America has had a ongoing thing about skateboards or skate carts for years. Today's skateboards are just that, a small board with four plastic wheels. In our day skateboards were just for kids. It's a little different now; today's skateboards are for kids forty and under.
Seems strange to me to see grown men zooming down the street on their skateboard. Whoopee!
What's so great about skateboards? Us old-timers invented them years ago.
All of us kids had 'em. We made our own ... a lot cheaper that way. Materials needed: One old fashioned metal clamp-on skate, a two and a half foot wooden 2X4, a small wooden fruit box ... some nails. And a lot of vision.
Our skateboards were rather simple to make. One half of a metal clamp-on skate with it's two metal wheels was nailed to the front of the board and the other two wheels were nailed to the back. On the front of our wooden skateboard we nailed the wooden box and on top of the box we nailed two handles. Stand with one foot on the board, lean over and take hold of the handles then scoot down the sidewalk with other foot. To steer we just leaned one way or the other.
Yeah, we were proud of our skateboards. I even had brakes on mine.
Of course our skateboards were different than today's slick agile and quiet boards, ours were more of a one-leg power vehicle built for our neighborhood sidewalk freeway system. They were loud and noisy ... just the way boys like them.
We shared our tools as money was tight.
We put everything we had into these skateboards; our money, our skill and even our reputation! Yep, we made it ourselves ... and you could be sure, it was made In The USA!
