Old School

Walker - circa 1940

I remember these … well, I don’t remember using one, and I’ve never seen a picture of me in one, but I remember seeing them around the neighborhood when I was a kid.  I suppose they came in other colors too, but blue is the only color I remember.   Maybe only boys used them.

Yeh, only boys used them, only really tough boys.  This walker wasn’t for the timid kid, the sissy, the whiny little mama’s boy, let alone a soft little girl.  To use this walker, you had to be a boy’s boy, one destined for macho-hood, one who would grow to be a man’s man.

Walkers of this vintage were built like a tank, specially designed for the rough and tough toddler.  One size fit all, no adjustments; if your legs weren’t long enough to touch the ground, tough — learn to live with it.  Casters on all for wheels?   Nah!  Who needs ’em, leg muscles will develop better without them.  Bumper guards were only for looks, to make mom happy; they were worthless.  The bumper guards didn’t protect anything, least of all the passenger, but that’s what made you tough.  The wooden seat and the handle bar helped roughen the skin to toughen the lad for the real world.   Seat belts and helmets were not invented yet, and hard heads were better for it.  And, finally, no need for any attention-getting devices on the “dash”, like noise makers, clown faces, or musical shapes.  Colored beads were plenty.  Besides the tough little kid using this walker will be at the end of his drive way watching his big brother play ball in the street, not playing with the girly beads.

Thought for the Day:  When I was born the doctor came out to the waiting room and said to my father, “I’m very sorry.  We did everything we could … but he pulled through.”    Rodney Dangerfield