know it.
Although at that time there was really no such thing as a neighborhood. It
was more like the kids down the road...
--
-Mike-
[email protected]
[email protected] wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 09:51:46 -0500, "Mike Marlow"
>> Wooden - and that scared the hell out of you??? You are clearly a
>> rank amature. I've been on both wooden and on tubular steel roller
>> coasters, and I've succeeded in becoming scared on either style. I
>> love the thrill of them, but my fear of heights adds that added
>> dimension...
>
> Well with all the shaking, rattling and noise of the wooden coasters,
> it's no wonder some people don't like them. The smoothness of the
> metal coasters was like a walk in the park compared to the wooden
> ones. It's been at least 35 years since I've been on any kind of park
> ride though, so I don't know how current coasters measure up.
Both of our recollections are the defintion of how we see things, but for
me - I never saw any smoothness,. It may have been there, but my other
fears may have masked it...
--
-Mike-
[email protected]
On 12/11/2013 9:47 AM, Mike Marlow wrote:
> Leon wrote:
>> http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/teen-boys-build-50-foot-long-backyard-roller-193834535--abc-news-topstories.html?vp=1
>
> As was stated by one of the people who left a comment on the Youtube site -
> it takes me back to our younger years. We couldn't afford to buy cool
> things so we had to improvise and build stuff that we were interested in.
[what follows is something I posted on a piano-related group, but I
think it fits nicely here.]
In what seems like a short time my parents have gone from being
completely independent at an advanced age to needing a lot of help. I
bring them dinner four or five nights a week. It's as much about the
visit as it is the dinner. I told them a story tonight; They seem to
enjoy that, so I do it a lot these days.
When I was twelve or thirteen my friends Danny and Vinny got it in their
heads that we should form a band. Danny had had a handful of guitar
lessons and Vinny had a set of drums with cardboard heads.
We all lived on the same block. Danny was the newcomer, having moved in
when we were six years old. Vinny, as best I could tell, had sprung
directly from the ground under his parents' house.
There are a great many stories that I could tell about that fledgling
band experience, but tonight's offering was about the "Professional
Four-Color Stage Lighting".
I should add here that this was a very different era. We were in each
other's houses all the time. No prior arrangements were needed. Whoever
was in the house at mealtime was served and whatever set of adults were
about were your parents; to be obeyed to exactly the same degree as the
pair that lived in your house. So when I told this story I didn't need
to add in any character development for my parents; Danny, who figures
prominently, was closer to being a relative than a neighbor.
Although the band would eventually play a number of paying gigs, at this
stage we were limited to our own basements. We'd occasionally announce a
private show for the neighborhood kids, usually in Danny's house.
We decided that something was lacking. Clearly it wasn't talent; we were
every bit as good as twelve-year-olds in a basement could hope to be.
But the presentation was less than it could be. We decided we needed
Professional Stage Lights.
Of course, this was also an era in which asking our "Parents'
Collective" to buy us Professional Stage Lights would have met with - at
best - a bemused stare. Luckily each of our houses came complete with a
garage full of odd leftovers from household projects.
After some rooting around, we had all of the components you need for
Professional Stage Lighting: eight ceramic light sockets with exposed
screw terminals, two electrical boxes, a roll of zip cord, some leftover
pieces of 60's era wood wall paneling, sundry outlets and switches,
eight colored light bulbs and, oh yeah, twenty feet of aluminum foil.
We somehow managed to cut the paneling into pieces about 8" x 40". This
must have been the only wood we could find, because it was no mean trick
to make a wedge-shaped half-box out of stuff this thin. If memory
serves, we held it together with little metal corner braces. We somehow
managed to cut triangular pieces of some other kind of wood to make the
end pieces.
[As I write this I wonder how we managed to make it to adulthood.]
Next came the aluminum foil. The bulbs we had were the of the standard
"bulb" shape, which would have squandered most of the light on the rest
of the room rather than the band. So we applied the foil, among the more
conductive materials known, to the inside surfaces of the wedge-boxes we
had made.
We then wired up the ceramic sockets, running a separate piece of wire
to each. We wanted to be able to turn the colors on and off separately.
We screwed the sockets to the boxes with the 3/8" long brackets they
came with.
In retrospect, against all odds we (and our guardian angels, I presume)
managed to wire that much up without creating any short-circuits. Danny
and I knew at least twice as much about electricity as the average
twelve-year-old, which might be impressive if the average
twelve-year-old knew anything at all. Our background consisted of the
fact that I had hooked a bulb up to a big chunky lantern battery for a
Science Fair project and Danny's Dad was a plumber.
Now we had to build the Professional Control Box. We screwed together
two double-gang electrical boxes and installed the four switches and the
four outlets. The air was thick with trepidation; we could see that
pretty soon we'd be plugging this whole mess into a wall outlet.
For reasons that I can't explain, we decided to route all of the wires
from the "switch" half of our Control Box to the "outlet" half through
one hole. And we didn't leave much slack. It took us an unreasonably
long time to get it all hooked up.
The moment of truth had arrived. We plugged our Control Box into the
wall. And ...
Another note about the Sixties. Our houses back then had only a few
circuits, and there was no logical system that determined what
appliances, lights and outlets would be served by each one, rather a
crazy-quilt of random devices spread around the house. And there were
fuses rather than circuit breakers. Blowing one meant finding and
unscrewing the bad one - possibly in the dark - and hoping you had a
replacement.
As the tines of the plug just entered the outlet there was a loud pop!
But for a brief flash of bluish light from inside the Control Box, we
were in the dark, . We were lucky that Danny's Dad was a plumber who had
taught his son how to change a fuse, and we were doubly lucky that he
and the rest of the family were not at home.
[My parents were chuckling at this point, but my Mom had a touch of
retroactive worry for the twelve-year-old me on her face]
Undaunted by this setback, and secure in the knowledge that Danny had
located two more spare fuses, we opened up the box and tinkered with it
some more. Time for another test.
The spark seemed a little more orange this time, but otherwise the
results were similar. Danny put in another spare fuse.
More surgery ensued. Would the third time be the charm?
By this point Danny had become quite expert at changing the fuse, but it
was the last one. I remember suggesting that perhaps we should call it a
day. There'd be hell to pay if Danny's parents came home to a 20%
non-functional house, and the shared-parent arrangement meant that I
wouldn't escape unscathed either.
Nevertheless, we gave it another try. This time the light came from the
bulbs, in all their Blue, Green, Yellow and Red glory, not to mention
every other permutation we could think of. We must have spent an hour
playing with the switches and seeing how cool we looked in the light.
Our next basement "concert" was pretty much the best thing ever. That
might also have been the first time we wore matching band outfits, but
that's another story.
---
This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active.
http://www.avast.com
Lee Michaels wrote:
>
> And forts? Nobody built bigger, badder snow forts than us. We had
> to clear snow from various parts of the farm and ended up with huge
> piles of compacted snow. These were often fifteen feet or more in
> height. So we would have one person work the tractor and the rest of
> us used shovels to sculpt these snow mountains into impressive
> fortifications. Then invited the city kids out for a snowball fight.
> And we kicked their asses every time!
Hah! Very cool! We built snow forts in snow banks that stood almost that
high - within a foot or so of the power lines on the side of the road. Dug
way down and built mighty fortresses that withstood the onslaught of the
coming spring weather. We could nail anything driving by and thumb our
noses at even the passing snow plows. We were way too cool...
>
> And I had a brother who used to love launching himself into space from
> bicycle ramps. He just built them higher and higher until he crashed
> hard enough so he could not ride a bike any more that day. He always
> was kinda crazy. But we al had a touch of crazy in us.. How do
> present days wimp survive their childhood?
>
> Ahhhhhh....., a trip down memory lane. Sigh..., I must be getting
> old.
Thank you sir. Today that would be considered a fearful memory. Or
something your kids could not possible endure. To us - it was just a day.
How in the hell did we possibly survive such things that are clearly so
catastrophic today?
--
-Mike-
[email protected]
"Leon" <lcb11211@swbelldotnet> wrote
>
> Ahhh forts. Every year after Christmas and before school started back up
> we kids would gather all the discarded Christmas Trees and drag them to
> "the woods". The woods was a vacant 3 acre lot behind our house. We
> would dig huge holes next to a tree and build a te-pee around the hole and
> tree with the Christmas trees. It was a really cool place to hang out, 6
> kids in the hole was a bit crowded however.
One winter, we had the perfect snowball type snow. Compacted and stuck
together with just the right water content. It was a big snow, around a
foot and a half.
We went into the back yard and compacted the snow by stepping into it, then
moving over a few inches and repeating , many times. Packed down, the snow
was perhaps 6 inches thick. Then took snow shovels and cut blocks out of
the compacted snow, and proceeded to make a real igloo, about 10 feet across
and 5 foot high, completely closed at top with a vent for smoke, and a real
ached entryway. Built a small fire in it and hung out, It was really cool,
and it occupied us for a week or better until it thawed. I scoff at some of
the survival show when they attempt to build snow structures.
--
Jim in NC
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On 12/11/2013 9:51 AM, Mike Marlow wrote:
> [email protected] wrote:
>> On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 08:53:30 -0500, "G. Ross" <[email protected]>
>>> Takes me back to my teen days. I rode the wooden coaster at Omaha
>>> with TWO girls. Such a shaking and rattling it made. I was
>>> petrified, having never seen a roller coaster before. The second
>>> ride was free, but there were few takers.
>>
>> I've been on one wooden roller coaster and it scared the crap out of
>> me. I rode it with a girlfriend so I had to pretend to be all brave
>> and try to laugh it off, but I don't think I was too successful.
>
> Wooden - and that scared the hell out of you??? You are clearly a rank
> amature. I've been on both wooden and on tubular steel roller coasters, and
> I've succeeded in becoming scared on either style. I love the thrill of
> them, but my fear of heights adds that added dimension...
>
When I was a young kid there was a wooden coaster, the Cyclone, across
the valley:
http://www.westparkhistory.com/PuritasSprings/PuritasSprings.htm
What made it so scary was that it was genuinely dangerous. It plunged
into the glacial valley (quite steep) through the trees, was dead fast
(80 mph), and woe to anyone who stood up!
It was a fierce ride not to be trifled with. For many, one ride was enough.
Jeff
Brings back so many memories I don't know where to start but this is always
one of my favorites. I gew up in a small Pennsylvania town in the hard
coal region. The terrain is quite hilly in that area and there was a steep
street that went through a few intersesctions, hitting its low point
where it intersected with Market St, the main East-West drag through
town and the street that I lived on. We would often take our home built
soap-box cars up to the the first parallel street, one block higher,
and wait til a freind on Market gave the all-clear, signaling that the
street was clear of traffic and it was OK to ride on down, crossing
Market St. and rolling into a front yard on the other side of Market St
that that served as our deceleration area, so to speak. Sometimes we
would haul the racer it up to the 2nd parallel street, which of course
meant that 2 lookouts were needed, and you had to wait for 2 all
clears to coincide so you could ride through both intersections.
Sometimes we would also do this on bicycles.
Well one day a braver than smart kid decided he would take his bicycle
up to the THIRD parallel st, and set a New World Record For Bicycle Speed.
3 lookouts were posted, and sure enough, after some time, there was a
brief period when all 3 intersections were simultaneously clear. The
signals were given, the brave rider started down the hill, pedaling
furiously at first to assist gravity as much as possible, until the
bike was clearly going so fast that his pedaling was not keeping up
with his road speed.
Through the 1st intersection, faster & faster, then second. I think
he actually was briefly airborne as he went theough the sligtly leveled
out 2nd intersection before again going downhill and increasing speed
even more on the race to the bottom. As he reached Market St, he
must have been going 60 mph or more, or so it seemed to my young eyes.
BUT, when he reached the run-out area, he had no control. Instead of
slowing and turning in the yard and coming to a gradual safe stop,
he continued in a straight path, unable to avoid the house situated
at the back of this yard. As we watched with wide eyes and open mouths,
he and his bicycle struck the front window of the house, AND WENT
THROUGH IT! We stood there in shock, awed and completely silent. No
one knew what to do or made a move.
Then, after a few minutes, the front door of the house opened, and the
kid hobbled outside, limping and bleeding, but miraculosly free of any
major injury. He headed home, no doubt to receive an even worse
punishement once he arrived there. A moment later, the homeowner came
outside also, carrying the mangled remains of the bicycle, which he
laid down on the sidewalk near the curb.
It was quite a while before anyone road down that hill trying to set
a speed record again after that... At least 3 weeks I would estimate.
--
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation
with the average voter. (Winston Churchill)
Larry W. - Baltimore Maryland - lwasserm(a)sdf. lonestar. org
On 12 Dec 2013 02:01:44 GMT, Puckdropper
<puckdropper(at)yahoo(dot)com> wrote:
>"Morgans" <[email protected]> wrote in
>news:[email protected]:
>
>>
>> One winter, we had the perfect snowball type snow. Compacted and
>> stuck together with just the right water content. It was a big snow,
>> around a foot and a half.
>>
>> We went into the back yard and compacted the snow by stepping into it,
>> then moving over a few inches and repeating , many times. Packed
>> down, the snow was perhaps 6 inches thick. Then took snow shovels and
>> cut blocks out of the compacted snow, and proceeded to make a real
>> igloo, about 10 feet across and 5 foot high, completely closed at top
>> with a vent for smoke, and a real ached entryway. Built a small fire
>> in it and hung out, It was really cool, and it occupied us for a week
>> or better until it thawed. I scoff at some of the survival show when
>> they attempt to build snow structures.
>
>I might have to try that one day... but I'll probably carve out a
>compacted mound I make with the tractor. Same fun, just bigger toys. :-)
>
>They're guessing a winter storm might be coming our way this weekend, but
>from the description I don't think they know for sure. I suppose I
>should get my snow handling stuff in gear.
>
>Puckdropper
Back in th early '60s, as a young teen, we built an igloo over 15
feet in diameter and over 6 feet high in our back yard where it lasted
for several weeks untill some neighbouhood brats ran up it and fell
in. It was built on top of about 3 feet of well packed snow, which we
dug out in the center to make "bunks" down each side. We used a few
candles to warm it up inside - which softened/melted the interior
surface, which then froze hard and icy.
On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 09:51:46 -0500, "Mike Marlow"
>Wooden - and that scared the hell out of you??? You are clearly a rank
>amature. I've been on both wooden and on tubular steel roller coasters, and
>I've succeeded in becoming scared on either style. I love the thrill of
>them, but my fear of heights adds that added dimension...
Well with all the shaking, rattling and noise of the wooden coasters,
it's no wonder some people don't like them. The smoothness of the
metal coasters was like a walk in the park compared to the wooden
ones. It's been at least 35 years since I've been on any kind of park
ride though, so I don't know how current coasters measure up.
On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 19:52:48 -0500, j <[email protected]> wrote:
>On 12/11/2013 9:51 AM, Mike Marlow wrote:
>> [email protected] wrote:
>>> On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 08:53:30 -0500, "G. Ross" <[email protected]>
>>>> Takes me back to my teen days. I rode the wooden coaster at Omaha
>>>> with TWO girls. Such a shaking and rattling it made. I was
>>>> petrified, having never seen a roller coaster before. The second
>>>> ride was free, but there were few takers.
>>>
>>> I've been on one wooden roller coaster and it scared the crap out of
>>> me. I rode it with a girlfriend so I had to pretend to be all brave
>>> and try to laugh it off, but I don't think I was too successful.
>>
>> Wooden - and that scared the hell out of you??? You are clearly a rank
>> amature. I've been on both wooden and on tubular steel roller coasters, and
>> I've succeeded in becoming scared on either style. I love the thrill of
>> them, but my fear of heights adds that added dimension...
>>
>When I was a young kid there was a wooden coaster, the Cyclone, across
>the valley:
>
>http://www.westparkhistory.com/PuritasSprings/PuritasSprings.htm
>
>What made it so scary was that it was genuinely dangerous. It plunged
>into the glacial valley (quite steep) through the trees, was dead fast
>(80 mph), and woe to anyone who stood up!
>
>It was a fierce ride not to be trifled with. For many, one ride was enough.
>
>Jeff
>
What was the name of the one at the Tulsa State Fair grounds? Was it
the Zingo? I think so. Over 85 ft high,, over2550 ft long, and over
45mph.