Palatine, Ill. 380 Rosalie lane. right behind cook county road. I have not been there since I was 13, 31years ago. I have very vivid memories of all us kid's on somekind of mini bike, afterschool and on weekends riding everywhere. Right from the front yard. We rode all on all the streets, no one cared, not even the police. Hard to even imagine today.

 

Yeah those were the days.... Kids can't even imagine what it was like back then.. All of us kids in my neighborhood used to ride minibikes, dirt bikes, even had one kid who used to ride a step through Honda off road... (that was not pretty to watch).. I was lucky in that our house was the first one built in a new subdivision.. so we rode go-karts right on the road... Heck, I did 360's underneath a Semi style dump truck once... I didn't see him, the wind was so bad, it would make your eyes water to teh point where you couldn't really see much... and the truck comes out of nowhere. Back then, the road was new, and the end of the road, they had a big pile of pea gravel that we would hit at speed and then spin it out in the rocks for fun....the only thing I saw was the shadow as he was going over the top of me... How I didn't get killed is another of those miracles we all expereince, but don't realize what they were at the time.. Boy did that guy ever yell at me after that... I think I stole a few years of his life on that one...Scared me to death too....

When all the other kids started to get their Karts going faster than mine.. I had to step up to a full bodied quarter midget running a mixture of alcohol and Nitro methane... A real pain in the butt to get started... but wowser... was it fast.... I still remember that light headed feeling you would get from the exhaust fumes... Heck, we didn't know any better at the time.... ah nitro methane... that stuff was killer in more ways than one.... it sure made the motors go.. .for a while anyway... Talk about a time bomb...

Any way, that is why I don't yell at the kids on the street with their skateboards, mini bikes, scooters etc... It is just a right of passage as I see it... too bad others do not though... More than anything, I think it is that experience or feeling of recklessness, and freedom that we are trying to share with our kids...via ATV's. Although they didn't exist when I was young... I would have had one if I could... You remember the old Ruppster? I used to drool over them too.

 

I do remember the ruppster and there were 2 guy's with go kart's in my neighborhood too. Same situation as you, the streets were our's. I wasnt really into them like I was into 2 wheelers, still am obviously, at least until the knee gives up. After hearing your cane stories I may put surgery off even longer. No hurry the way I see it. I know what you mean about kid's on bicycles, mini/pocket bikes,skateboard's. Let them have a little fun, when you restrict their movement, they will find "something" to do, usually not legal.