What is with the kids of today?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....other-bear-watch.html

When I was a youngster many, many years ago a scooter was rather a mundane piece of play equipment, generally used by girls, but sometimes by boys if they wasn't fortunate to possess a bike.

But whoever had one, they did not get up to the tricks some kids of today can achieved from them, it was just scoot up and down the pavement and nothing else.

Even the bikes, not a patch on the BMX trick cyclists of today, the most daring stunt in those distant days was to ride with no hands on the handlebars or riding the bike back to front and if one really wanted to get noticed, then it was a piece of card trapped in the spokes of the wheels so as to give out a flapping noise.

[humbersloop]

Could you really do that back to front stunt on a pennyfarthing op?

[mazie]

That's amazing AOG. Thanks for posting it

p.s. I had a Pink Witch bike when I was about 11/12

[LoftyLottie]

Just proves that kids to day are more adventurous I suppose or have more sophisticated bikes etc. Yesterday I experienced two adult guys (about mid 30's/40's) coming through the town on huge quad bikes performing wheelies along the main thoroughfare!!

[LoftyLottie]

I used to have a scooter and a trike!! Got my first bike at 11 years old when my parents decided it was quite unfair that I couln't go out cycling with them. Raleigh Sports Light Roadster. No gears of course!! Must have cycled many hundreds of miles on that bike, right through my teens and early twenties.

[emmie]

seeing as we used to go haring down a very steep hill on an orange box made go kart, with string held tight on the front wheels, no brakes, right past the local police station, that was quite scary. He looks as though he knows what he is doing, good luck to the boy.

[LoftyLottie]

Yep, our play equipment was often home made and Health and Safety wasn't heard of. My father used to have to come and rescue me from half way up trees!! I don't think I was ever free of sticking plaster and bandages, as as for safety helmets an knee pads, well they were unheard of....................

[starone]

The nearest I got to a bike was to learn how to ride one with my sister's bike which she had bought by saving up the money left over from her first job after she had given my mother most of it. The local boys usually had ASP bikes (All spare parts) which they made out of bits they managed to gather from various places including the dump.

[emmie]

safety helmet, no chance, not even knee pads, if you fell off, which happened a lot, you got back on and had another go.

[AB Editor]

I blame the parents :)

I always think scooters are a bit crap though - skateboards always seem much more anti-establishment to me. Maybe because, like you AOG, I make an association with scooters being for very young kids who were either a) without a bike or b) a girl.

Did you know you can buy modern penny farthings Sloopy?

[jake-the-peg]

Impressive but not as xciting

http://www.23mag.com/hist/cyclism.htm

[AB Editor]

And there's always flatland stuff too:

[humbersloop]

I do Ed.They scare the life out of me.

[kat2206]

We had an old pram "chassis" which we made into a go kart, we had so much fun with that.... I wish the kids of today would use their imagination more during play rather than relying the media to do this for them...

[LoftyLottie]

Our play 'guns' were sticks of a suitable shape. Yes, I played cowboys and indians - I always wanted to be an indian!!

Ed. is going to say I am an old fogey, but I do think games requiring loads of imagination were a lot better. You didn't need sophisticated toys at all.

[anotheoldgit]

LoftyLottie

Yes I sometimes wanted to play the Indian, but not just the common ordinary one or two feather Indian, it had to be the full head-dress type.

Those were the days.

[emmie]

cowboys and indians, pirates, man from uncle, secret agents, you name it.
we didn't have any money, so used whatever stuff was lying around as our props.

[horseshoes]

I had a very fetching cowgirl outfit complete with silver pistol. I never put caps in it - they scared me. My first bike was something like this and I'm sure it was called a Blinkie or Twinkie. It had a rod so my Mum could hold on to me. The rod must have been some sort of telescopic effort.

http://i50.tinypic.com/2w36qrq.jpg

[craft1948]

I always had to be the ruddy Indian, my sister always got to be Annie Oakley :-(

[emmie]

i had one of those, also my first bicycle.

[emmie]

I was always Napoleon Solo from man from uncle, no idea why, but my mate had to be Ilya Kuryarkin, happy days.