Bluerauder
06-12-2013, 04:16 PM
My two sons and I arrived early on Sunday morning on the showfield. We got there about 8:00 AM and took the opportunity to position the "Bluerauder" and the "SHOrauder" on the hill overlooking the lower field and take some beauty shots of the cars. Since we had plenty of time to kill and a wait before many of the others would start showing up, we decided to head over to Building "G" at Gate 1 to see the Hi-Po display cars. The Hi-Po was the high performance version of the 289 cid engine.
On the way to Gate 1, we decided to stroll through the vendor area and just check out stuff on the way. Plenty of car parts, grills, fenders, taillights, etc. for restoration projects. There was also an assortment of vendors selling licenses plates, plate frames, signs and model cars. Out of the corner of my eye I happened to see a guy selling toys ..... old toys so I walked over to get a closer view.
There on one of the tables was a toy that I had as a kid in about 1954-1955 when I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. It was a Hubley 3-Wheel Road Roller, diecast with steel wheels in perfect condition. A whole flood of memories came back over me that had been long gone from my memory. Even the color was right. My hand reached down instinctively to the lever steering that moved the small front wheels.
As I gushed over this long forgotten memory (I had a fancy for construction equipment even at that age), my sons just observed. However, the salesman came over after hearing me. The toy was priced at $90.00. He said he would let me have it for $80.00. After a moment of thought I passed on the deal. (I don't play on the floor much anymore and have trouble getting up when I do ;) ).
We left without the toy and eventually headed home before 11:30 AM. I related the story to my wife and was surprised that "in all the excitement", neither me or my son had remember to get pictures of this toy.
A 2-minute search on the Internet lead me to a collectible toys website and there it was again in all its glory. It was priced at $375.00. Color me embarrassed. :o Apparently, that $80.00 sticker was a very good deal. Oh well .... not sure what I would have done with it except put it on a shelf and relive my days in the dirt and the sand building roads for all of my toy cars.
Here's a pic of the roller from the website .....
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/gallery/data/500/medium/Hubley_3-wheel_roller_L-6520.jpg (http://www.mercurymarauder.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/22633/title/hubley-3-wheel-road-roller/cat/500)
On the way to Gate 1, we decided to stroll through the vendor area and just check out stuff on the way. Plenty of car parts, grills, fenders, taillights, etc. for restoration projects. There was also an assortment of vendors selling licenses plates, plate frames, signs and model cars. Out of the corner of my eye I happened to see a guy selling toys ..... old toys so I walked over to get a closer view.
There on one of the tables was a toy that I had as a kid in about 1954-1955 when I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. It was a Hubley 3-Wheel Road Roller, diecast with steel wheels in perfect condition. A whole flood of memories came back over me that had been long gone from my memory. Even the color was right. My hand reached down instinctively to the lever steering that moved the small front wheels.
As I gushed over this long forgotten memory (I had a fancy for construction equipment even at that age), my sons just observed. However, the salesman came over after hearing me. The toy was priced at $90.00. He said he would let me have it for $80.00. After a moment of thought I passed on the deal. (I don't play on the floor much anymore and have trouble getting up when I do ;) ).
We left without the toy and eventually headed home before 11:30 AM. I related the story to my wife and was surprised that "in all the excitement", neither me or my son had remember to get pictures of this toy.
A 2-minute search on the Internet lead me to a collectible toys website and there it was again in all its glory. It was priced at $375.00. Color me embarrassed. :o Apparently, that $80.00 sticker was a very good deal. Oh well .... not sure what I would have done with it except put it on a shelf and relive my days in the dirt and the sand building roads for all of my toy cars.
Here's a pic of the roller from the website .....
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/gallery/data/500/medium/Hubley_3-wheel_roller_L-6520.jpg (http://www.mercurymarauder.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/22633/title/hubley-3-wheel-road-roller/cat/500)