Quote:
Originally Posted by DonV
Oh hell yes GFS please keep them coming, HOWEVER please wait until at least my third cocktail, make that fourth cocktail before posting so I'll be able to fully comprehend! I'm a little slower than Spidy and need a head start.........thank you!
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Happy to oblige Don.
I guess I`ll start at the beginning.
I think Reidy Clark built the first coaster in the neighborhood. Just a piece of plywood with 4
hard wheeled tires. Two by fours were used to hold and position the axles. We just bent pairs of opposing nails over the axles to hold them in place.
Mrs. Kelly owned Windsong. A beautiful property. The driveway went down hill off 6A and back up a steep hill to the house and past the knoll down to Barnstable harbor. I delivered her newspaper and asked if we could play with our coasters there.
She was a very sweet widow and said anytime you like.
It was an amazing layout. The drive up to the house split into 2 lanes on the right
which went down to the boat house. The left fork split into 3 lanes. We had 5 full lanes
to stage our races.
At first is was just about being clean and fast. Just a few of us. There were a few building
sites locally who kindly donated scraps of plywood and other goodies. Reidy`s dad owned
the local hardware store and soon he had lots of tots in his face asking for advice.
Well before long, there were maybe 10 different interpretations of our
Boogie Wagons. It was like being in the pits at a race. We all sized up each others
designs and decisions.
We were now filling all of the lanes and running down into the funnel.
Crashes occurred. Wonderful, multiple crashes. The coin had flipped.
We had gone to heaven.
The old plywood designs just got shredded.
Now we were seeing new H frame designs and perimeter frames still kindly donated
from local building sites.
It turned into a mini demo derby and we just could not stop laughing.
Up we went and down we went.
Each now looking for a specific target from the previous run.
Mrs. Kelly never said a word.
Thank you Mrs. Kelly.