Things I Used As A Kid that Are No More

[the_bird]

That's it. I'm going up to my folks' house and getting the CoCo. No idea how I would hook it up to a proper TV these days, but there's an old B&W in the basement that will work perfect.

 

[jakecpunut]

Dial-up Internet and Local BBS before the internet

Stretch Armstrong

I have a TRS-80 at home with the tape recorder and unused printer that I need to sell haha

My dad was a fireman when I was young... everyone in the fire department had a "Fire Phone" in their house. If there was a fire, you called a certain number and all the "Fire Phone's" rang.

 

[Walker]

My dad was a fireman when I was young... everyone in the fire department had a "Fire Phone" in their house. If there was a fire, you called a certain number and all the "Fire Phone's" rang.

They still use those in some small towns. I grew up in a town of 900 people in rural Ohio, and 90% of my family still lives there. My uncle is one of the volunteer fireman in the town, and they still have and use the fire phones.

 

[the_bird]

Wasn't really a fire "phone," but my old man was a volunteer firefighter until a couple years ago, town of 3k or 4k people. There was a radio there, and we'd hear the alarm when there was a fire. Doooo-DO---do--do--do--do-do. Every town had its own code, that'll be hardwired in my brain forever. Think it's still there, even though he retired from the fire department a few years back.

 

[pjj2ba]

When I was younger we had a game where one would shoot an arrow in the air as straight up as possible.... if you couldn't keep it within the play area you lost. If you were the "catcher" you would have to run around and catch the arrow with a piece of wood...... had some close calls... lawn darts seemed tame when they came out. LOL

We did that, except we limited it to arrows that the tips had broken off of. Plus instead of wood, we used chunks of first generation styrofoam - it came in 2" X 12" by 10 ft lengths

The first computer I ever used was a TRS80
I had Lone Ranger and Tonto Dolls - not figurines
SSP racers - SpanishC - I had to look this one up. This is the toy you mentioned. We had this model

I'll add:

Slide projectors
Oh yeah, and then the original GI Joe, again, not the figurine. I mean the figurines are too small to give a satisfying fling across the yard. They totally ruined this one!
Whizzers

Banana bike seats - paired with chopper handle bars, and playing cards in the spokes
Silly putty
4 tv channels if you were lucky
Gum cigars

The Op-Yops

 

[ChshreCat]

Dial-up Internet and Local BBS before the internet

I met SWMBO on a local BBS shortly before I got internet for the first time.

 

[Homercidal]

Black Firework snakes. When I was a kid you could get a pretty long snake going. A friend tells me he bought some recently and only got about 2 inches or so out of each one.

We also had bikes and a crick across the street with frogs and the park nearby with shiners and chubs and sometimes the rare trout. Open fields with all kinds of bugs and plants.

 

[jgln]

Black Firework snakes. When I was a kid you could get a pretty long snake going. A friend tells me he bought some recently and only got about 2 inches or so out of each one.

We also had bikes and a crick across the street with frogs and the park nearby with shiners and chubs and sometimes the rare trout. Open fields with all kinds of bugs and plants.

Yeah, when I was a kid we could dissapear for hours going all over the place in the woods and my parents were not alarmed. Bad parents or different times? I say different times.

 

[jgourd]

Yeah, when I was a kid we could dissapear for hours going all over the place in the woods and my parents were not alarmed. Bad parents or different times? I say different times.

I think the only thing that's changed is that we've become politically correct. That has had two effects: (1) we're overly sensitive; and (2) we're overly protective. Conclusion: we've become sissies. And I feel it's my job to point that out to everyone I encounter that's being a sissy on a daily basis.

 

[hamiltont]

I wish I still had my John Deere pedal tractor - circa 1960!

 

[HBHoss]

Hot Wheels tracks. Now all you can get are the sets that only allow one way to set them up. We used to have long tracks with a loop and then set the starting ramp up as high as we could and try to figure out which car was the best.
Staying out until the street lights came on.
Sleeping on the back deck of the car during long car rides.
Getting hit across the chest by my mom when stopping quickly because we didn't wear seat belts. Knee jerk reaction on her part.
Being gone all day and my parents not worrying or knowing where I was.
Stacking up records on the turntable for continuous music.

 

[MrWiggles]

Apple 2E
number munchers
The Dell quiet key keyboard, that wasn't quiet at all
Gum cigars and candy cigarettes
"The big grey box" Gameboy
Virtualboy
Sega Gamegear
those plastic microphones that you talked into and it would amplify and change your voice (forget what they were called)
Fishtail skateboards, although they are making a comeback with the hipsters
and shooting my .22 rifle at milk jugs in the back yard in 3rd grade

 

[Shooter]

The space shuttle flies with a 8 1/2" floppy.

No joke.

This is funny, my friend in high school had this dual 8 1/2" drive system that was the size of a small desk. This was sometime in the mid to late 80's. Apparently his step-dad's law firm had outgrown it. We never did really figure out the OS on it and all the disks seemed to contain accounting software. That thing SUCKED! Ah, the memories!

 

[Hang Glider]

So funny, all the memories of early computers -

but how about NO computers? (at least for home use - some of us have passed the half-century mark...) Entertain yourselves...

yes, lawn darts, an archery set, your bicycle, basketball down the street at the guy's house that had a goal, home-made go-carts, ...

 

[cercueil]

Burning everything with a magnifying glass. I used to burn crayons to drip onto bugs. That was pretty cool.

Fireworks all year long. Used to throw bottle rockets and jumping jacks at each other

Definitely burning toys especially star wars figures

Burrying toys in the backyard

Man Hunt which included hiding anywhere on one of your neighbors property. Now you would probably get arrested.

Riding Bikes and skidding out with the back brakes

Exploding bang snaps in your teeth or throwing them at each other.

Having a huge baseball card collection and everyone's parents throwing them out

Nerf football in the street

Ulitma Frisbee

Collecting Garbage Pal Kids Cards

Reserving VHS movies when there was only 1 copy of them

Ant farms

Sea Monkeys

 

[jgln]

Burning everything with a magnifying glass. I used to burn crayons to drip onto bugs. That was pretty cool.

Fireworks all year long. Used to throw bottle rockets and jumping jacks at each other

Definitely burning toys especially star wars figures

Burrying toys in the backyard

Man Hunt which included hiding anywhere on one of your neighbors property. Now you would probably get arrested.

Riding Bikes and skidding out with the back brakes

Exploding bang snaps in your teeth or throwing them at each other.

Having a huge baseball card collection and everyone's parents throwing them out

Nerf football in the street

Ulitma Frisbee

Collecting Garbage Pal Kids Cards

Reserving VHS movies when there was only 1 copy of them

Ant farms

Sea Monkeys

I saw an ant farm just a few years back and bought one. They didn't live all that long and died one by one after a couple months.

We used to pitch baseball cards. Lean them against the wall and throw other cards up against them to try and knock them down. I think whoever got the last one won all the cards against the wall and thrown, I think, I was never all that good so I did not play often.

 

[jezter6]

I still have NES, SNES, N64, and Coleco w/ Atari attachment hooked up and working.

I am still the master of NHL '94.

One thing I see missing from 17 pages -- the old Snoopy Snow Cone machine. I loved that thing.

 

[Shooter]

...the old Snoopy Snow Cone machine. I loved that thing.

I LOVED that thing. Afterwards I would use the Snoopy Brush-a-Brusha Toothbrush to remove the sugary goodness from my teeth!

 

[jgourd]

He-man action figures...like cyclops!

 

[JohnnyO]

Burning everything with a magnifying glass. I used to burn crayons to drip onto bugs. That was pretty cool.

Fireworks all year long. Used to throw bottle rockets and jumping jacks at each other

Definitely burning toys especially star wars figures

Burrying toys in the backyard

Man Hunt which included hiding anywhere on one of your neighbors property. Now you would probably get arrested.

Riding Bikes and skidding out with the back brakes

Exploding bang snaps in your teeth or throwing them at each other.

Having a huge baseball card collection and everyone's parents throwing them out

Nerf football in the street

Ulitma Frisbee

Collecting Garbage Pal Kids Cards

Reserving VHS movies when there was only 1 copy of them

Ant farms

Sea Monkeys

Thanks. That was a great list. Especially man hunt. Imagine trying that now? Not "now" in the respect of how the neighbors would have you arrested, but "now" as in our decrepit bodies would fail as we went to dive behind the bushes on old man Jones' house and contort ourselves under the tailend of our neighbor's station wagon?

Our younger selves would school us in man hunt.

 

[MrWiggles]

Oh oh oh! and POGS!!
(the talk about throwing baseball cards at ones leaned on the wall reminded me of em)
Water gun fights (which evolved into airsoft gun wars)
And of course that God D*mn impossible-to-use snoopy sno-cone maker..
I had an "Easy bake oven" before they made the boys version "queasy bake oven" I loved those f'n little cupcakes...

Jonny Quest, He-man and the Masters of the Universe, The original 181 Pokemon...

 

[ChshreCat]

Any discussion of Pokemon in the context of "the good ol' days" should be reason to ban someone from this forum.

 

[eriktlupus]

i still have about 2000 cards from the forerunner of pokemon,magic the gathering( all the original runs).

playing whatever sport was in season in the neighbors yard ie baseball from the moment the snow was gone till football started in the fall until the sledding season was going.

bb gun wars when i was a tweener

the original paintball game (gotcha guns i believe)

paintball with original balls that melted away when they got wet. the ones now just expand till they burst

having to buy my own game systems because mom/dad wouldn't

red wagons made of metal

tying said wagon to my husky with my little brother in it when the cat got out the door

when helping with the laundry meant real work turning the crank on the roller wringers

 

[wild]

This is funny, my friend in high school had this dual 8 1/2" drive system that was the size of a small desk. This was sometime in the mid to late 80's. Apparently his step-dad's law firm had outgrown it. We never did really figure out the OS on it and all the disks seemed to contain accounting software. That thing SUCKED! Ah, the memories!

Sounds like a DEC PDP11/780. I still have the cabinet for one in my garage holding my welding equipment.

Steel Beer Cans
Transistor Radio
Party lines
Racing our bikes down the Playboy Club parking lot ramp (3 stories above and 3 stories below ground)
Waiting outside the Brown Derby to get a glimpse of a real movie star (pretty big stuff for Phoenix)
3cent return on bottles
Playing in auto wrecking yards

 

[Homercidal]

Thanks. I downloaded Dungeons of Daggorath last night and my daughter and I stayed up way past our bedtimes mapping the first level. Well, almost mapping the first level. It's pretty tough game. I started to get the hang of it just about bedtime. I love/hate the torch! My daughter ALMOST convinced me to stay home sick and play it with today.

Oh, yes. The Snoopy sno-cone maker. Did anyone ever really get it to work??

+1 on the hot wheels tracks. I got a BUNCH of them from grandma and we set them up on the front steps and down the front yard. I even had the car wash thing which ran on batteries and re-powered the cars!

Cowboy boots in winter, and using them as "ice skis" on the hills at school. Some crazy kids would try and jump other kids laying down on the ground. We'd wax them up and slide a long ways! I think the school has banned the practice now though. Probably banned playing "guns" too. I guess it doesn't matter. Kids today don't have the same kind of imagination.

 

[jgourd]

Playing yie ar kung fu at the laundromat.

 

[jgln]

Thanks. I downloaded Dungeons of Daggorath last night and my daughter and I stayed up way past our bedtimes mapping the first level. Well, almost mapping the first level. It's pretty tough game. I started to get the hang of it just about bedtime. I love/hate the torch! My daughter ALMOST convinced me to stay home sick and play it with today.

Oh, yes. The Snoopy sno-cone maker. Did anyone ever really get it to work??

+1 on the hot wheels tracks. I got a BUNCH of them from grandma and we set them up on the front steps and down the front yard. I even had the car wash thing which ran on batteries and re-powered the cars!

Cowboy boots in winter, and using them as "ice skis" on the hills at school. Some crazy kids would try and jump other kids laying down on the ground. We'd wax them up and slide a long ways! I think the school has banned the practice now though. Probably banned playing "guns" too. I guess it doesn't matter. Kids today don't have the same kind of imagination.

Dingo boots were "cool" when I was in grade school and of course I had a pair.

http://www.shoebuy.com/dingo-harness-di19057-58/123470/287975

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

M80's taped to CRT's.

 

[VApatriot]

Here you go:

Food
- Quisp Cereal
- Quake Cereal
- (much later than childhood) Labatts Blue in the brown returnable 11.5oz stubby bottles with non twist off caps

Toys
- GI Joe with the fuzzy hair (not the Kung Fu grip one either)
- matchbox cars and tons of orange track and those purple connectors
- Corgy toy cars: James Bonds Aston Marton, the orignal Batmobile and Batboat
- VertiBird helicopter toy
- Balsa wood gliders and rubberband propelled wind up planes from the super market

Playing Outside
- kick the can
- hide and go seek
- whiffle ball
- kickball

 

[Naked_Eskimo]

Playing Outside
.