MTFCA Forum

Wow, that is a great picture! Mr. Cool himself with his fast ride! And all decked out in his finest sportswear.
So very often, I look at these era photos, and I wonder so much how their futures panned out for them. The great depression lay in wait just around the corner. What there was in store for his family? He would have been just a young man when we entered World War Two. A lot of people did well through those difficult times. A lot of people through no fault of their own fared poorly.
One can wonder.

what a wonderful and evocative photo!

All he is missing is a pair of goggles and a aviator helmet. Jim

Mr. Cool himself !

That boy is the king of the road. I remember my first pedal car. Here are neat links to many vintage pictures of kids and their pedal cars.

https://monovisions.com/vintage-kids-an ... 20s-1950s/

https://www.vintagepedalcars.club/blackwhite

Looks to be a new subdivision. All the houses look new, and little to no established landscapping.

What an awesome pose!

The boy is also proud because he is clearly wearing a nice pair of WWI Officers leather leggins, although he has both of them twisted around backwards (probably they were a lot easier to put them on that way, or for his mom or dad to put them on that way). Given the time-frame of the photos, I presume the WWI officers leather leggins probably belonged to his dad. Oddly however, you can clearly see the WWI Officer's leather leggins are of the British officers style, as opposed to the US Army style leather leggins which has a different design for the leather straps. So I would guess his Dad maybe was in the US Army (American based on how the houses look) Europe in 1918-19, was not able to bring a pair of US leggins with him or he lost his, and substituted the British leggins as his own. Or possibly the speedster toy in the photo is British, its a great design!

Most striking to me is he has this look in his eye, looking off in the distance, that the world is his oyster! I keep coming back and looking at it, and I wonder what hapend to him in life - what he did, where he served in the war, what happened to him... It was already a tumultuous time, even more so for a black man growing up in the 20's... I hope he did well, and that his progeny did well for themselves. With that positive look in his eyes, like he will take on all comers, I have no doubt he raised his future family right!

What fun that must have been!
Thanks for posting it.
Rich
PS, I'm pleased you are using that profile icon. I have a larger framed one in the workroom.

Great picture! How often did you see a pedel car with a spare mounted on the rear?

Dennis, the spare tire was the first thing that caught my eye as being unusual. I visited Speedway Motor's Museum of American Speed last week. They have a huge collection of pedal cars from all eras. The third floor is exclusively pedal cars and toys. I don't recall seeing any with spare tires.

Thats was real high dollar toy in the day. The family must have been very well off.