Things that kids today will never know.

[NCFubar]

 

[Snoopz]

8-track! I remember open reels.

8- Track's wore out many of them, playing the same song over and over.
Panasonic made a recorder for them back then.

Cassettes...oh yeah, Still have My Nakamichi Dragon, 680ZX, Pioneer Deck
Open Reels...Reel to Reels? Still have them also Tascam, Teac, Revox 10" Reels

How's about this tapes of the month program (club), albums on 7" reels buy 5
get 5 free when you join.

Old "Mad" magazines. Spy vs. Spy

and a "timing light" to set your timing, manual steering, manual brakes (pump the H out of them)
or be like the Flintstones put you feet through the floor. feeler gaugers, adjust solid lifters, points,
spark plug gap, Actually raise the hood and there was nothing but motor, Take your car in for a
tune-up, mechanic "listened to the engine" could tell you what was wrong, no data port back then

-Snoopz

 

[Snoopz]

Remember when banks were only open a half day on Wednesdays
Watching the greyhound races on Saturday night TV

Mom was a bank manager back then.no Saturdays and closed the branch at 2pm
friday was till 8pm.
Saturday TV... oh my.. Wrestling ..Jimmie Super Fly, Hacksaw Jim, Andre the giant.
Roller Derby..Kansas city bombers and others
Japanese Scifi Movies old Godziila movies Godzilla vs. (everything)

 

[blue eye]

did you ever get a 6 oz. coke out of chest cooler, on the bottoms were places where bottle was made, whoever had the bottle farthest away got your paid for by the other person pulling against you .05 cents. i saw many glass bottle drinks that would have a dead mouse, or a empty, cheese crackers, peanut packs people would put in empty bottles, and not got washed out, hard telling what else might have been in bottles. i grew up close to a quarry, had free run of place when not working, had sand piles higher than telephone poles take a leap, land knee deep in sand just a few feet from hard ground, we didnt bother anything, it was a long walk up from bottom of pit, and a fast scary ride on bicycle going down

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

My...my...a destructive bunch we have here...

Oh, you have NO idea.

I once blew up the 55 gallon burn barrel with gunpowder I made myself, packed into a Coke can (the old fashioned Coke cans...back in the 60s when they actually had pull tabs on them).

"Oh, gee, Chief! ANYBODY could have done that!"

Really? Before they had started kindergarten? I'd like to shake their hand!


Oh, yeah...I was a real pyromaniac when I was little. Probably the reason why Mom's nose was ultra-sensitive to any burning smells or weird chemical smells as I was growing up. (Well...any burning smells not related to her carbonizing the green beans on the stove, that is.)

Yeah...I have brothers 8, 13, and 15 years older than me. I was reading college chemistry books in grade school. Which is where I discovered "thermite", by the way, which immediately grabbed my naive attention. Good thing the ignition setup I devised involved some distance between me and it when I set it off. Turns out that a great many things around the house, including my own toys, could be used to make aaaaallllll kinds of stuff. Etch-A-Sketch, by the way, is filled with aluminum powder.

Turns out that hydrogen/oxygen filled balloons (common chemicals to make, again) will do an awesome job of clearing snow in the driveway. They also make for some extra work trying to fix all the broken glass in the big garage door before Dad got home.

Looking back, and listening to my older brothers, it's a frickin' miracle I survived my childhood. And not just from the dangers of what I was doing, but from Dad. Like the time I blew up the trash barrel before kindergarten? I don't have any memory of the event, outside my family telling the story. One of my older brothers once said "Yeah, well if I had my *ss beat like Dad beat yours, I wouldn't remember a thing either!"

I didn't need the internet back then...I had a LIBRARY CARD and an appetite for reading!

 

[Carolinatlc]

Not only that, but the heiress of the Lance empire is married to NC's most famous pro fishermen, Hank Parker.

I went to school with his kids. Hank Jr was a year behind me. Only kid with a new Mustang GT and unlimited tire budget. I'd light up the tires for a couple seconds in my sweet Honda Accord and Hank Jr. would fill the parking lot with smoke burning through a new set of tires. Fun times.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Remember clackers?

Nobody I knew who had one (myself included) wasn't sporting some awesome bruises on their forearms from these torture devices!

I found some several years ago at a flea market while I was in San Diego for an engineering support job. Bought several...and still have at least one around somewhere.

Clackers - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[yard mongrel]

I went to school with his kids. Hank Jr was a year behind me. Only kid with a new Mustang GT and unlimited tire budget. I'd light up the tires for a couple seconds in my sweet Honda Accord and Hank Jr. would fill the parking lot with smoke burning through a new set of tires. Fun times.

I was playing spin the bottle somewhere and Lucy was in the circle being the extent of my experience.

 

[ronn47]

One of my older brothers once said "Yeah, well if I had my *ss beat like Dad beat yours, I wouldn't remember a thing either!"

Chief,
Thanks, that is the funniest thing I've read all day.

 

[Snoopz]

In High school 12th grade, our principle had a VW Beetle. the side where they
parked was a few class rooms, and the lockers. Well we came up with a plan
there was double doors, and we could take the center support out, so we pushed
his beetle into the school next to the lockers and put the center support back. Now
that was fun. Then there was a Art teacher he would "snitch" anybody out, so he had
a video showing lites out we took a pack a firecrackers and slid them under the door
luckly there were no cameras back then..firecrackers went off heard all this screaming
priceless... he was blaming eveyone... no one caught. The VW thing the principle was
cool and came across the intercom the next morning, Whoever moved my car I needed
a good laugh yesterday.

shop classes, carpentery class was cutting through the wall between the drafting class / electronics
class so you didn't have to go all the way around, only problem when sawing they never checked
for wires..let alone turn the breakers off, luckly no one got hurt but the "sparkler show" was awesome.

plumbing class was making things to smoke your weed, machine shop was making "pipes"
a creative bunch...also

-Snoopz

 

[Car0linab0y]

Similar to the vw beetle we put a Honda civic in the library... up on trash cans under the frame. Rolled it down the av cart ramp; library was a sunken square in the center of the main building. Maintenance took the door post out just at the end of school; mandatory staff meeting. We were gone; the maintenance guys put the post back and left for the night before the car was noticed. Sure glad no cameras for that one...

 

[pee wee]

We would take used up CO2 cannisters from the bb guns and cut the top off, fill with FFF black powder, green fuse and make baby grenades. Light the fuse and haul tail. Sometimes we would tape pennies or nails or whatever on them to make a frag.

One night we got bored and just took a whole can of black powder, stuck a fuse in it, put in the center of the 5 way intersection and hauled to the tree line. Beautiful mushroom cloud and LOUD. I bet all the lights in the neighborhood came on. We sat back and tried to find out what to get into next................................

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

We would take used up CO2 cannisters from the bb guns and cut the top off, fill with FFF black powder, green fuse and make baby grenades. Light the fuse and haul tail. Sometimes we would tape pennies or nails or whatever on them to make a frag.

One night we got bored and just took a whole can of black powder, stuck a fuse in it, put in the center of the 5 way intersection and hauled to the tree line. Beautiful mushroom cloud and LOUD. I bet all the lights in the neighborhood came on. We sat back and tried to find out what to get into next................................

That same CO2 cylinder in the center of six butane refill cylinders securely taped together in a nice bundle with glass tape and tossed off a bridge at night over a river will make a GLORIOUS yellow-orange fireball about 50 feet in diameter.

 

[Get Off My Lawn]

See here, this thread is a prime example of why my hesitantly say, "I'm glad you found your people".
I've done so many of these things, where were yall in my yout?
Estes D motors taped to a straight piece of coat hanger- use GOOD tape or the motor will rip from the wire and do a 15' spiral coming straight to you with that M80 on top.
CO2 cartridge filled with Black Cat powder will toss a dumped dishwasher airborne.
Found an old school auger hand drill with a bit the same size as a 12 ga shell. Decided I'd try to drop a tree by inserting it in the tree and using the primer as a target of my BB gun. Scared the crap out of me when I finally hit me mark. The shell screamed past my face by a couple inches.
Auto shop class- a buddy modified his 3 on the tree pickup with a single exhaust pointing to the right. He drilled a hole in the top of the air cleaner, stuck the washer fluid line in ending just above the carburetor, then filled the reservoir with diesel. Tested it in the shop, instant black cloud, that was the only time we heard the shop teacher cussing. Pedestrians were now targets, downshift, hit the button and gas, they looked like they were inked.
Oxy-Acetlyne balloons blowing out windows. Freaking out folks by not telling them I'd filled 1 gal solvent cans with Oxy-Acetlyne, then pressing a tack nail into the hollow point of a 22 & letting them shoot.
So many stories where I should be dead or missing parts. My brothers love to tell my sons about, "the time your dad ...".

 

[Mr. Bggs]

We used to love the old co² bombs. We had a literal blast with them until we showed my girlfriend's brother and he put one in a lawn mower engine.

He caught a piece of shrapnel in his chest about 3" from his heart. That's when it got real to us. Before that we thought we were invincible.

 

[Get Off My Lawn]

It’s amazing we grew up with no interests and discovered a lot of the same things by using imagination and creativity.

 

[MacEntyre]

Kids today miss out on lotsa simple thangs... like emptying a small package of peanuts into a nickel Coke, riding bicycles with playing cards in the spokes, or programming Fortran on punched cards.

I remember the invention of color TV, area codes, zip codes, skateboards, hula hoops, transistor radios, 8 track, VHS, 8" floppy disks... they were too young to remember a time without Smart Phones.

 

[Jeppo]

Kids today miss out on lotsa simple thangs... like emptying a small package of peanuts into a nickel Coke, riding bicycles with playing cards in the spokes, or programming Fortran on punched cards.

I remember the invention of color TV, area codes, zip codes, skateboards, hula hoops, transistor radios, 8 track, VHS, 8" floppy disks... they were too young to remember a time without Smart Phones.

Dad bought a console color TV not long after NBC started including the clip below. It was delivered and only turned on, for the first time, to watch the Rose Parade. As the entire family gathered ‘round, we held our breaths to see what color TV looked like. Dad pushed the button, we waited a moment and there came a PFFFFFFFT sound from inside the console, followed by a puff of smoke and a burning smell.

Fortunately, we still had the black and white set. That year, the Rose Parade looked exactly like it had each year before. 😢

 

[Snoopz]

Kids today miss out on lotsa simple thangs... like emptying a small package of peanuts into a nickel Coke, riding bicycles with playing cards in the spokes, or programming Fortran on punched cards.

I remember the invention of color TV, area codes, zip codes, skateboards, hula hoops, transistor radios, 8 track, VHS, 8" floppy disks... they were too young to remember a time without Smart Phones.

Fortran, Cobol, Basic, Assembly Langange. Z80 CPU's (2Mhz Clock) CPM, DOS, "Perf Tape", Teletype, type writers
slide rules and how to use them, resistors and the simple way to remember the color code (Bad, Boys.......)

don't forget the slinky,
very rarely "stayed in the house" was outside having fun, none of the stupid, crazy stuff like today.
was working on the cousins farm during summer to get money for my "rocket" purchases.

-Snoopz

 

[Snoopz]

Dad bought a console color TV not long after NBC started including the clip below. It was delivered and only turned on, for the first time, to watch the Rose Parade. As the entire family gathered ‘round, we held our breaths to see what color TV looked like. Dad pushed the button, we waited a moment and there came a PFFFFFFFT sound from inside the console, followed by a puff of smoke and a burning smell.

Fortunately, we still had the black and white set. That year, the Rose Parade looked exactly like it had each year before. 😢

 

[Jim C.]

Dad bought a console color TV not long after NBC started including the clip below. It was delivered and only turned on, for the first time, to watch the Rose Parade. As the entire family gathered ‘round, we held our breaths to see what color TV looked like. Dad pushed the button, we waited a moment and there came a PFFFFFFFT sound from inside the console, followed by a puff of smoke and a burning smell.

Fortunately, we still had the black and white set. That year, the Rose Parade looked exactly like it had each year before. 😢

Are we related? My family's first color TV experience was the same.

 

[Snoopz]

It’s amazing we grew up with no interests and discovered a lot of the same things by using imagination and creativity.

oh yeah.. friend had a pond on their farm we got the idea of making a boat, you know there's alway some
stuff laying around on the farm to use. so we took some wood, plywood, 2x4's made a frame, found an old
B&S gas motor, some pulleys, belt, and an old blower / fan from a piece of equipment which was sitting for
a while, figured we could make it like them old steamboat, use the fan to move the water, well in principle
it was a great idea, but when it got to the center of the pond it sunk, his dad was so pissed at both of us.
Harold got his arse beat and I had to leave for a while.

which brings us to the VW beetle commerical that showed a VW floating on a pond / stream, so another friend
had one so he decided to try it, drove it out into one of the "fire ponds" in the mountain, it floated for a while
then sank. Next time read the "fine print" in the commerical " It will definitely float but not Indefinitely"

Now imagine some one driving VW beetle sans body, seats, gas tank, basically floor pan, steering wheel, motor
(running), seat consisted of a wooden cantaloupe crate, gas can as the tank, steering wheel bouncing up and down
oh.. not tag or plates..driving this thing about 5 miles to your house, in traffic at 4:30pm when peope were getting off.
now traffic no where like today still out in the country but.. pulls in our driveway, asks my dad if he could cut it down
to make a Dune buggy. My Dad is asking "Bruff" you drove that here? Bruff..of course, "you got no tags", Bruff...okay
My dad just shook his head and says okay, He finished cutting it and welding it back up with braces / supports. Bruff
just drives it back home.. like nothing is wrong...that everything is normal.. I look back on those days and just wonder
all the fun we had. if done today we would be in lock-up...

-Snoopz

 

[Donnie D]

Fortran, Cobol, Basic, Assembly Langange. Z80 CPU's (2Mhz Clock) CPM, DOS, "Perf Tape", Teletype, type writers
slide rules and how to use them, resistors and the simple way to remember the color code (Bad, Boys.......)

don't forget the slinky,
very rarely "stayed in the house" was outside having fun, none of the stupid, crazy stuff like today.
was working on the cousins farm during summer to get money for my "rocket" purchases.

-Snoopz

Wow, some of that reminded me of Telephone Company electronics school. Not fun.

 

[GoWolfpack]

Kids today miss out on lotsa simple thangs... like emptying a small package of peanuts into a nickel Coke, riding bicycles with playing cards in the spokes, or programming Fortran on punched cards.

No reason kids can't do any of those things now.

 

[Donnie D]

No reason kids can't do any of those things now.

Good point.

 

[Snoopz]

Wow, some of that reminded me of Telephone Company electronics school. Not fun.

Yeah, my dad was into electronics, fixed TV sets, anything basically, worked at
East Coast Relay Station in Frederick, helped maintain the hot line to Moscow
also did PCB layout work (Printed Circuit Board)
Heathkit Computers, Heathkit equipment, Scopes Tektronics dual trace etc. So
I took electronics in H.S. never went into the field, Retail paid more and the
bennies, Still have a Simpson 260 VOM, works great. Telephone company..
let's see "Tip and Ring" something like that.

-Snoopz

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

When I was really little, I got a tool box from Dad filled with tools. They were cheap kids tools, but they were "real". The 60s didn't have much truck with plastic toys... these were metal tools, if cheap.

Mom told me the story of Dad coming home from work one day, shortly after I got that tool box, and the door knob came off in his hand.

Little me had gone around the house and removed every screw from everything about door knob height and lower.

Every. Screw. In. The. House.

Dad was P*SSED, according to Mom.

Mom, being Mom, laughed at Dad and said "What did you expect? You gave him a toolbox full of tools and nothing to work on!"

Dad, fearing the worst, found me and asked where all the screws were. And I had every one of them in a little soup can, just like I had seen him do when working on something. He and I went around the house and put all the screws back in and there wasn't one missing screw when we were done. Dad was amazed.

I gave my kids their own tools as they grew up, too, though they were a bit older when I did. The toy plastic ones were good enough when they were real little.

It was fun to watch them run and get their tool belts to go help Grandpapa and such!

There may be a lot kids of today will never experience...but like @GoWolfpack said, there's no reason why they can't experience a chunk of them.

 

[Snoopz]

My Dad used to " chew" Union Workman Chewing Tobacco and smoke
El Producto Cigars, Sir Walter Raleigh Pipe Tobacco. Me thinking I'm
a man at 10-11 year old, I can do this also, first up Chewing tobacco,
didn't know I had to spit it all out...got sick, very sick, Dad just laughed.
Cigars were next, hmmm. don't inhale...got sick again....so not so big
after all. so never smoked after that even cigs..

Got an metal Erector set...would "steal" little screws, nut, bolts as it just didn't
seem to have enough. Dad would be looking for them as he took something
apart and left em sit..

-Snoopz