[Rusty Heap]

Excellent thread.


dragging wooden hydroplanes behind your bike, and always having to tuck you paint legs into your sock so it wouldn't get caught up in the chain/sproket.


Bike Lights, with the spring loaded knurled tip generator that you clamped to a rim and it buzzed on your tirewall.


Yes I had rollerskates that clamped onto the sides of your shoes. Hence a roller skate key.


bottle rocket fights, buy a gross of them 12 packs of 12 for 144 total. Bricks of firecrackers 2000 count long all lit off at once.


yes it was politically correct to play cowboys and Indians.


having to dig a hole in the dirt or hide in your tree house in a zip lock bag that Penthouse or Hustler magazine you stole from Uncle Alfred. Bush. oh my god the bush of the 60's and 70's.


Rockets, we played with Estes rockets, .049 U-control airplanes with that smell of blue burning nitro fuel that always stung the crap out of the propeller cut as you'd use your finger to turn it over.

Dodge-em Soakem Ball on the playground. Those little grapefruit size balls were perfect to raise a welt.

Rock or Dirt Clod fights, ruthless.

Red Rover Red Rover, send someone over.


the distinct "ting" of a magnesium bat hitting rock into the woods.


Any mud puddle was fair game to jump into repeatedly, or if large enough, toss a log or stick into it and throw rocks at "the battleship" to sink it.


Building dams in local creeks, I was an early engineer in hydro-physics.

Yes my Dad had a bent nail box, which I was free to use to build tree houses or dig the tiger pit to cover with boards and dirt as your private bunker., yes I straighten many nails!

Listening late night to your Crystal Radio from Radio shack, after playing with your 65 in 1 electronics set.


Light Brights were what, 6 pixels per inch, and a new piece of construction paper started a whole new "file"...............Etch-a-sketches were magical.


Break a thermometer, play with the liquid mercury in your hand palm

Watching the Saturn 5 rocket lift off at 2 AM because that moon landing was stellar cool on a 19" black and white TV with manual horizontal hold trim pot so it didn't roll continuously, "whats a remote control, oh yeah the audio clicker thing of the middle 70's". TV stations (yes all 3 of them) shutting down at night with the Test Pattern cross-hair targets and an Indian in Headdress at the center for focusing. Cable TV with a hacked cable box, of course soft core porn was scrambled but that didn't matter as you'd watch the fuzzy lines anyways.......

a Huge highlight of your day was when Dad said "Boy lets go off to the Tube Tester at the local store, all those wires and sockets on the tube tester was magical" we needed to repair the Heath-Kit stereo when you had to solder together your own circuit board.