Of Bogeys, Propelling Pencils and Days Gone By

Over a couple of beers with friends yesterday, talk turned to the days of our youth and specifically how in a world devoid of computers, games machines and other such electrical paraphernalia, we actually made our own amusement. Someone mentioned bogeys which were like little homemade go-karts (without the engine of course) made from planks of wood, pram or pushchair wheels and with a bolted on front axle that could be steered with the feet or a piece of string or a combination of both. The 'driver' would be propelled along by one or two friends pushing frantically until you reached a downhill section where gravity would take over.

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.

Of course that also raised another conversation on the subject of propelling pencils which are I believe called mechanical pencils in the US. This is a contraption that looks like a slim fountain pen but contains a piece of lead instead of ink. 

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.