Just the other summer, I saw a small group of kids out with their pushmobiles. Parents were standing by, rather proudly, as the kids all got down to business. It would be great to see more of this in our communities.
The Kid’s Latest Thriller — Pushmobile
Denver, Col., Aug. 15. — Ever ride in a pushmobile?
Ever race in one?
No? Well, it’s certain all the boys in our block her, or would like to.
Denver kids are crazy about them and have just had a series of races that made the whole city talk.
The principal thing about a push mobile is that it must look like an auto. But it’s pushed by a boy who runs along behind while another fellow steers.
The races here were conducted by the Express, Denver’s lively evening newspaper. The celebration started with a parade one day, eight blocks long, led by a band and the mayor in an auto through the main streets of Denver. Next day the races were held at a big amusement park with 230 cars entered.
Every car was home made — some with baby cab and bicycle wheels. Many of the boys wore full racing togs — close fitting skull caps and goggles — just like the big auto racers, you know.
The small speeders were divided into classes according to the age of the pusher. Handsome prizes were presented the teams of the first three cars in each class.
It took most of the morning to run off the preliminaries. In the afternoon the finales developed fast racing and much fun for a crowd of 20,000 people.
None of the boys entered were over 15. Most of them were much younger. John Creed, a five-year-old, so small he could hardly reach up to his steering wheel, guided his car to victory in both preliminaries and finals. He proudly carried home a gold watch.
Mayor Arnold became so excited over the contests that he entered one of them with a boy’s cap on his head and tooting a toy horn. The best he could finish was a bad last!
Source: The Day Book (Chicago, Illinois newspaper). August 15, 1912.
