Remember this stuff? It contained polyvinyl acetate dissolved in acetone, with ethyl acetate plastic fortifiers. I can't even put that stuff in my lab without a whole book of MSDS.
Posted on 08/15/2014 9:54:14 AM PDT by Drew68
Across the street from my high-school some enterprising guy cut a drive-thru style window into the side of his house and sold hoagies during the lunch hour. I personally found his wares greasy and disgusting, but most kids preferred them to the school lunch.
those type of toys, usually in the 70s, were made in Hong Kong or Japan. And back then, those two cities couldn’t build anything but crap.
most toys like that helicopter, or race tracks lasted a month at best.
bttt
About 45 years too late for me, but that is cool.
I have fond memories of Jarts, and the family set was still around long after most people - excuse the pun - tossed them out (though the "target" rings had long since been punctured into oblivion). We had a brief interlude during which my friends and I heaved Jarts over the house until my dad saw it and blew his stack. I don't think he would have considered me or any of my friends any great loss, but he was not about to repair the shingles if a Jart fell short.
As for seat belts, one of my earliest memories is standing in the center of the front seat of a '58 Dodge convertible, trying to brace myself by grabbing the top of the windshield frame while my mom was driving frighteningly fast down a hilly rural gravel road. High speed and loose gravel combined with a wallowing, steel-dashboarded, bias-ply tired convertible with no seat belts… what a recipe.
Semi-lethal playgrounds? Oh yeah! I got my first serious injury thanks to a steel merry-go-round whose centrifugal force shot me head-first into a nearby post. I used to have traces of that incident on my skull, but lost track of them as other things knocked me silly. Those industrial-grade, steel diamond plate merry-go-rounds bit me more often than any other piece of playground equipment, although unoccupied swing seats with lots of momentum weren't far behind… always with the corner or the attaching hardware making contact.
Regarding the photo in #5, all I can say is that in my small-town Iowa of the '60's and early '70's, I can't remember anyone's mom out on the sidewalk in short shorts and heels; given the cast of candidates, I don't think anyone would have wanted to see such a thing, either.
Mr. niteowl77
Remember this stuff? It contained polyvinyl acetate dissolved in acetone, with ethyl acetate plastic fortifiers. I can't even put that stuff in my lab without a whole book of MSDS.
The worst merry-go-rounds weren’t the metal ones, they were the ones made of wood with just the bars made of metal. You’d slide on those and end up with wood slivers stuck in your legs and backside, cuz they only repainted them once a decade.
Yeah, no hobby shops any more. You have to go to A.C. Moore for that stuff now.
I remember eating school cafeteria pizza that was so greasy, that you could literally squeeze a pint of oil out of every slice. But you could always wash that down with those little half pint cartons of milk. I still wonder how I managed to survive the 70’s as a kid. BB guns, big wheels, and BMX bikes, that’s how we rolled.
Yeah, I think you are better off skipping the toy stores altogether nowadays. Go to a hobby store, or better yet, find some retro toys at a collectible shop or on ebay, if you have the money to burn.
My son was equally disappointed he could not find anything worthy of stimulating creativity..and he’s an artist ta boot!
His solution...he went to Amazon and other used merchandise sites and found those items he once enjoyed...many in perfect shape. Actually found the chemistry set he had as a child in mint condition. Same with books etc.
Um... yeah, my first thought.
I remember my parents going out for the day ans leaving us money to go to McDonald's or wherever on our bikes. If we could get others to chip in we would go get pizza.
Ah, metal garbage cans. You could take the lid off and use it as a shield when you had stick fights.
Preach it.
putting nine volt batteries on the tounge....
We also used to drag match box cars behind the station wagon hanging out the the back window with kite string on roadtrips. Always awesome when one fell off.
And when you were done with your soda, throw the can out the window at the car behind you.
Those are available again. Granddaughter had several tubes last weekend. I love them.
That is a thing of beauty.
We used running chainsaws and called them Charts.
Those wonderful lazy summer days...
Momma would usher us out the door by 7am and we’d hear the lock click as we headed off. Sometimes, around mid-day we would come back looking for some food. The kitchen window would open up and out flew a box of saltines and a finger pointing to the spigot. :-)
Six of us kids in the family. We had our own filing cabinet down at the hospital. Stitches? Just another day in kid paradise...
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