Just in time for Christmas… Back in the day…
Western Auto, Sears, Montgomery Wards, and I ‘think’ Woolworth all had pedal cars like these for roughly the same prices. This ad is from 1962!
Today, those $20 pedal cars/tractors are worth anywhere from $500-1500!!!
If you’re travelling today, please be safe, it’s cold out there pretty much everywhere!
You stay safe and warm yourself. I’m much further South than you (RGV Texas) and I hear your area is fixing to get a whoopin’ from that Norther blowing in. Us, the forecast is saying mid 20’s for more than 8 hours.
Dang it – forgot to comment of pedal cars which was original thought.
I had one of the peddle cars, can’t remember which one but I’m sure it was a red convertible. Rode off the sidewalk curb in front of the rented house, gaining me a lifelong scar on my eyebrow.
I had the tractor.
We’re looking at single digit bad weather in East TN as well. Stay warm and stay safe!
Sitting on the top shelf of a pallet rack in my barn, is a pedal fire truck with bell and one of the 2 ladders still there. Wife is so attached to it, was her firstborn’s toy, that there it sits for over 40 years. I guess some day it may be inherited, but not one of our children or grands show much interest in this kind of toy, zero electronics I guess. Sigh!
My folks were poor and I was born 8 years later then my sis and 6 years later then my brother in the late 50s. I usually got 1 small gift for Christmas and 1 small gift for my birthday. Nothing as good as that. Overtime my folks did better but they did not really expand of the giving except they gave me a bike. They did buy a two bedroom one bathroom house, which was small and all of us kids had the one room to sleep in. If we wanted something we worked for it no matter the age.
I had a red tractor. One of my first memories is mom telling me I’d be a good driver. I was two. I’ve got a lot of memories from around that time. When I was five, I took it apart to find out how it worked… And it never made it back together… That early education is worth more than $1500 to me now. 😉
I never had a pedal car, but I had Tonka trucks–real metal and real rubber tires. Also had a Mattel Fanner Shootin’ Shell 45 that used greenie stick-on caps and shot plastic bullets. Came with a genuine cowhide leather belt and holster.
Heh. Also remember the day I set a red roll of caps on edge on our anvil and hit it with a sledge hammer. Early lesson in ear protection.
No pedal cars, unless a BigWheel counts. I had a Tonka hook and latter truck, with a ladder that extended to about three feet. It weighed a ton, meaning that it stayed downstairs (which might have been one reason Mom and Dad got it. Hmmm . . .). Loved that thing to death. I think it got left when we moved to Texas, because of the weight and Sib and my ages.
Never had one because we never lived anyplace with sidewalks.
Nope, out of our price range apparently. There was an old pedal car at my Grandmother’s that may have been my Dad’s I played with. No idea where it went. Wish I had it now.
I had a Jeep, though it was OD green with a large white star on the hood that I got Christmas of 1965. Had a bad case of Bronchitis that Christmas and I remember the Pediatrician making a house call on the 26th or 27th and me sitting in my jeep with footie PJs and said doctor kneeling down and listening to my chest and doing the usual inspections as I wouldn’t leave my jeep. Later a buddy and I used it so hard that something (pedal?) broke. Dad through it in my wagon and we walked it down to a local truck repair shop that happily brazed the pedal back on again, I think for free as it amused the repairmen no end.
Regarding the cold, my wife and I just got back to Ohio after visiting kin in Florida and Tennessee. Can you say brrrr?
All- Thanks for the comments! I had the tractor too, until I somehow broke the frame. I really miss the Tonka Toys, yes, real metal and rubber tires! Heavy as hell and damned near indestructible! I remember those being passed to younger cousins… sigh
And it’s 11 with a windchill of -11 at noon today, with spitting snow thrown in for good measure… NOT!!!
BAD memories of pedal cars. Well, one, anyway. I was always tall for my age, and skinny. The tall part, and a degree of klutz, gave me skinned knees several times thanks to the thing.
Had the Tonka Toy Mobile Missle Launcher. It served honorable for a long time, dispatching Commies and the like. I wish I had it now…
For Christmas 1968, 3-year-old Budd got a Mustang pedal car, in red & silver. I still remember it. Wish I still had it.
Bob- Ouch!
Robert- I never had that one!!!
TB- I think I was five.
I had a tractor to peddle around the neighborhood. It was all metal. Interesting that you can find one like that without a lot of plastic added.
Do not know where it went. Would have been nice for the grand kids to use.
Merry Chriatmass to all out there.
Heltau- I did too! Merry Christmas to you and yours!