The kids in our neighborhood never had the financial ability to build a derby racer. We did however opt for a little vehicle that was known as a "chuggy." A trip over to the dumps on Paterson Avenue in Hamilton would find us looking on the huge pile of garbage for a discarded baby carriage or any other portable vehicle that had 4 wheels. We usually came up with 4 baby carriage wheels. Then it was back to Don Slabicki's cellar where there were tools that allowed us to nail the real axle to a good wide piece of scrap lumber. Then to the front we nailed the axle to a 2 x 4 of the proper length, drilled a hole in it and with 3 washers separating the 2 x4 and the scrap lumber board, we bolted the thing on, giving us a built in power steering axle.A rope tied to each end of the steering 2 x4 and the driver holding the looped rope, gave us a chuggy that saw many hours rolling down the hills of Hartley or Sylvan Avenue, and of course the hill at Kuser Farm which we used for sledding in the winter and chuggying in the warmer months. Once we got a reliable racer, it was then that we gave it a basket with two soup cans for headlights and a piece of 1/2 inch wire mesh for a grill.
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