This site is about the McGrail farm at 19 Lyman Road Berlin Massachusetts.

Bedtime Story No. 3

Scat Cars, Tricycles, Ranch Tracs and Pedal Cars
One of the things I remember very fondly about so many weekend afternoons at the Farm was playing with the various tricycles, bikes, pedal cars, baby carriages and other wheeled contraptions that abounded there.

First of all, there was my beloved Fire Chief car. Actually, there were two of these, one owned by myself, and a newer, slightly different model, owned by my brother Eamonn. My car was given to me as a Christmas gift in 1959 by my cousin, John Mullen. I was less than a month shy of my third birthday. It had a white steering wheel, a bell with a string, a "windshield" with no glass, about 6 inches high, a seat with a pad, and rubber pedals. It even had a dashboard, on which I drew a speedometer (reading 30 mph) and a gas gauge (reading about 1/2 full). These details I had noticed by riding in my dad's car and Gramp's car.

I considered the Fire Chief car to be "my car" and I remember pedaling it around the circular driveway.

My brothers John and Mike had a different kind of pedal car, a stripped down model that was actually easier to ride--a "Scat Car". There were two Scat Cars, and they were just a basic frame with a seat and pedals, but the Scat Cars were somewhat more versatile and you could steer better. My brother Matt especially enjoyed it when I pushed him around in one of the Scat Cars.

Later, we got tricycles, and my memory is that there were a number of these. First, there was an old, brown one, with a leather seat and springs. It was rather small. Then, one day, we got two new red tricycles from Spag's in Worcester. I liked these trikes a lot. I still remember the seriousness about the games we played with them. Once, John pretended to be a customer at a used car dealership, with Mike as the dealer. I remember John saying "This is a good car." as he pedaled away. Wow, how seriously we understood ourselves then!

A feature that fascinated me about tricylces was the step that was across the back axle. Theoretically, this could be used to carry a standing passenger, and we often did just that. You could also grab the handlebars and ride on the step, propelling yourself by kicking.

One thing I didn't have, but my brother Dan had was a "Ranch-Trac". These were highly desirable toy tractors, with a chain drive to the rear wheels. You sat up high, and the proportions were a correct scale to a farm tractor. Therefore, if you had one, you could use it over various terrain, not just pavement, and the wheels had good traction. My cousin Shawna's brother Jeff had one, and I think that's the one that ended up at the Farm at some point.

Being the oldest in the family, I got the first "2-wheeler" in 1963, when I was 6. It was a beautiful Rollfast coaster brake bicycle with training wheels. It was aquamarine in color, with white trim and handlebars, and streamers coming out of the handlegrips, and I was overwhelmed on Christmas at the Farm, when my grandfather, John P. McGrail rolled it into the living room for me (big front room of Farm).

That bicycle never left the farm. I learned to ride without the training wheels very quickly. My sister Mary had a beautiful new red Schwinn, and I got a used Columbia bike from my mother. I even put a speedometer on it!

When I was 12 years old, I decided one summer day to make the daring attempt to visit the Farm by myself from our house on Prescott St. in Clinton. I remember the glorious moment in 1969 when I rolled up to the circular driveway under my own steam--I had broken a barrier, become one step more independent of my parents. By the way, my speedometer said that the journey was 3.9 miles...seemed longer than that!

Gradually, my younger brothers and sisters used the tricycles and bikes as I and John and Mike grew out of them. But the trikes and the bikes remained in the garage at the Farm until the sale of the property in 1988. We also played with various baby carriages, and these were a lot of fun. You put a younger brother, preferably Matt, into it and pushed it at inadvisable speeds around the driveway.

I still love to ride my bicycle now, and it puts me in the spirit of "living for the moment" that I knew when I was younger.

James A. McGrail
copyright 2005
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