[Gulliver]

Anybody else have one of these Cox .049 Dragsters? It ran on a tether string, had a real parachute that popped and killed the engine at the end. Awesome, I can still remember the smell. I bought mine at a garage sale, my folks didn't buy me stuff like this..

This one obviously hasn't been used 'cos the first time you spilled the fuel on it, the decals came right off.

[67droptop]

Originally Posted by Gulliver

Anybody else have one of these Cox .049 Dragsters? It ran on a tether string, had a real parachute that popped and killed the engine at the end. Awesome, I can still remember the smell. I bought mine at a garage sale, my folks didn't buy me stuff like this..

This one obviously hasn't been used 'cos the first time you spilled the fuel on it, the decals came right off.

No but I had the dune buggy!!

[455Grandville]

One thats changed; you don't see kids on bikes much anymore, or big wheels, they're all playing video games and getting fatter then hell.

I still have my Roger Decoster bike I'd like to resore with the "Tuff" wheels if anyone remembers those or the "Motomags"

[shawn e.]

Oh man I remember the toughskins. I would wear the knees out and my mom would patch the knees but never a matching color. I remember once I had a green pair with red patches.

Shawn

[mviker]

We used to have BB gun battles in the back yard. Someone would always get shot in the eye or someone would pump up their BB gun one too many times. I got hit in the eye once and also got a chipped tooth, but man, was it fun.

Those were the same days we ran through neighbor's yards and they would wave and call out to us. Do that these days and you're off in a body bag.

We all had our own bike and lawnmower piles too. There was always just enough junk to keep busy building something.

Lots of fun...

[Rob B]

Don't forget every kid had some sort of a "dirt pile" in their own yard or neighborhood where anything was possible.

[Cobrabill]

I'd laugh, but it's probably true.

[400 4spd.]

I grew up in a middle class blue collar/military neighborhood of wood frame homes, all less than 15 years old. Just over 30 homes per block. In hindsight, there were lots of young couples/families in the area. Muscle cars were family transportation at the time.
As a teenager I can remember the following cars on my street around 1974.
1. A gold 1969 428 Cobra Jet Mustang with 4 speed.
2. Green 1968 GTO automatic.
3. Maroon 1967 327 Nova SS with auto. (2 houses away)
4. Green 1969 Plymouth GTX 440 auto. (next door)
5. Blue 1966 GTO running the orig. 2 spd. auto behind a 428. (directly across the street)
6. Blue 1970 Dodge Super Bee, 383 with a pistol grip 4 speed.
7. Red 1966 GTO running a 421 and 4 speed.
8. Plum Mist 1967 GTO, 4 speed. (my brother's car. BTW, he smoked the above 421 '66 right after it was put together).
9. Signet Gold 1967 GTO, 4 speed. (mine)
10. White 1965 GTO, 3 speed Dearborn behind a '69 400. (also mine)

[69 T/A]

We had a 2 story treehouse back in '69-70, electric lights and heat. We made a small furnace from a 10 gallon can. Used a 12 volt battery for lights. All windows were covered in UFR wire. Unidentified flying Rocks were the norm as we lived in a bad neighborhood, had to tear it down soon after.

[wrenchmen]

Man does this thread bring back memories!....my friend "onemoregoat74" and I lived all your stories and then some!...we had a blast in our neighborhood!....Tommy, (onemoregoat74), was a crazy, insane, fearless kid who was riding a Suzuki RM80, while we all rode mini-bikes!...Tommy was always pushing the envelope, he would use the local landfill behind my house to perfect his skills. The town dump,Caterpillar loader operator would burry the garbage and create a huge "bowl' in the ground, Tommy would use this ramp created by the loader as a jump and scream his suzuki up the perpedicular ramp, launching himself skyward!....he would get some crazy air and always land perfectly.

Myself on the other hand, remember taking a jump near the local deli, with my BMX bike and the front wheel falling off, me going over the handle bars and my front wheel continuing to roll onward and hit a parked car.

Tommy and I put together a rocket, made from toilet paper tubes taped to one another, we attached 3 "C" rocket engines together with a single twisted fuse and launched it in the field behind his house, The rocket soared skyward and than suddenly drifted down towards earth, just as it was horizontal to the ground, the 2 other engines ignited and propelled it like a cruise missle towards the center of town!...we dont know where it landed as we were hiding in his basement!

Tommys Mom was the greatest, we would both peddle are azzes off on a schwinn bike with a banana seat and powerslide into a mud puddle at the end of his street, Tommys Mom would call us "Baba-Le-owns"....and wash my clothes so my mom had no idea what a dumb ass I was!

Tommy was the first one to get a car, he bought a 67 or 68 firebird from a local dude, It had a 428 in it!...would have been a great car to keep!...dont remember what happened to it, He later picked up a 60 somethin Olds cutlass with a small block chevy, cool car, nice square, clean lines.

I bought a 68 firebird 400, 4speed vert, my GF was there to help me fix it up and make it street worthy.....and now, she is my Wife, 2 boys and a girl later, she perfectly cleans and rides with me to car shows in my 70 Lemans Sport.

My other good friend, kevin, had a 67 Camaro RS, cool car with hide-away headlights, we removed the engine, a 327 we were told, and Kevin brought it to a local machine shop for a performance rebuild "Blueprint/Balance"....they called to say it was done and Kevin said "I am here to pick up my 327"...the guy replied, 327, that was a 305, here it is all done.....we were to young and had no knowledge whatsoever to dispute his claim, Kevin installed the 305 in his RS camaro....hell, we had no clue, I couldnt even tell you what heads were on my 400!
Years later I worked with a guy who built race engines for Wall Stadium in NJ, he said D&R performance, where Kevin had his engine rebuilt, was nototrius for scamming people out of high performance parts and exchanging them for less desireable stuff!
I truly believe his engine was a 327!

Wow...time flys by,...I miss those days, Bon-fires in the woods, partying with good friends, cruisin the streets of seaside, woods ridin' all day in a 4x4 Ford, only to have the front wheel fall off and walking through a pitch dark cedar swamp for 3 hours to get home, foolin around with my GF in my 76 Jeep Cherokee on a fire trail in the pines!
Those were the days!

[MikeNoun]

Some Sundays we spent flinging these things around the back yard.



This was a Cox tether plane that loved, although I could never figure out why they had a red interior. I spent a day painting the inside the cockpit a steel gray. The next weekend, my brother nose-dived into the ground and it shattered into about 20 pieces. There was no ceremonial service for the lost Stuka.

[MikeNoun]

Ahhh....the 70's...

[wrenchmen]

My mom and dads house was basically on the edge of the pine barrens, what seemed like an endless woods with trails that went on forever, we would walk out and follow trails that were marked with paper tags for an enduro motorcycle race that happened at least once a year, we would sit at an old gravel pit, on the top of a hill where the trail below us split in two, and came up on both sides of where we sat...the motorcycles would scream by us on both sides and the racing seemed to last all day long!...it was awesome!

We always found motorcycles that were being thrown out, or given away by some local people, We would bring them home and use my dads tools to repair them....I remember a honda XR-75...4 stroke, ran great...not fast but reliable. A Yamaha MX-100...neat bike...I think 2 stroke and maybe oil injection, if memory serves me right,...A cool Suzuki RV-90....I thought this was the coolest!, it was a motorcycle with fat ATV tires....it was a two stroke and I couldnt afford rings for it...so we drove it with just the top rings in!....would go for a little while than quit running, let it cool down, than start again....A CZ-250...czlekoslovakian motorcycle....fast as hell, two stroke, shifter was on opposite side.,....my buddy had a Hodaka Dirt Squirt, shifter was messed up, so he had to reach down and manually shift it...his fingers got caught between the chain and counter sprocket!.....luckily chuck didnt loose any fingers!
Also had 2 Harley Davidson M50's....they were a cross between a moped and a motorcycle, shifter was a twist grip, 3 speed....cool as hell, used both to build one good one and traded it for a yamaha MX-125....should have kept the harley....looks like its a rare one!

[The Boss]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

Some Sundays we spent flinging these things around the back yard.

I spent one Saturday evening in the Emergency room sitting next to another kid from my town who had one of those lodged solidly in his collar bone. I can't remember what I was there for that time - I was literally one of those kids who got Christmas cards from the E.R. Staff.

[Singleton]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

Some Sundays we spent flinging these things around the back yard.

Takes me back to the mid 70's. Four kids, all around 10-12 years old, standing in a tight circle, backs to each other. Each throws a lawn dart straight-up, with all their might. Run! run like hell! Good times...

[Johnny406]

Here is a picture of me, my little sister and my Grandfather. The back of the picture says Fox Photo JUN 76 (Remember the Fox Photos all over town?) My sister and I are proudly wearing our 'EMERGENCY" fire hats. See the old white dishwasher in the background? That year I got a Bionic Man action figure and he fell off that dishwasher and his arm fell off. I was heartbroken. Remember those old dishwashers that you would push up to the sink & hook up like a garden hose. I really don't remember how they drained, I think they had a pump and pumped the dirty water back in the sink.

[Cobrabill]

I can remember some kid in my kneck-of-the-woods catching one in the eye.

[PonchoV8]

Do you know what a Hot Wheels track fight feels like?

[400 4spd.]

Originally Posted by PonchoV8

Do you know what a Hot Wheels track fight feels like?

My brother does.

[68lemansman]

Originally Posted by PonchoV8

Do you know what a Hot Wheels track fight feels like?

I liked the Hot wheels racing tracks but I loved the Tyco electric tracks better. I think I even had one that had trans ams racing each other but I also remember having one that was. Trans am and a police car