I'm envious of all the guys on the board old enough to have "been into them" at the time. I only knew the one that I had, but remember vividly the thing sitting on my dad's bench and all the grinding and welding going on. I had to have been about 8 at the time, give or take a year. Also remember putting MILES on it in an orchard that my dad's buddy lived next to in the country. They were converting my Dad's '48 Willys pickup into an Overland (SUV style) which involved shortening the frame, swapping bodies, etc. so I spent a lot of time riding in that orchard.
My dad mentioned on thanksgiving about the time I crashed it in the school parking lot and ground off half my face on the asphalt (yeah, that's what happened to my face LOL)
I was weaving at high speed and my dad kept telling me I was going to crash...and I did. Flew over the handlebars and landed on my face.