1 of 1

Write now Article Tools

I grew up in a trailer house on 20 acres. Translation: lots of room to play outside, very little inside. During the warm months I led the sort of existence every hyperactive kid wants...I had numerous dogs to play with, a pony, and all sorts of simple outdoor toys, namely my little red wagon.

The Radio Flyer wagon is basically a metal box with sides approximately three or four inches high set on metal wheels with thin rubber for tires and a metal handle for pulling. There are also ones out there with plastic wheels instead of metal, which are cheaper but much less durable. All the metal has been rolled under so there are no sharp edges, only rounded ones throughout.

Even on uneven ground (the 20 acres used to be an alfalfa field before we stuck a trailer on it) the wagon rolls well. I had a blast pulling around various dogs, the neighbor's grandson, and hauling scrap lumber off into a stand of young cottonwoods for my fort...I even braided myself a long rope out of bailing twine that I could loop around a tree and pull myself in my wagon. Then I discovered books on sled dogs. From then on I was hitching various coonhounds and retrievers to the front of my wagon and making them pull me...or, that was the plan, more often than not they jerked forward so fast I was thrown off the back and the victimized dog went charging away, my wagon bouncing along behind, not necessarily upright. Then I discovered the proper way to train sled dogs, and the wagon eventually had to put up with an 80-pound kid riding and four dogs pulling at breakneck speeds over furrowed ground, then over gravel road.

Despite this extremely rough treatment my first Radio Flyer lasted a good four years, and would have lasted beyond that if my dad hadn't run it over on accident. For my second wagon my parents decided that perhaps they'd try to save some money and bought me a "Flexible Flyer" wagon, which is basically the large discount-store knockoff of Radio Flyer, but with plastic wheels and a plastic handle. That wagon lasted two weeks. Finally they caved in and bought me another Radio Flyer which, though more expensive, still ends up cheaper in the long run...I didn't have to buy another wagon until seven years later, when it was up to me to buy the wagon since I had a paper route.

That was a long time ago. My best dog that got actual sled dog training is now 15 years old, the only other dog that'd survived that long from the original bunch died last winter, a full brother to the 15-year-old I

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Product reviews: Radio Flyer wagons?
We want to hear your view. Write now!