"Old Toys" or "Life Before Everything Became Too Dangerous to Play With" (1 Viewer)

[guidomerkinsrules]

My childhood was similar. However the lawn darts we loved. Put one ring in the front yard, one in the back and throw them over the house. Maybe not the smartest thing we ever did

one would hope

 

[0rion]

Still sell caps.....keep my kids supplied with them all summer. 2 older kids are kinda over them but the 6 yr old still gets them. Couple years ago my oldest was about 13 and I was in the garage cleaning my muzzle loader. He saw my primer cap and asked if it was like a cap gun cap. I said sorta.....so he asked if he could smack it with a hammer. I said sure and made him put on some safety glasses. Not sure if you've ever hit a 209 primer with a hammer but in hind sight I should've added ear plugs for both of us haha
The other really smart thing I did was he asked if black powder would explode if you lit it on fire. After explaning it had to be compressed I figured the easy way was to just show him. Poured us a little line in garage floor and lit it. I opened the garage door but it still took a half hour for all the smoke to clear haha

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Wow do you remember the WristRocket?

Got mine at Oshmans Sporting goods.

I would buy the steel marbles (we called em "steelies" when playing marbles) and shoot at doves on the electcial wires behind my home.

Never hit one... Ever.. Nor did I ever give a thought to where those steelies landed. Sigh.

my granddad did NOT like turtles in his pond/lake
he'd let me sit out on the pier with one of those heavy duty slingshot/wrist launchers for hours trying to knock turtles off the stumps

 

[SystemShock]

Sling shots, petards (the old kind, the ones that could make pretty metal flowers out of trash cans), and click clacks, the ones that doubled as gaucho bolas.

 

[Bill]

my granddad did NOT like turtles in his pond/lake
he'd let me sit out on the pier with one of those heavy duty slingshot/wrist launchers for hours trying to knock turtles off the stumps

I can only imagine how many steel balls/BBs are at the bottom of that pond now.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

I can only imagine how many steel balls/BBs are at the bottom of that pond now.

All of them

 

[DadsDream]

Neighborhood vs neighborhood corn stalk wars. After the harvest, pulling up a cornstalk gives you a 3-foot stick with a 1 pound dirt clod on the end of it.
We'd pull them up and sling them at each other and the dirt would explode on impact when it hit like a WWII German potato masher grenade.
After that, we'd pick up the stalks and use them like swords. With garbage can lids as shields, we were knights of the middle ages!
The farmer was somebody's uncle or grandpa. He'd sit in a lawn chair with a beer and enjoy the carnage, then plow the field under afterward.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Neighborhood vs neighborhood corn stalk wars. After the harvest, pulling up a cornstalk gives you a 3-foot stick with a 1 pound dirt clod on the end of it.
We'd pull them up and sling them at each other and the dirt would explode on impact when it hit like a WWII German potato masher grenade.
After that, we'd pick up the stalks and use them like swords. With garbage can lids as shields, we were knights of the middle ages!
The farmer was somebody's uncle or grandpa. He'd sit in a lawn chair with a beer and enjoy the carnage, then plow the field under afterward.

I’m sure grandma liked that

 

[gboudx]

I haven't used the term "steelies" in decades.

I believe they were the most valuable currency of the various marble values (of course, bigger is better).

Props to you, sir.

My dad worked at the Alliance refinery in Plaquemines Parish. He gave me ball bearings from the refinery. They were the size of golf balls and crushed glass marbles on dropsies.

 

[SystemShock]

Neighborhood vs neighborhood corn stalk wars. After the harvest, pulling up a cornstalk gives you a 3-foot stick with a 1 pound dirt clod on the end of it.
We'd pull them up and sling them at each other and the dirt would explode on impact when it hit like a WWII German potato masher grenade.
After that, we'd pick up the stalks and use them like swords. With garbage can lids as shields, we were knights of the middle ages!
The farmer was somebody's uncle or grandpa. He'd sit in a lawn chair with a beer and enjoy the carnage, then plow the field under afterward.

Fun times!

You story reminded me of an old photo floating around, allegedly the aftermath of a snow ball fight.

 

[0rion]

When I was a kid me and my older brother pretty much stayed in trouble but a different trouble than kids now get in. Most we ever got was lit up by dad although I did have to see the truant officer once and I was beyond terrified. I still remember that ride to the court house with Mom and her telling me there was nothing she could do to help me. I wasn't really in trouble for that one....I was just with the guys that were. Still though.....thought I was headed to the "boys home" over that one.

 

[dtc]

Dude, don't make me start worrying about you.

I was as bad as bad gets evidently. Some of the stuff I did growing up and even into my 20s leaves me surprised I'm alive and ambulatory, but to me it all seemed normal. The folks I gravitated to or who gravitated to me were evidently all nuts.

I'll never forget my freshman year in college talking to my new friends up north. As we were all sitting around, drinking, hanging out and telling stories I'd find myself saying something like "oh, yeah, One time we were racing across this bridge hanging out the sunroofs of cars and having fire extinguisher fights ......." and I'd see the looks on these kids' faces who couldn't tell if I was full of it or just nuts.

 

[Brad Mojo]

They could still do it, but I don't think kids play bottle rocket war anymore. Or maybe my kids hang with the wrong crowd.

Oh yeah, good times. In the unlikely event we would actually hit each other with one, there was a 99% chance of it just bouncing off with the explosion doing no damage.

Then there was this one time (one in a million shot I tell ya) that one flew right into the half unzipped jacket of my adversary. The jacket kept the rocket pinned against his torso until detonation and actually intensified the explosion against his body.

 

[Brad Mojo]

I remember when trampolines didn't have the nets around them that lull parent's into a false sense of security. Back then, if you hadn't broken your arm on a trampoline then at least you had a friend that had broken their arm on a trampoline.

AND THAT'S HOW KIDS KNEW TO BE CAREFUL ON TRAMPOLINES.

 

[Consigliere]

Jet Skis (real ones - so you can stand, and so you fall if you turn too fast, which was the whole point).

Bottle Rockets (that shoot and then explode- so you can have a war).

Trampoline w/o Net (so you can pull it up to a basketball goal of course).