Things I Used As A Kid that Are No More

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Buying Cgarettes for my mom at the supermarket. I was only 8 yrs old and they would give them to me.
 
EricT said:
Buying Cgarettes for my mom at the supermarket. I was only 8 yrs old and they would give them to me.
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Wow. That reminds me when I was a kid, I had a chemistry set. I was propbably 8 or 9. There was a "bunsen" burner in the kit that used grain alcohol. In PA, all spirits are sold through a state owned store. I needed to buy some grain alcohol so I can heat up test tubes so that the rubber stopper shoots across the room. Naturally my mom sent me in to buy a small flask of grain. I walked out of the store with bottle in hand, no questions, no parents. Today, my mom would be on Nancy Grace and I would be in a foster home.
 
New Levi's jeans for $10 (and they fit), Slinky, Hiking boots that lasted at least 5 years of constant use, cameras with film, Getting rabbit at the grocery store, Shake N Bake pork chops, respect for one's elders, clear definitions of "good guys" and "bad guys."
 
eljefe said:
Technology is beginning to pass me by so I started to think of all the things that were a daily part of my life that are no more. Please add if you see fit.

1) Rabbit Ear Antenna
2) Rotary Phones
3) 5 digit phone numbers
4) Walkman
5) 8 track tapes
6) LPs, ELPs and 45s (if you don't know what these are, this is not the thread for you)
7) Atari
8) Mimeographed school work that got you high
9) Writing letters
10) Betamax
11) Video discs (damn didn't they suck)
12) Coleco/Matell Football
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-Had a rabbit ear
-Had a rotary phone in my house when I moved in 11 years ago
-Didn't have a 5 digit number (only 7), but my grandparents did have a party
phone line!
-Definitely had a walkman
-Sure, I know what 8 tracks are, but never had a player
-Had the 'Dukes of Hazzard' on 45 until I borrowed it to one of my friends who
never returned it (bastard!)
-Who didn't have an atari!
-Never had mimeographed school work
-Wrote letters about 20 years ago, in college
-Still have some video discs
-My brother had Coleco in the early 80's
 
DOTS

Those different colored drops of candy all in a row on a strip of paper. You bit them off the paper of course eating some paper every now and then.

Penny Pretzel Sticks

The corner store had those finger thick about 10" pretzel sticks in a tube next to the register. You reached in and grabbed what you wanted. I used to get a quarter for doing some task and going to the store and buying 25 and eating pretzel sticks all day was a big treat for me.
 
jgln said:
DOTS

Those different colored drops of candy all in a row on a strip of paper. You bit them off the paper of course eating some paper every now and then.
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DOTS to this day are one of my favorite candies. No paper these days and they come in a HUGE box.
 
I'd never even heard of dots until I had kids of my own. My wife was like, "WHAT?? WE had Dots all the time when I was a kid! Must have been a west coast thing." I don't know. I got penny candy from the Ben Franklin store more than a couple of times I dont' remember seeing those.

I remember getting a plastic rocket that you put water in and pumped the hand pump just before shooting it off. The pump pressurized the rocket and the water shot out the bottom making it fly up to 20 or 30 feet or more (depends on your muscles!)

At my grandma's house they had a pedal car tractor that I would race around and around the sidewalk that went from the kitchen door to the garage door, out the overhead door, and back to the kitchen door. All of us grandkids used to ride that thing for hours.

We had a "tent" in the living room. Except it was actually a fishing shanty. It had something on the inside to blacken the light coming in. It smelled funny, like tar. But we had a good time camping inside.
 
gratus fermentatio said:
......respect for one's elders........
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This one bugs my wife and I a bit. Not so much the respect, there still is some, but when we we kids, our friends parents were Mr. Xyz and Mrs. Xyz. We new their first names but wouldn't dream of addressing them that way.

Now our friend's kids address us by our first names and it just sounds weird. We do have one little boy how calls us uncle and aunt, even though we aren't, and that doesn't seem so bad.
 
My first Computer.

2959.jpg
 
Something I used as a kid that most kids these days don't seem to use anymore is my brain. In school when faced with a maths problem, I had to do this crazy thing called "working it out in my head" which I'm noticing more and more younger folks (and bear in mind, I'm just 36) are unable to do without busting out their iphones and turning to the calculator app.
 
Homercidal said:
I'd never even heard of dots until I had kids of my own. My wife was like, "WHAT?? WE had Dots all the time when I was a kid! Must have been a west coast thing." I don't know. I got penny candy from the Ben Franklin store more than a couple of times I dont' remember seeing those.

I remember getting a plastic rocket that you put water in and pumped the hand pump just before shooting it off. The pump pressurized the rocket and the water shot out the bottom making it fly up to 20 or 30 feet or more (depends on your muscles!)

At my grandma's house they had a pedal car tractor that I would race around and around the sidewalk that went from the kitchen door to the garage door, out the overhead door, and back to the kitchen door. All of us grandkids used to ride that thing for hours.

We had a "tent" in the living room. Except it was actually a fishing shanty. It had something on the inside to blacken the light coming in. It smelled funny, like tar. But we had a good time camping inside.
Click to expand...

I grew up here in NJ.
 
jgln said:
DOTS

Those different colored drops of candy all in a row on a strip of paper. You bit them off the paper of course eating some paper every now and then.
Click to expand...

GilaMinumBeer said:
DOTS to this day are one of my favorite candies. No paper these days and they come in a HUGE box.
Click to expand...

Homercidal said:
I'd never even heard of dots until I had kids of my own. My wife was like, "WHAT?? WE had Dots all the time when I was a kid! Must have been a west coast thing."
Click to expand...

I think people are talking about two different things here. There are Dots, which are the jelly candy that come in the big box you get at the theater and there are candy buttons, sometimes called candy dots, which are little dots of sugary candy on a strip of paper.
 
Homercidal said:
I remember getting a plastic rocket that you put water in and pumped the hand pump just before shooting it off. The pump pressurized the rocket and the water shot out the bottom making it fly up to 20 or 30 feet or more (depends on your muscles!)
Click to expand...

I JUST got my son one of these a few months ago. Now, they claim 50 to 100 foot.

Whew!
 
ChshreCat said:
Candy dots:
Cady-Dots.jpg


Dots candy:
wt007172085000.jpg
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I was talking about the dots on paper but I totally forgot about the other dots.

The dots on paper were probably discontinued because someone made a big deal that a kid may not know to bite the dots off the paper and may choke trying to eat the paper. :(
 
jgln said:
I was talking about the dots on paper but I totally forgot about the other dots.

The dots on paper were probably discontinued because someone made a big deal that a kid may not know to bite the dots off the paper and may choke trying to eat the paper. :(
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Nope, they definitely still make the Dots on paper. My niece had some the other day.
 
jgln said:
We knew them as just Big Wheels.
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Right. Thats what we called em too. Just sayin we wore right through the front wheel on several of them. My cousin had an awesome patio in front of his house must have been about 8'x60' that sloped from one end to the other. We never visited without bringing the Big Wheels along.
 
lschiavo said:
Right. Thats what we called em too. Just sayin we wore right through the front wheel on several of them. My cousin had an awesome patio in front of his house must have been about 8'x60' that sloped from one end to the other. We never visited without bringing the Big Wheels along.
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Yeah, if you lock up the front wheel just right using the pedals you could get them to do a neat skid.
 
lschiavo said:
Looks like you can get these again. Also the Green Machine.

We wore out our share of big front wheels as kids.

bwn-bw-og-100.jpg
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My son was just riding that exact big wheel in the garage last night. I got it from a guy at work cleaning out his garage. Missing the seat back, but my boy just scoots around on it. He can't reach the pedals yet. Those are the best!!
 
Radio Flyer has one now. New and Improved. Rubber tread on the front. Chrome handle bars with bicycle grips. No handbrake tho'.

Bought my son one when he was 3. Still waiting for him to grow into it.
 
klyph said:
I rode a big wheel that had been retreaded with duct tape several times.
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Thats funny....my dad did the same on ours.

This is the Green Machine my cousin used to have which he wouldn't let us ride :mad:
41CK6QzsdJL._SL500_SS120_.jpg


I have been trying to search for a toy my buddy used to have. No idea what it was called but it was basically a disk with a few castor wheels around the edges you sat on a seat low to the ground in between two big wheels with hand grips. You could rotate either direction for forward backward or oposite for spins. The thing was a blast...anyone know what they are called and if they are still around. I would love to get one for my kids.
 
lschiavo said:
I have been trying to search for a toy my buddy used to have. No idea what it was called but it was basically a disk with a few castor wheels around the edges you sat on a seat low to the ground in between two big wheels with hand grips. You could rotate either direction for forward backward or oposite for spins. The thing was a blast...anyone know what they are called and if they are still around. I would love to get one for my kids.
Click to expand...

Krazy Kar.

http://www.backtobasicstoys.com/item/productid/2178/txt/Krazy_Kar_Ride-On

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000641DTC/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Buy two and get a lifetime supply of airline barf bags.....

Cause you know thaose things are best at spins.
 
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