As kids, we loved starting clubs. There was the Firefly Club, the “Artificial Mouse-kateers,” and then there was the most memorable ?#34; the Skateboard Club.
I believe it involved Jeanine Besch, Mark Adolph, a couple of the Meegan kids, maybe Susie Smidl and an Oltman. Not really sure. I do remember that I was the leader, only because of Bathtub. Everyone’s skateboard had a name, and mine was a really big, wooden one with wooden wheels, so we called it Bathtub. Everyone else had the cheap, smaller ones with the metal wheels.
Mom and Dad didn’t buy me Bathtub. My brother, George, “found” it. Now, George was never a thief, so I didn’t doubt that he “found” it, but exactly what does that mean?
Anyway, our most daring feat was to line up and skateboard down the Harlem Ave. up ramp from the Eisenhower Expressway. Certainly one of the most thrilling moments of my life was letting out a big yell and leading the pack of kids, ranging from age 8 to 12, right on down that ramp. I suppose we thought the motorists would see us and not run us over. We had never been drivers ourselves, so we figured it was probably not a big deal.
That’s not what my dad thought, though. Just as we were picking up speed, here comes Dad’s white Chrysler with the fins, up the ramp. Uh-oh.
Umm, if anyone lost a big skateboard in 1967, I think my brother owes you one …