In the winter, I’d skittch to school on the bumper of a Chevy (or any car)... and I survived. Some days there were more kids hooked on the rear bumper of the school bus than there were IN the school bus. Of course the girls would be pressed against the back window/door cheering us on, or maybe wagering which of us would nose dive first... The driver just plugged along. If you fell off cuz he hit a dry spot or pot hole, you got up, spit out the snow and ran after the bus like a piglet looking for a nipple in the crowd.
It was great!
When my kids were in grade school, I was telling them this story. It came about as a topic of discussion as I made mention that the new cars had so much plastic, I don’t think you could skitch on them without the bumpers falling off.
Remarkably, they had no idea what skitching was. Well..... A few days later, at about 8pm, I got em all in the Bronco (with a real bumper), drove down to the end of my street, and showed em how to “hook” under the bumper. Up and down the block we went, until a few other kids saw us, then we had 3 more on the back.
I warned em, that if they fell off, I wasn’t stopping. I didn’t either, and they fell off, and tarnished and bruised, but laughing all the way, they chased after the Bronco (doing maybe 5 miles an hour) to “hook” on.
My kids still relate that story at Holiday time and we all get a wide grin (except for mom of course).
In the winter time we used to go down to the local body shop and see if they had any old car hoods or trunk decks they were going to throw away. We’d get one and pull it behind a pickup like a sled. A trunk deck from a Buick deuce and a quarter would haul 4 guys. Had to watch out for those little bridge abutments buried in the side ditch though.
We played in the city side streets. Almost all of my gang got at least bumped by cars.
Dad brought home some mercury. It was fun to roll it around in our hands.
The reward for raking fall leaves was burning them at the curb.