Toys from long ago

[J. Yuma]

I still fly "wire control" planes. This is one I converted to electric power, so I call it a mule. (electric motors are great, it's the batteries that suck). If you look close, you can see the wire coming out of the left wingtip.

Taught myself how to stick weld and built a little car.


Still got a Harley, and now after 70 years, I started shooting pistols.

Some kids never grow up.

 

[NC FNS]

throw in a large cardboard carton, like for a refrigerator, and maybe a wooden spoon.

One of my kid's favorites was the drum from our dryer that broke.

 

[Ride1949]

J. Yuma,
Your sloppy jalopy is way cool.

I once had a woman ask me "What do you want to be when you grow up?" (I was about 40 I think. It was a feeble attempt at an insult) I gave her a big ol' smile and said "Very, very old." The look on her face was priceless. (I'm still working towards that goal.)

 

[J. Yuma]

J. Yuma,
Your sloppy jalopy is way cool.

I once had a woman ask me "What do you want to be when you grow up?" (I was about 40 I think. It was a feeble attempt at an insult) I gave her a big ol' smile and said "Very, very old." The look on her face was priceless. (I'm still working towards that goal.)

some folks don't like anyone to have fun

 

[Jeepnik]

some folks don't like anyone to have fun

Those folks haven't grown up, they just missed it and got old.

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

My friends lived on a 3-acre plot outside of town. They had pear trees in the back yard. In the summer right after July 4, we'd take the left-over firecrackers and insert them into holes we'd drilled in pears. We'd get 15 or 20 yards apart and, after lighting the fuses, lob these pear grenades at each other. It was easy to tell when someone was "killed." We'd keep at it until the yellowjackets chased us away from the pear trees.

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

For rainy-day indoor sport, I'd take all of the Lionel Trains railroad track (maybe 60' worth) and arrange it into a spiral coiled around my bedroom - starting about 6' off the ground. We'd roll marbles down the track and attempt to "catch" them in a bucket at the bottom. Erection, play and disassembly always took us 6 or 8 hours.

 

[peachhead]

I'm a grandpa 4x, if you give a kid your undivided attention, that's often all they want, and a drawing is a treasure.

My grandson is 8, he calls me to discuss things like bigfoot.

He and his sister and their 2 cousins have all the plastic junk any kid could ever want, but they really want someone to push them on a swing, teach them about how to use a tool, go for a walk, play catch, etc.

Last time all 4 were here, their favorite toy was my pickup truck. They climbed all over it, on the roof, through the back sliding window, it was hilarious.

When you're a parent, you may not have time to play, you gotta make sure you're taking care of business.

A grandparent has time to play

I only have one grandson so far, he will be two in September.
I certainly hope I can live up to this. It's going on my wall as a daily reminder!

 

[bobski]

i still got an attic full of them.
all for sale too.
pm me for a list or wants!

 

[Colonialgirl]

I'm 83 now, BUT I grew up on Navy bases until I started the 7th grade and my Dad got out. You cant imagine the fun you can have as a kid living on base. Plus they always had swimming pools and libraries not to mention the Scrap/junk yard where you could find all kinds of surplus ww2 stuff. Sold newspapers on a couple of bases and still have a 1905 Liberty head Nickel that is in MINT condition I got as a tip one time.

 

[eveled]

I still have a bottle cap gun I made when I was a kid. Clothes pin was the firing mechanism. I hollowed out the stock for extra rubber bands, then made a door out of an old soup can. I was no older than 7 when I made it

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

I still have a bottle cap gun I made when I was a kid. Clothes pin was the firing mechanism. I hollowed out the stock for extra rubber bands, then made a door out of an old soup can.

We made those, too. But we used match sticks as our projectiles. A successful launch comprised lighting the match while it flew.

 

[nekvermont]

Folding and flying paper airplanes was a competition sport when I was a kid. Experimented with all different shapes and sizes. Kid with the longest distance flight was the winner.

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

I'd buy thin balsa wood sticks at the hobby store, plus Elmer's wood glue and pins. I'd draw the outlines of airplane fuselage and wing parts on paper, tape the paper to wax paper. Then I'd lay out the balsa wood on those hand-drawn parts, pin them in place and glue them together. Once they dried, I'd assemble them into an airplane. Sometimes I'd attach a rubber band-driven propeller to the airplane. Then I'd use thin paper to cover the entire plane and paint it with dope. Generally, these airplanes weren't successful fliers (improper balance was normally the culprit), but occasionally one of them successfully flew.

Each aircraft required two or three weeks to complete. I learned a lot about airplanes and flight from building these scratch-built aircraft, and I learned a lot about the virtues of patience.

Proof. As a grandpa, I built this dollhouse for my granddaughter. 3' x 3', with 4,000 hand-stained shake shingles, stone fireplace and foundation. This took me around 6 months to build, working 30+ hours per week. Materials cost was around $3,000. The look on my granddaughter's face? Priceless.

 

[eveled]

To this day, I stop and pick up old discarded drying racks to get the dowels. So many projects require dowels. But my primary purpose was always arrows for a homemade bow.

The long wooden strips from inside of the fold at the bottom of a window blind made good arrows too.

 

[J. Yuma]

To this day, I stop and pick up old discarded drying racks to get the dowels. So many projects require dowels. But my primary purpose was always arrows for a homemade bow.

two better answers than abolition of "fossil" fuels: waste less, and re-purpose.

 

[foolslife]

OMG you all, what a time that was. We had mountains (hills) just off our back yard, the river less than a mile to the South. Then another 1/2 mile to the train tracks. We would walk to all of these places, then came bicycles which took us a bit farther into these areas. Next came dirt bikes. I remember riding maybe 10 miles North along the tracks to find a "pond" surrounded by a fence with a sign that said something about tainted water with the typical skull and cross bones. I believe that there was a mine or cement plant near by. On hot summer days we would climb that fence and swim there. All summer long, I'm now 6 months from 70 and still able to talk about it. Always wondered what was in that water?

 

[eveled]

Lol. We used to stop at a cemetery to drink out of the silcock. On the Mighty Charles River directly across from the Waltham Watch Factory. Years later they put a sign on the silcock not to drink the water it was River Water! Lol.

 

[Shamus2022]

My father built this jeep for me in WWII out of scrap and boxes. Loved it. Envy of the neighborhood.

 

[caryc]

Reminds me of a favorite billboard I saw years ago, on US 15 in PA I think, showing kids playing in a pile of dirt…"Dirt, the world's oldest toy."

When I was a kid we had a "dirt pile" about a block and a half down the alley that ran on the side of our house. It was one of our places to go "mess around". It was probably 5, maybe 6 feet high. In those days a pile of dirt was a neat thing.