Blast from the Past

[tubemonkey]

I frequently "played" with the following "toys" during my youth:

slingshots, fire crackers, cherry bombs, smoke bombs, bottle rockets, darts, lawn darts, bow and arrows, cap guns, toy guns, BB guns, water pistols, bubble pipes, candy cigarettes, bubblegum cigars, coffee candy, chemistry sets, pure mercury, atomic energy sets, creepy crawlers, etc.

...and lots of tools:

hammers, nails, screws, staples, hand saws, electric saws, electric drills, wire cutters, metal snips, scissors, hatchets, axes, knives, gas/propane/electric stoves/lanterns, matches, cigarette lighters, magnifying glasses, wood burning kits, soldering irons, steam irons, boiling water, ice picks, etc.

...and I haven't even covered any of the dangerous activities I did.

Ask me if I survived

[wodin]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

...
Ask me if I survived

Did you survive?

[crich70]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I frequently "played" with the following "toys" during my youth:

slingshots, fire crackers, cherry bombs, smoke bombs, bottle rockets, darts, lawn darts, bow and arrows, cap guns, toy guns, BB guns, water pistols, bubble pipes, candy cigarettes, bubblegum cigars, coffee candy, chemistry sets, pure mercury, atomic energy sets, creepy crawlers, etc.

...and lots of tools:

hammers, nails, screws, staples, hand saws, electric saws, electric drills, wire cutters, metal snips, scissors, hatchets, axes, knives, gas/propane/electric stoves/lanterns, matches, cigarette lighters, magnifying glasses, wood burning kits, soldering irons, steam irons, boiling water, ice picks, etc.

...and I haven't even covered any of the dangerous activities I did.

Ask me if I survived

I'd guess it's a given that you survived, but did you survive in one piece?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by wodin

Did you survive?

Originally Posted by crich70

I'd guess it's a given that you survived, but did you survive in one piece?

I survived; and in one piece. No broken bones, no animal bites, no trips to the ER. Looking back at what I did makes me wonder how I got so lucky.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I survived; and in one piece. No broken bones, no animal bites, no trips to the ER. Looking back at what I did makes me wonder how I got so lucky.

It is amazing any teenage boys live to see adulthood, much less old age. They are basically a bundle of hormones with little more than very basic brainstem activity, and they mistakenly think they are immortal. That is a recipe for disaster--yet amazingly most do survive, unless old farts like us start too many wars and use them as cannon fodder. When I look back at the things I and my friends and brothers did growing up, I shudder a bit. On the other hand, we probably all know at least a few who pushed it too far and never saw 20. I grew up in the American muscle car era, and we lost at least one HS student every year to reckless driving/racing down winding rural roads. Those muscle cars were the most dangerous toys our generation ever owned, hands down, especially since in my teenage years we could legally purchase alcohol at 18. (I'm not including firearms as toys, BTW.)

For those of you who are too young to remember, the American muscle cars were basically big chunks of metal with a huge and powerful engine. They were terrible at holding the road because they had one major purpose--drive at the fastest speed possible in the quarter mile strip, which was a straight line. They were a total disaster on winding roads what with the terrible steering and road handling capabilities, not to mention the crap they called brakes. I never had one, but many of my friends and one of my brothers did, so I rode in quite a few of them. I did own the family car version of one though, a 1970 Dodge Coronet 440, and it was scary on the winding roads even at 40 mph! I wrecked it enough even with the stock 2-barrel 318 V-8, I'm glad it didn't have one of the big Hemis with a six pack on top. That would have been like strapping a Saturn V rocket on top of a VW Microbus--it would not have gone well. As it was, that car would not do 90 mph if you dropped it out of an airplane at 5000 feet, and yet I still managed to bump into a lot of things with it. I'm glad I grew out of the bumper car phase once I was in my 20s.

[wodin]

My first and only muscle car was a 1966 Dodge Charger (first year they were made) 383 High performance. It would go REAL FAST!!!, got 12 MPG and 3,000 miles per set of tires. Today a barn find condition of one would go for thirty to fifty grand. I was 23 when I bought it new for $3,000 even.

Then I got married and my wife made me trade it in on an AMC Ambassador.

[OtinG]

My 1970 Dodge Coronet 440 looked similar to the attached image of a 1970 Super Bee. Except my Coronet was the four-door sedan with no MOPAR mods, dents all over because I was a teenage moron, and it was white. It had been my dad's car which he passed down to me, so it was the plain-jane family car version. The custom shop at Dodge would occasionally pull a plain-jane family Coronet two-door coupe off the production line and turn it into a Super Bee. Mine looked similar, but those Super Bees were fast and mine was lucky to make it to school and back at a snail's pace without breaking down!

I like watching Mark Worman restore them on his TV show Graveyard Cars. It turned me off of Dodges though as it broke down so often and represented the Detroit era in which we joked that you could not even pay off the loan on your car before they fell apart, even with just a 36 month loan. But that pretty much was true of all the Detroit car manufacturers in those days. Planned obsolescence!

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by OtinG

It is amazing any teenage boys live to see adulthood, much less old age. They are basically a bundle of hormones with little more than very basic brainstem activity, and they mistakenly think they are immortal. That is a recipe for disaster--yet amazingly most do survive, unless old farts like us start too many wars and use them as cannon fodder. When I look back at the things I and my friends and brothers did growing up, I shudder a bit. On the other hand, we probably all know at least a few who pushed it too far and never saw 20. I grew up in the American muscle car era, and we lost at least one HS student every year to reckless driving/racing down winding rural roads. Those muscle cars were the most dangerous toys our generation ever owned, hands down, especially since in my teenage years we could legally purchase alcohol at 18. (I'm not including firearms as toys, BTW.)

I never knew anyone who was killed or injured doing the activities I did. Count me lucky.

As to muscle cars, I was never into cars of any kind. To me, cars were used for transportation, not fun. Instead, I was into handguns; especially hard hitting calibers like 45 Colt (heavy loads) and 44 Magnum. That was, and still is, my passion after high school.

[tubemonkey]

My muscle gun

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I never knew anyone who was killed or injured doing the activities I did. Count me lucky.

As to muscle cars, I was never into cars of any kind. To me, cars were used for transportation, not fun. Instead, I was into handguns; especially hard hitting calibers like 45 Colt (heavy loads) and 44 Magnum. That was, and still is, my passion after high school.

I was never a gear head either. We called them shade tree mechanics back then. My cars have always been practical choices rather than sporty statements. Drive a RAV4 now, and mostly owned SUVs and pickups. At 6' 2" and well over 200 lbs I wouldn't fit into very many sports cars these days, not that I could afford one or would want one. My first handgun I bought was Colt 1911A1 Series 70. I've had many firearms since, but loved that one a lot. I don't shoot much anymore though as my arthritis tends to make that painful. I used to hunt quite a bit but stopped about 20 years ago after I slowly lost my taste for it. I only hunted for food though, and never for trophies. I much preferred to target practice rather than hunt. Never got into the big bore handguns though, except for the Colt .45s. I was and still am more of a rifle guy.

[wodin]

Here's my Charger.



This is a 1967 model, the only difference is the '66 didn't have the turn signal indicators on top of the front fenders, and of course the 383 HP emblem on the side.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I was never a gear head either. We called them shade tree mechanics back then. My cars have always been practical choices rather than sporty statements. Drive a RAV4 now, and mostly owned SUVs and pickups. At 6' 2" and well over 200 lbs I wouldn't fit into very many sports cars these days, not that I could afford one or would want one. My first handgun I bought was Colt 1911A1 Series 70. I've had many firearms since, but loved that one a lot. I don't shoot much anymore though as my arthritis tends to make that painful. I used to hunt quite a bit but stopped about 20 years ago after I slowly lost my taste for it. I only hunted for food though, and never for trophies. I much preferred to target practice rather than hunt. Never got into the big bore handguns though, except for the Colt .45s. I was and still am more of a rifle guy.

I also had a 1911. It was my favorite handgun. That Blackhawk I pictured came with dual cylinders - 45 Colt and 45 ACP. I had tons of ACP thanks to my dad, so practice shooting was free. I always loved having guns with different purposes shooting the same caliber. It made reloading easier.

I never hunted. I'm against sport hunting and never had a need for subsistence hunting. As such, I didn't have much interest in rifles. When I did, it was for 22 semi-autos (Ruger 10/22) or lever-action carbines (model 92 Winchester). Again, I had handguns in the same calibers to pair up with these rifles.

[tubemonkey]

[badgoodDeb]

Had to share that!

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I remember that well! It wasn't all that popular in my house as it was fairly silly even to young kids. I think the theme song was better known than the cartoon. I'm surprised they haven't turned it into a dark live action thriller movie for Millennials yet, you know, the same way they screw up all of our 1950's and 1960's cartoons.