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The designs of such contraptions became gradually more sophisticated until one day I came across someone who possessed one with a footbrake - basically a car foot pedal linked to some ingenious mechanism that wedged a piece of wood against one of the rear tyres. Coveting such a wonderful machine I made my opening offer and eventually the deal was done. If I remember correctly, for a bag of marbles and a propelling pencil, the bogey was mine and for a while at least, I was king of our street.
They were wonderful, but dangerous times. Thankfully I recall only one arm being broken during that summer of fun and luckily it wasn't mine.
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Often these came in pen and pencil sets that appeared to be the favoured Christmas or birthday presents from Grandmas. By my teens I must have accumulated a drawer full of the things. Of course the problem with propelling pencils was that you had to twist the casing until a short length of lead appeared at the pointy end. You began to write - and the lead snapped. More twisting produced more lead, More writing produced more snapping - and so it went on. Until you realised you had no lead left in your pencil and that, as all you guys know, is no laughing matter.
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