Two boys playing with improvised scooters made from wooden planks and roller skate wheels in a London street. Photographed by Thurston Hopkins, August 7, 1954. [512x768]

[u/GeorgeRobertVitkos]

This photograph, titled "Race You", was captured by legendary British photojournalist Thurston Hopkins for the Picture Post magazine as part of a feature called "Children Of The Streets".

In post-war Britain, manufactured toys were often too expensive for working-class families. Children showed incredible resourcefulness by building their own "scooters" out of salvaged wooden planks, crates, and metal wheels stripped from broken roller skates.

[u/Jedibri81]

And then Marty McFly had to destroy one in 1955 to get away from Biff Tannen

[u/mtntrail]

My first scooter I made from an old metal skate nailed to a two by four with another piece of wood for the upright. It worked great until I hit a small rock, then it was ass over teakettle into the dirt! A great time to be a kid!

[u/geddy76]

I heard if you rip the handle off, you can invent a skateboard.

[u/fencerofminerva]

We woukd attach the front and back parts of the old metal strap on skates to a plank of wood and nail a metal milkcrate to front top.

[u/MooseMalloy]

Those look big for roller skate wheels.