the bogey

Only people of a certain age will know what a bogey is. I’m not talking about something nasty that lives up your nose. I’m talking about one of the best possessions a 1950/60s boy could have. A bogey was a hand-made, four-wheeled cart. The base was usually a few planks of wood nailed together, mounted on four old pram wheels. It was narrower at the front to take an axle that pivoted in the middle. You placed your feet on the axle and steered with them. There was usually a loop of rope attached to it for you to hang on to. You really needed two people to use it. One sat at the front steering and the other ran at the back pushing you as fast as he could. When you got a decent speed up, the lad at the back jumped on too and enjoyed the ride.

Well I never had my own but my best friend Barry turned up one day with one. I think he bought it from a school pal for 2/6d (12.5p in today’s money). Boy, did we have some fun with that thing. We built a chicane at the end of the front path using concrete building blocks. It was positioned to take us around the corner and onto a rough stony road that led downhill to the main road at the bottom. We took it in turns to push or steer. The game was to try to get as much speed as possible, steer through the chicane without hitting it and then hurtle towards the main road at break-neck speed. At the latest moment, the driver had to avoid running onto it and being crushed by a passing vehicle by turning the axle sharply, putting the bogey into a sideways skid until it finally stopped.

The aim was to get as close to the road as possible. Often we’d miss the corner and fall headlong into a patch of nettles. Many times, after achieving top speed, the sideways skid would throw us off and onto the gravelly side road to shred a few layers of skin from our legs and arms. Health and safety – thankfully it hadn’t been invented.

We buckled quite a few wheels but usually found another pair and nailed them in place. Barry decided one day to build a small trailer to attach to the back. We hooked it up and invited all the neighbouring kids to pile onto it. I think we got about a dozen on before all the wheels collapsed under the weight. It was too large a task to find enough replacement wheels so I think the bogey was swapped for something like a few plastic soldiers or a bag of conkers.