When I was a kid in 29 Palms it didn't take much to entertain us. An old tire, a swing set, and a little bucket to shovel dirt into. (Hey there IS a car in the picture).
Somewhere I have a pic of me and my sister at 5-6ish yo taken in the Joshua Tree area at my grandparent's backyard, wearing faux Indian headdresses in front of a tepee that my grandfather made with paint tarps and poles. My grandfather was 1/2 Cherokee from Oklahoma. No computer BS for us!
A lot has changed in 29 "Stumps" from when I worked for the county in the late '70's. Then there was only a flashing red light 4 way stop at the intersection of Amboy Rd. and SR 62. And no stop lights between I-10 and Amboy Rd. Lots of artsy types from the city have settled there since.
Story is i was allways happy to sit in the Oldsmobile or wash the cars. Summer vacations walk through the foreshore grounds to see what the city folk were doing. A day out was collect firewood in the bush and on the way home stop at foxes hangout.
^^ "they were such a friendly family, none of us neighbors would have never suspected the horror going on behind closed doors" ^^ Just teasing !!! Coyotes maybe ? ...
That's a bunch of dead foxes. My Dad did the same thing on the farm we had (South Australia). It's supposed to keep other foxes from moving in, but I don't think the foxes are that clever, they kept coming back and joining their mates for a little hang-out. I had a photo of all the family on the back of Gramp's 25-is Chevy truck, in the early 60's. That truck bed was our taxi, playpen, mobile workshop and above-ground playground.
The only coyotes down here are of the V8 Ford variety.... Foxes were brought to Australia from England and released in about 1870 for the purpose of having traditional "fox hunts". Wild populations grew so fast that they were declared a pest by the 1890s. The rabbits were brought here for the same reason, but were released about ten years earlier. You can imagine how quickly that got out of hand. You would think they would have known better when someone came up with the bright idea of foxes.....
Probably related to the dumb sh*ts that introduced ****ooses to Hawaii to eat the cane rats. Didn't have any effect on the rat population but decimated the local exotic birds by eating their eggs.
Red fox was introduced where I live by the oil man EW Marland . He imported them for his buddies so they could have English fox hunts . The escapees multiplied. The coyote hunters around here hang their kills from fence posts. Fisherman stick the heads of big catfish on fence posts also .
I spent many an hour sitting in this swing with my grandpa"Highpockets" There's a Henry J in the barn.
1946 Hello, When we first moved to a trailer park in the Eastside of Long Beach in 1946, I was one of the only little kids left when school started. My brother, our cousins and neighborhood friends all walked to elementary school a few blocks south. So, I was left by myself to explore the whole 4 block area of the trailer park location. Back then, no one had worries about a stranger kidnapping any kids locally. So, I was given the OK to pedal all over the complex. The friends’ parents who did not work all knew the little kids left in the park. So, someone in a block of trailers was looking out for us anyway. The sidewalks were there, but the streets were empty, since most adults went to work and I had the whole paved wider streets to my self. It was if I were in the open road and could pedal anywhere. I learned how to make my playtime last all day, with a break at our own dinky trailer for lunch. Sometimes, if my mom was busy with her friends, I took a sandwich and drink to the edge of the gr***y area and had a nice lunch. Jnaki Those old trailers were made by the government for the aircraft workers in the industrial areas nearby, offering no cost or low cost homes while they worked on government projects at the industrial complexes. The trailers were different sizes, but most had the smallest trailer, since it cost the least to rent. Ours was one of the smallest and was about 20-25 feet long. On the weekend, our dad liked taking photos of a little kid figuring out how to make things work or just playing outside on the gr*** between the other trailers. We stayed in the trailer court housing for a couple of years. By the second year, I could cross the smaller side streets and expand my horizons. That included a slope that allowed me to see the Los Angeles River on the other side of the berm near the PCH roadway...YRMV
Jnaki, We stayed in a trailer for a while in 1954 when they were building 29 Palms houses. We used to drive over and look at the slabs. Ha! It is good you have some pictures. (You're even older than me). I could have used that big wheeled trike in the desert. No sidewalks. Is that rear wheel drive?
Hello, Ha! I am older than 90% of the folks here on the HAMB. Teenager with driver’s license at 16 in high school, Long Beach in 1961. and the adventure begins... But, that old tricycle was in a small toy store in Long Beach that our dad used to buy the stuff for gifts. I saw the tricycle on the floor and sat in it. My brother was too big and so, it was going to be mine, someday. I always called it a "Pumpmobile." One Christmas, it was all wrapped up sitting outside of the dinky trailer. it was too big to fit inside of the trailer, so our dad put it outside with a canvas tarp covering it that morning. It is called a Donalson “Jockey Cycle” as the pedals go up and down the rear axle has a odd connection to make each wheel push forward. I had to pump the pedals to make it go forward. Jnaki One steers with the long handle. Since one grabs onto the handle, the two feet below push down and that lever makes the seat and tires go around. The seat is hinged to the front, just above the front tire. So, the ride is like a horse ride up and down, but going forward, too. I went all over a four block radius almost every day as I was too young to go to school. At the time, I was the only kid with this oddball tricycle. I kept it until I grew up and saved money for a Schwinn…YRMV
Man I'd like to find a vintage luggage rack like that to haul my upright b*** around on the shoebox. As is I have to shoehorn it into the back seat with the neck sticking out the p***enger window, lol. Gotta dodge mailboxes....
Well, you have a picture of the design, start building one. The curved tubing could be tough for a beginner, so it would probably be OK if it had squared corners...
Those roofracks allmost allways had just one gutter clamp on both sides. Of course a stationwagon could easily have two on both sides. I have allways wondered if those suctioncups really worked. Dad was a chippie and allways had building material on that roofrack . The old Holden earned its keep.
I love the desert. Was out that way with my friend after a business meeting in LA back in the late 90s. Drove around to Palm Springs, Salton Sea, and Joshua Tree National Park. Was being like on another planet with all the “weird” vegetation. We came across a naval base in the middle of the desert. Lol!
The Jalopy Journal
