In high school, I remember going with friends rollerskating (before ‘blading’) in San Francisco, terrifying myself as well as everyone around me. God it was fun. But: no helmet, no elbow guards, no knee guards. Youth and stupidity – they go together!
Tetherball. Does anyone play that these days?
Does anyone remember those 2 glass-like balls that were hung on string, and you “clacked them” really fast up and down? They made a huge racket, and were pretty dangerous.
We called them “knockers” @1214mom
The rotary phone, hanging in the kitchen, with the 3 foot cord. It made speaking with my girlfriend a challenge.
And the Sears Christmas Catalog.
Flashcubes. LOL! You had to mount a square flash cube into your camera and it was good for 4 pictures - it rotated with each pic.
Yes! The Sear’s Catalog Wishbook. We were so excited when it showed up and we’d spend weeks pouring over it and writing up our Christmas list.
When you turned off the black & white tv and there would be that white dot in the middle of the screen for awhile afterwards
Archie and Josie and the Pussycats comic books
Mad Magazine (Spy vs Spy)
Judy Blume books
Chatty Cathy doll. Barbie with multiple heads, all of which looked 30+.
My BFF (Gr. 1 - 3) and me dancing to “V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N” over and over and over.
Ditto on those duck and cover drills.
Vacu-form toy - it made car/truck bodies from little sheets of plastic that snapped onto a wheel base.
Banana seat bike with long streamers on the handlebars.
Sewing bell bottoms and making over straight leg jeans into bell bottoms with colorful inserts.
Sewing granny gowns (prairie style maxi dresses) and mini-dresses that only reached the fingertips.
Love beads. Body paint in the summer. Sun-in streaks in my hair & Lemon Up shampoo.
“Be home when the street lights turn on!”
Might be a Chicago area thing on WGN, but my brother and I would stay up and watch Creature Features and scare the daylights out of ourselves.
No one in the neighborhood being able to play until Saturday chores were done. And those were some serious child-labor chores.
Playing Pop-the-Sticks (similar to Kick-the-Can) with the neighborhood kids.
Going to roller rink.
Having to get off the phone because we were tying up the line. Not being able to get through to a friend because the line was busy. Rotary phones. In rural Missouri, party lines!
So excited to get an electric typewriter as a gift. Smith Corona. So fancy.
Watching my mom quietly join the Women’s Lib Movement & daring to think what she wanted out of life. She got a job after being a SAHM to four, bought her own car so she could get around while my dad was at work, she stopped signing her name Mrs. [husband’s first name] [husband’s last name], got some new friends, and eventually asked for a divorce in large part because he could not stop drinking!
We would take a clothes pin and pin a baseball card to our bikes to make a clicking sound when the wheel spun.
I remember what a big deal it was when our high school FINALLY gave the girls approval to wear the same shorts and tshirts the boys wore to gym class, and we never had to wear those horrid one piece girl’s gym uniforms again. It felt like a huge victory.
S&H Green Stamps. I got my first camera with them. Banana seat bikes.
Does anyone remember autograph books? Pages wrapped inside of a leather, or faux leather, zippered cover? You’d have all your little friends in elementary or middle school write something in them at the end of your time in that school.
Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey at birthday parties.
[Quote=Top 10 Banned Toys]
- Clackers Clackers, also known as Knockers and Click Clacks, consisted of two large acrylic balls, which hung on either end of a heavy string. The two balls would swing apart and together, making the loud clacking noise that gave the toy its name. If swung too hard, the acrylic balls would shatter, sending flying shrapnel everywhere.
Clackers were banned in 1985.
Really, whoever invented that toy was a moron! And whoever agreed to market it …
Does anyone remember Coppertone sunless tanner–QT that made you look orange like an oompah-loompah. Also, unless you were careful (which of course I wasn’t), the palms of your hands were also orange after using it.
Lawn darts. Kind with the pointed, metal end. Thrown toward the yellow plastic loop (and your friend standing next to it). Sometimes we just tossed them high up in the air. No one got hurt that I knew but apparently others we not so lucky.
Does anyone remember Coppertone sunless tanner–QT that made you look orange like an oompah-loompah.>>>>>>
I think I know of someone who still uses it. :))
“Really, whoever invented that toy was a moron! And whoever agreed to market it …”
@harvestmoon1:
Maybe it was Dan Aykroyds character on SNL…remember “Bags of Glass”? lol
Reminds me of slip ‘n’ slides! Those rocks under the plastic HURT!