Ice was still delivered to homes until well after WWII ended. People used to put little signs in their front windows to indicate how much they needed. In the summer the boys on the block used to wait for the ice truck to pull up; and when the man was delivering his frosty product, we would hop in the back, grab a few slivers then high-tail it to the corner before the man returned from making the delivery, and then sit on the curb in front of the corner grocer’s to enjoy this free treat. When he chased us away, we moved to the other corner were the drug store was located. We used the same curbs to eat watermelon, if we were lucky enough to get a slice, and see how far we could spit the seeds. Around Halloween, even though the cement was cold, we plopped ourselves down to eat pomegranates because our mom’s didn’t want us getting the red stuff all over the house,

We watched the produce hucksters make their rounds and the fish peddlers too; even the fresh horseradish man came around periodically. The Italian water ice cart and the ice cream truck rolled by every warm afternoon. And the hand-powered merry-go-round stopped at the corner, and a little old organ grinder with his monkey came by every couple of weeks. Once in a while a man showed up with a pony. He stopped showing up after realizing no one wanted to pay a nickel to sit on the moth-eaten animal or shell out a quarter to have a picture taken with the steed.

This wasn’t the end of the procession. The big department stores were downtown. They delivered, since the mothers couldn’t carry much home on public transportation. Each store had its own trucks and delivered on different days of the week. Plus, there were the debit insurance representatives that collected weekly along with the morning and evening newspaper boys and the people selling everything from brushes to vacuum cleaners to encyclopedias all making their way from house to house. It was a captive market, since most moms stayed home; but I don’t know how well they responded to the sales pitches.

Money was tight until late in the 1940s when the economy opened up, new cars became available, television came on the scene, suburban branches of the downtown stores began to appear in newly constructed shopping centers. That’s when American’s started to spend. And we haven’t stopped; there were a few slow-downs along the way but we always came back and bought more. For years we jumped into our cars, fought the traffic in search of the places that carried the things we want to buy, loaded up the trunk or the cargo area, and took our treasures home. Now, we go online, order whatever we need, and have it delivered. It’s convenient and efficient; but for this pre-boomer, it’s a long way from the ongoing activities and interactions that once took place on one little street in Northeast Philadelphia when I was a kid.

Don Potter, a Philadelphia native, was born in 1936 and is a 50 year veteran of the advertising agency business. Now living in Los Angeles, he has written two novels in retirement, frequently writes on marketing issues, and has a blog dedicated to pre-boomers (those born between 1930 and 1945).

Read more articles for and about pre-boomers with thoughts, comments and opinions designed to spark thinking, foster discussion, and stimulate debate by logging on to http://www.pre-boomermusings.com

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You can’t hold an RC monster truck rally without an obstacle course of some kind, can you? Why not make a complete project out of your neighborhood monster truck show?

First draw your layout on paper so you know the exact dimensions and look of your finished course. Select an area for the course, and mark it off with flags or string so you know where the boundaries are.

Bring in the radio control excavators. Remove the sod, and haul it away in the dump trucks. Dig the dirt from your course area to form the shape where you’ll place the jumping hills, mud bogs, and target vehicles for the monster trucks to attack. Using the loaders pile the dirt just to the side of your layout so it’s handy. You’ll use that dirt to make your dirt mounds for truck jumping and climbing.

Using the loaders and graders level the area roughly. You won’t want a perfectly smooth surface for this event.

Now it’s time to detail each feature (where each hill goes, the location of the mud bogs, and the position of the vehicles your monster trucks will crush and jump. Use the graders, excavators, and loaders for this operation.

Excavate the dirt to form a pit for the mud bog. Later you’ll fill this with water and make the mud with loose dirt carried back to it with the loaders.

Have the loader operators haul dirt to the hill sites, and start your piles. Fire up the RC crane, and build your hills to your desired height.

The final step here (not necessarily last on your list) is transporting and positioning the vehicles with the loaders.

Upon completion of your remote control monster truck obstacle course you’re ready to hold your big rally.

Let the neighborhood kids know when the big event will happen. Put signs in your yard to inform everyone. Invite all the monster truck owners you know, and challenge them to radio control competitions on your course.

Schedule an all-day neighborhood event with pitch-in cookout and remote control fun. It’s a great way to meet new friends and refresh old friendships.

And the kids will have a fun day too.

Joseph Jackson provides information for learning and pleasure to help improve his reader’s quality of life.

He also searches for, and makes available, products that improve the enjoyment of his playtime activities.

For more stuff on radio control construction equipment visit Joe’s remote control construction website.

Visit radio control trucks for a selection of RC trucks for kids of all ages.

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Design a backyard layout for remote control monster trucks that doesn’t require you to smash cars and other vehicles. Build a layout of “mountains,” and rock piles for RC trucks to climb.

For this radio control project invite local remote control construction and monster truck enthusiasts to help you beginning with creation of the layout blueprints, all the way through planning, and staging, the big event.

Consider the different scale models, and their climbing capabilities, when you start your initial design. Talk with the RC monster truck hobbyists about how steep a grade their different vehicles can negotiate. Include enough hills in your blueprints to schedule hill-climbing activities for every size truck.

Do the same for the rock piles you create. Using rocks sized according to what each different scale of truck can conquer, figure the number of piles you need to have climbing action for every size truck.

Once your blueprints are complete invite the remote control construction equipment operators in to build your RC project.

Since this is a rough terrain layout you won’t need any leveling efforts. Use the excavators to fill the radio control dump trucks with dirt, and haul the dirt to the “mountain” sites.

Start building the hills using the RC front loaders. Once the hill is too high for the loaders to reach the top employ the cranes, and finish the job of depositing the dirt until you reach the desired height. Pack the dirt tight, and scrape the side of your mountain to achieve the steepness level grade you’re blueprint requires. The excavators will perform most of this grade-shaping task.

Using the cranes load the rocks into the dump trucks, and haul them to their pile locations. With the front loaders and cranes build each rock pile to the difficulty level designed for each scale model remote control.

Now you’re ready to schedule that RC rock and hill-climbing event.

Decide on a date for the monster truck climb, and send out invitations to the local RC clubs. Include a menu of the radio control activities you’ll hold, the scale of the models you designed each activity for, and invite them to bring their monster trucks, and participate in the festivities.

Make sure you invite the neighborhood kids. They won’t want to miss this remote control monster truck fun.

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