What cool little things did you get as a kid?

[Randomguy]

Something fun that sticks in your memory, that is.

I went to the NYC aquarium With RO on Saturday to see the new shark exhibit, because she has been into sharks recently.  

I went to a fun store I found yesterday (you can find anything here) and bought her a couple of shark’s teeth, which were well-received, and only cost a couple bucks each, so I am wondering what made a big impression on you as a kid and spurred you on to learn something at the same time. 

What do you remember?

[BuffJim]

Watergate playing cards. I got Nixon, Colson and Dean.

[Razors Edge]

17 minutes ago, Bag of dick said:

I went to the NYC aquarium With RO on Saturday to see the new shark exhibit, because she has been into sharks recently.  

I went to a fun store I found yesterday (you can find anything here) and bought her a couple of shark’s teeth, which were well-received, and only cost a couple bucks each, so I am wondering what made a big impression on you as a kid and spurred you on to learn something at the same time. 

If you ever get a chance, I recommend heading down to the Chesapeake Bay and a strip of beach that is FILLED with shark teeth.  One specific spot is Calvert Cliffs, but it does encompass a bit more of the area than just there.  It is insane how many shark teeth you can find there.

Tom

[jsharr]

An Erector set.  I loved to build things with it.  Working with my hands has always been natural to me.  Take things apart, see how they work, maybe even fix them and put them back together.  Simple mechanical things that is.  Bikes, sail boat winches, simple engines, etc. 

I kept that Erector set for years and I even remember using parts from it to install one of those electronic horns that would play tunes, like Dixie under the hood of my 1976 Chevy Nova.   I never jumped any creeks or hay bales or painted a rebel flag on the Nova.  

[Mr. Silly]

We went to Arkona, Ontario when I was kid in 1st or 2nd grade.  It's a little shit sized town a little east of Lake Huron.  The town has two things, a cool park with a kick ass waterfall and, down river a touch, a quarry adjacent to a river with tons of fossils.  They were mostly clams and snail shells from the time of the Flintstones.  You're not supposed to take any but I still have a shoe box of fossils I stole then smuggled back to the US.

[ChrisL]

As a kid I always wanted to go run errands with my dad as we always got little treats when we did so. Getting gas meant we could get candy (the gas station had free candy in each pump).  Going to the hardware store meant a cool treat at check out. Going to the dump meant a candy bar and a coke from the roach coach.

These little things stuck with me.

[JerrySTL]

Recycling. My brother and I would walk through Devou Park across the Ohio River from Cincinnati and collect soda and beer bottles. They were worth 2 cents at the time. We'd wake up before sunrise if there had been a big party or a concert that the amphitheater the night before. Lots of bottles plus the occasional wallet and other treasures.

Occasionally someone would put a car battery out for garbage collection. They were worth $1 each which was enough candy and ice cream to keep us happy for a few days.

[jsharr]

3 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

Recycling. My brother and I would walk through Devou Park across the Ohio River from Cincinnati and collect soda and beer bottles. They were worth 2 cents at the time. We'd wake up before sunrise if there had been a big party or a concert that the amphitheater the night before. Lots of bottles plus the occasional wallet and other treasures.

Occasionally someone would put a car battery out for garbage collection. They were worth $1 each which was enough candy and ice cream to keep us happy for a few days.

By other treasures, are you talking women's underwear, or half smoked joints, or what?

[JerrySTL]

Just now, jsharr said:

By other treasures, are you talking women's underwear, or half smoked joints, or what?

I was around 10 YO so women's underwear didn't mean all that much to me. I honestly didn't know about joints back them - just cigarettes - and I wasn't about to put my lips on half of anything including beers and sodas. We would find the occasional full sodas, beers and packs of cigs. We'd give the last two to our Dad.

Other treasures included things like pocket knives, coins, lawn chairs, coolers, etc.

[12string]

We used to wade down the crick a ways to dig clay.  That was cool.  It was usually in the summer.  That was hot.  But the clay was cool.  We would make stuff from the cool clay and put it in the hot sun to dry.  We would get cool clay all over our warm clothes, even when we sloshed back through the crick.  The water was cool.  The stuff we made would break.  That was not cool.  Then we would get yelled at for all the clay in our clothes.  That just burned up my mom.

[Kirby]

I loved when we went to the circus and got those flashlights on a string you could swing around.  They were metal and could do some real damage, not like those sissy glow sticks they currently sell.

I also used to love when my Dad would bring home some Creme Drops like these.

[MickinMD]

When I was 6 years old, an uncle gave me a Newtonian-focus telesccope where he had ground, polished, and figured the 6" diameter main mirror himself.  I used that for years and it was one of the things that led me to a career in science.  Years later I showed him the 12.5" diameter mirror in a telescope where I had made the mirror by hand!

[Further]

Handy Andy tool kit. I managed to disable many adult machines with my toy tool kit

A metal truck similar to Tonka trucks, it was about a foot long with a dump bed that held a 4 year old knee perfectly. I probably put 10,000 scale miles on that thing, knee in the bed, other leg pushing. It was Army green & an older kid helped me put Army decals on it, but what I liked was riding in it. Sum Bitch would cruise down a hill  

 

 

 

[Ralphie]

I have fond memories of Rock em Sock em Robots, where the blue and the red could knock each other;s block off, where they would pop up on a little spring if you hit them in just the right spot.

 

[Further]

The very first toy I remember was a punching bag thing. Inflatable with a weighted bottom, it was 2 year old sized and my best buddy. Beat the hell out of it and it just kept standing back up, with a silly smile on its face.

I'm sure it had a name but I don't remember it. 

I remember the day he died. 

The big kids from downstairs had come up for some reason, they gave my buddy a lickin that stopped his tickin. Popped like a balloon.

I ran crying to my mother, but she really didn't seem very concerned.

I remember it 60 years later. Probably my very first memory,

[Ralphie]

5 minutes ago, Further said:

The very first toy I remember was a punching bag thing. Inflatable with a weighted bottom, it was 2 year old sized and my best buddy. Beat the hell out of it and it just kept standing back up, with a silly smile on its face.

I'm sure it had a name but I don't remember it. 

I remember the day he died. 

The big kids from downstairs had come up for some reason, they gave my buddy a lickin that stopped his tickin. Popped like a balloon.

I ran crying to my mother, but she really didn't seem very concerned.

I remember it 60 years later. Probably my very first memory,

Remember Roly Polys?

[Further]

2 minutes ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

Remember Roly Polys?

Nope

[Ralphie]

3 minutes ago, Further said:

Nope

[Further]

1 minute ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

Yep, that might be it.

[sheep_herder]

Our kids like alfalfa hay and teeter-totters made from posts and boards.

[Ralphie]

5 minutes ago, sheep_herder said:

Our kids like alfalfa hay and teeter-totters made from posts and boards.

Cheap dates! 

 

[Wilbur]

Pocket knife.    I still carry it. 

[late]

Slot cars were big when I was a kid. There were places you could go with hundreds of feet of track, and the cars could get over 30mph. Loved it.

[2Far]

Ditto on the erector set. I eventually got a huge one with the metal case. The top line project was a moon rover. 

I got a cardboard Mercury Space capsule. It had a control panel with batter powered lights and buttons. 

The G-rents took me to Gettysburg. Did the whole shebang (for a 10-ish y.o. ) they bought me a little case with three bullets in it, one of which hit an immovable object. 

[Longjohn]

I was hanging out over at the neighbor's house one day when I was about six or seven.  The neighbor was a boat builder and he had just hauled his boat up to lake Erie. It wasn't finished yet but it floated and he had the engine in it.  He asked me if I would like to go up to the lake and take it for a test run with him.  I said sure. He didn't have the floor in the boat yet so he put a few sheets of plywood in there for us to stand on.  He called my mom and made sure it was ok.  She said as long as I wore a life preserver. It was a beautiful day and once we got out on the water he decided he wanted to cross the lake into Canada. He went back to the dock and called my mom again. She freaked but I was already up there so she agreed to it. This was a cabin cruiser and it was huge. He cooked hamburgers for us at Long Point but he didn't have any buns so we ate them on soda crackers. The black flies were terrible so he dropped anchor near shore and we got out of the boat and stood in water up to our necks to keep the black flies off of us. He decided to go into town to get some beer and while I was in town I spent all my pocket money on fireworks (they were not legal in Pennsylvania at the time). It was really scary walking the cat walk on the side of the cabin to get up front where I could really see what was going on.  There was no railing to hang onto yet but he told me if I fell overboard just to yell real loud and he would turn around and go back for me. I think that was a better adventure than some of my solo bike adventures. My mom freaked out but just think what today's mom would do. Once I survived the adventure my mom loved to tell the story to her friends. I thought it was cool that in the middle of Lake Erie you cannot see shore in any direction.  He had a compass and a nautical chart.