A Kid's Wish List

I recall that while growing up in the pre-technology era of the 60s the wish list of kids I knew all shared three items that were commonly advertised in the magazines we would read. These items were: A Sunfish sailboat, a motorized go cart and a mini bike.

Most desires at 12 years of age aren't at all realistic simply as most kids did not live on a lake and at 12 years old we didn't drive and would have no way of getting a sail boat to a lake. Go carts required a track since they weren't street legal and how many laps could one take on their own driveway before realizing their limits to fun.

However the mini bike was totally practical and attainable. You could buy one for around a hundred dollars and there were enough fields and dirt lots to cruse. The only obstacles were saving up $100 and one's parents objection.

Now that I think of it I probably only had two friends that overcame those obstacles. My brother was somewhat caught up in the fever and one day I came home to find he got a Cushman motor scooter. It looked like the photo below but was as I recall cream colored.



I think it had two gears and it drove like a two wheeled golf cart or perhaps like a two wheeled refrigerator. I rode it once through the field across the street and the bottom kept getting high centered on the grass. It did drive better on the dirt road. It certainly wasn't a mini bike.

The look of the Cushman was kind of douchey back in those days, but I bet a lot of folks would love to have one today. I have no idea what happened to that scooter but I do remember it well.

I thought of this over the weekend as it seemed like there were hundreds of motorcycles on the road on the first sunny day in a considerable amount of time. Most of the riders were my age and I'm sure once had a mini bike on their wish list, and it has taken a mid life crisis for them to make their larger adult dreams come true.