Yep, Big Tobacco even went after children back then. Sad but true. I remember seeing those in the stores. Thankfully my parents never allowed us to have them. I doubt I would have wanted them though as my grandparent's house and car were like chimneys. We would cough and wheeze as soon as we got there to visit, and for hours afterwards. Almost every TV show and movie had the actors smoking. Shoot, my grandmother was in the hospital in Austin using oxygen. She would reach up, turn off the oxygen, and light up right in her hospital room. You could even smoke in hospital rooms back then. I'm glad she never blew up the hospital! Different world back then for sure...

My first tape recorder, and that is what the reel to reel were, was a Radio Shack model the size of a very large hardback book. I think it was mono only as it was designed for personal recordings. It had two small reels, probably about 3" in diameter. Always fun when it went wonky and spewed out tape all over the place, usually when rewinding or fast forwarding. I was so happy to later move up to a cassette recorder.

And my parents had a Kodak Browning 8mm movie camera and projector too. Not Super 8mm, but the 1950s 8mm. Pretty good, but the projector would sometimes melt the film if you paused too long.