How about tennis ball cannons???? Duct tape coke cans fill with lighter fluid, drop a tennis ball in and light the flame baby!!! See how far it goes... The good ol'days.

We did that too, many kids did in that era, we also jumped over garbage cans & through fire...
(this isn't me, we did it in the woods)
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Yep, when Coke cans were steel, we did that too..

And I too had to walk to school from 1st to 3rd Grade, 4th & 5th graders could ride their bikes (and I was a terror too)
I just looked up how far the school was, turns out it was 1.4 Miles, lets see kids walk that far these days.
And like so many others, we played in the woods, had BB gun & dirt clog wars, chase, built forts in trees, underground with tunnels and just plain ones in the woods, we swam in creeks & rivers, jumped out of trees & off high banks into the water, yet somehow, we all survived, and most of us were skinny too, and we ran or rode really fast when we heard the street lights start buzzing:eek:

I'm sad to say that my own nephew is the product of an overprotective Mother who let him do what ever he wanted, but wouldn't let him play sports until he was in 8th grade, wouldn't let him out of her site, ect, that didn't work out to well, as he is now a thug:mad: and another friend who wouldn't let her son play sports:mad: leave the house to play with other kids, let him play video games all the time, well now, he turned into just what I said he would, he now goes to a "Alternative" school because he was kicked out of his neighborhood school for drugs (I'm sure there is more too it) all because Mamma is worried that the boys might get hurt playing sports or fall down while outside, so since the kids can't go out and play & explore like we use too, their imagination doesn't get used and many turn to video games & drugs, not knowing what it feels like to skin a knee, or be pelted with a well packed dirt clog..

'Well-packed dirt clog'?

You mean like blanks without even bein' soaked in charcoal lighter fluid?

Wimps!

We'd launch 'em from a catapult.

My brother and I got cemented into a wall on a construction site once. I'm not even sure how we accomplished that but for years mom saved the newspaper clipping about it.

Then there was the time our dog got trapped in the steps in the slide at the playground and the time the accelerator got stuck on the mini-bike at full throttle, and the time...

Didn't find out about those until I got to college in 73. But, then again, that was sort of like an extension of childhood with a curriculum attached. :D

Racerbvd, great pics!!!

yes great pics!!

And thanks for posting the article. I enjoyed it.

Kids today are all pussies. That's why they all use guns. They're too gutless to get in a proper fist fight.

I lived outside. Still prefer it. Was in the Infantry because of it. Inside is boring. We were only inside when playing music. The neighbor turned his sprinklers on us when we tried it outside.
Dick...

Carter

Like RandyP, rather than jump over flames with our dirt bikes we tried to emulate Evel Knievel. We didn't have buses so we took turns laying down on the street to be jumped over. Once when it was my turn to lay in the street (along with three others - you didn't want to be the fourth guy), my buddy got a running start and in mid flight his front wheel came off the bike. We all watched in terror trying to imagine where his forks were going to plunge into. He made the other ramp but his forks dug into the asphalt and he went tumbling.

I too remember walking to school in the 2nd and 3rd grade, it was just over a mile each way. This was in Highland Park, CA, not such a great neighborhood when you're one of the few white kids in a mostly Hispanic area. I somehow lived though.

hehe...
We made real cannons. Crazy, crazy. Although this was of no knowledge to the parents or other adults. I probably shouldn't have been hanging around one friend after school as he was a bit of a troublemaker, but we did have fun.

Gun powder was fairly easy to get and mostly from unraveling fireworks. We'd collect beverage cans (the days of steel type), take them to a job site where they'd be pouring concrete. Played around there and then fill the cans up. They fit perfect in a heavy pipe we had. Not sure where one kid got the modified pipe from but it had a heavy cap end. Jeezus those projectiles blasting into a burm was spectacular - mounds and chunks of dirt flying! The sound concussion boom felt made it even more thrilling!

rope swings............I'd forgotten all about rope swings...........I mean trusting your life to some 1/2 rotted god-who-knows-how-old rope tied by someone with unknown knot skills, and standing or sitting on a 2x4 we'd swing out over 100-150 foot tall cliffs (at least they seemed that tall at the time!)


Of course, it wasn't always the take off, but swinging right back at the trees and cliffs that you'd just departed from!

We started out making rockets with CO2 cartridges. Light with a cigarette as a fuse and watch it fly for over 100 yards. We eventually made a grenade by mistake. Scared the crap out of us when that blew and we saw the damage. Of course that just brought us to a new level of fun. Now the ATF & FBI & local bomb squads would be called.

Gotta wonder if there's an element of truth to that. Kids are forced to contain their emotions, contain their energy with very few outlets, drugged to dull their energy, given very little freedom - eventually it just boils over.

true, but unlike that video game they play all day..
Tommy isn't just going to get back up after he pulls the trigger..

just took a little inventory of my scar's..
looks like I had a great childhood..

Rika

Good discussion and how each generation is so very different.

I've been reading up on the latest Georgia proposal of 'Guns Everywhere' and I'm thinking, what the hell are we thinking of in 2014?

Some of us grew up as kids with a pocket knife and a BB gun. Switchblades were common place and was nothing unusual to having. So in 1958, a federal ban was enacted and it became unlawful FOR ANYONE to have one. This came about ONLY because of kids having them. Yes, the notion of gang activity pushed the agenda but to punish the nation about a basic practical tool?

So here we are in 2014 and for us big kids - Guns for everyone but no switchblades!
http://www.collectors-of-schrades-r.us/articles/SWITCHBLADE%20LEGACY.pdf

long ago ..
a simple fight after class..

today..
his older brother does drive-by...
find myself in court having caused 'emotional trauma'..
he get's to use the girls bathroom..

Rika

So I'm watching a youboob vids of Jay Leno's Garage and what's next? Breast feeding 8 yr. old! LOL

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Ever make a potato gun out of PVC and ignite it with hair spray. Lethal!

I welded an oxy-acetylene fueld potato cannon once entirely out of aluminium. The few potatos that stayed together had terrific velocity, our test shot went through both sides of an aluminim backed cube van leaving huge holes behind...deadly!

Wow, I was a munitions wizard as a kid- sparkler bombs, (duct tape 'em together) I still have my BB gun- I used to shoot my friends, various birds in the neighborhood, dirt clog wars, - I can say those early days taught me a lot.

Did you know when you pinched the end of a piccolo pete so explodes, and stick that end in a seat tube, and then drop a marble in the other side that marble will go through a stop sign?

yes. BTDT... :cool:

Don't let your 15 y.o. loose in the shop. Oxy-acety. kaboom antics starting with sandwich baggies. Which of course are never big enough...haha. Got to use 30 gal. trash can bags!!!! Oh schitz!!!