Punchy and the Old Man, 1957

My old man was something of a genius when he went downstairs to his basement workshop. He'd take the motors out of old record players and use them to make miniature draw bridges, ferris wheels and other things that really worked. They had no useful function but they certainly were great conversation pieces. And that brings me to the next story.

When my mother's wire bundle buggie fell apart the old man decided to make her one that would last the ages. So downstairs he went with me hot on his heels as his assistant. He rooted through his stash of goodies and pulled out an old kiddies tricycle and removed the axle, wheels and tiny chrome fenders. Next he cut a sort of semi-circle out of thick plywood and attached the axel and a foot to make it stand up straight. He then whipped out some thick wood dowling and fashioned the uprights and handle. Then a large old wicker laundry hamper was screwed on to the base and handle. Finally he painted the whole thing a lovely shade of forest green and that completed this odd looking original super heavy duty bundle buggie with real chrome fenders.

I suggested to the old man that maybe we should put some tail lights and handlebar streamers on it just like I had on my bike but the old man disagreed. I don't know why, do you?

We then dragged the beastly contraption on wheels upstairs and presented this all Canadian designed and built beauty to my mother for her approval. She just sort of looked at it for a minute or two with her jaw slightly dropped and a rather bewildered look on her face. Finally she blurted out, "It'll last forever."

I looked at the old man and he looked at me.

"Don't ya like it maw." I asked.

"Oh yeah, yeah, I like it, it's just I've never seen anything quite like it before." She replied.

The old man seemed to take this as a positive answer so I guess I did too. As it turned out my mother really did like it since she towed it around on every shopping trip from then on. And it really was built to last forever and could probably still sail right along on it's ball bearing wheels with a big heavy load in it. I don't know what eventually happened to that buggie, but I'd kind of like to believe that it's now in some third world country being hauled around behind a donkey that's just loping along an old well worn mountain path.

Picture Colorized By Punchy