I'm so old I remember when...

[tatonka]

31 years ago our youngest daughter was born , all the other labor's were 6 hours long , so when labor started we thought we had time. After about a hour , the ex
says "now its time now" We only made it from the house to the car. Her water broke in the 64 pontiac and I delivered her in the front seat of the car. I drove to the doc office and he said good job .

[unjonharley]

hearing Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald on the radio..

[Simon of the Playa]

hearing Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald on the radio..

so then it's safe to assume that you and the "hills" have the same birthday...

[unjonharley]

hearing Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald on the radio..

so then it's safe to assume that you and the "hills" have the same birthday...

I knew playa dust when it was a rock...

[^Rhino!]

hearing Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald on the radio..

so then it's safe to assume that you and the "hills" have the same birthday...

I knew playa dust when it was a rock...

Which rock? There are no less than 5 separate formations involved, maybe a lot more.........

[Molotov]

Me and other neighborhood children riding our bikes behind the DDT insect fogger truck in an Army housing area in Okinawa in the early '60s. Side benefit: If you inhaled enough DDT, it prevented intestinal parasites from the local cuisine. (Or so I was told...)

[Roundabout]

Ingots of toxic lead and a small smelter with toy soldier molds was a child's toy that could be bought off the shelf. I spent many childhood hours pouring molten lead into those molds and then filing down the seams on each figure to produce a collection of highly toxic toy soldiers.

[^Rhino!]

Ingots of toxic lead and a small smelter with toy soldier molds was a child's toy that could be bought off the shelf. I spent many childhood hours pouring molten lead into those molds and then filing down the seams on each figure to produce a collection of highly toxic toy soldiers.

Let me ease your mind just a bit.

What you had wasn't a smelter, it was a heater, sort of like a skillet that melts lard.

Elemental lead isn't toxic, it's the compounds that are killers. Oxides used to be used as a paint drying additives, now they're being removed to avoid children getting sick on paint chips that destroy the kids' capacity for learning. Sulfides, though, aren't as bad as oxides. The lead in lead sulfide doesn't become mobile until the surrounding pH is acidic. That's why, in southeast Missouri in the old mines of the BonneTerre trend, pipes have been left in place in mines underneath the town of Flat River to provide WATER to the town. It gets yearly testing for lead, and there is none in the water.

Roundabout, I hope those childhood hours were happy, because today, you have nothing to worry about as a result. Seriously.

[Captain Goddammit]

I also remember the sets that had a battery powered, motorized car chassis and a set of molds so you could pour and cast a few different rubber bodies to go on it. All the fun was the activity of making it, then it pretty much sucked to play with.

[Roundabout]

Roundabout, I hope those childhood hours were happy, because today, you have nothing to worry about as a result.

Thanks Rhino! That actually is good news. Although, I believe it is illegal to sell those lead mold kits as toys to children anymore, right? And what about the pound (approximate) of liquid mercury I played with and used in my 7th grade science project. That stuff ended up everywhere!

All the fun was the activity of making it, then it pretty much sucked to play with.

Same with the lead toy soldiers!

[maryanimal]

I remember my first Easy Bake Oven! I made everything in two days, then never used it again. The mixes were to pricey for a 10 year old!

I had a bevy of barbie dolls. I had Barbie, Ken, Skippy, Scooter, Allen, and Midge. The boys had a smooth molded cup-like penis-like area.

[Thecatman]

Since we're on the subject,
Creepy Crawlers


I never had one but a neighborhood kid had one. God that rubber or whatever it was sure stank.

[AntiM]

I had a Creepy Crawler maker, but it had a plastic dome... that one looks stripped down.

I remember when girls had to wear dresses to school.

[theCryptofishist]

We had a boys' playground and a much smaller girls' playground...

[^Rhino!]

I had a creepy-crawly maker, too. I ended up making a fair chunk of change by figuring out the patterns of goop to pour for something that looked like a bass would love, sticking a treble hook in it, and selling them to locals who fished on weekends. One of my black worms helped the next door neighbor catch a limit of striped bass one night on Watts Bar Lake, and then he used the SAME lure for crappie the SAME weekend, and came up with another limit. After that, the orders came in two or three a night. I had to get Mom to float me a small no-interest loan to buy the Goop and fishhooks for all the sales I made. Woolworth's was out of Goop within the week.

I spent the cash on a new Matchbox car set, the one with the 'turbo assist' (car ran between two foam rubber wheels at high speed and shot out the other side.....battery powered).

[Thecatman]

That, is great Rhino, especially asking your mom for "no interest" loan.

[^Rhino!]

That, is great Rhino, especially asking your mom for "no interest" loan.

My Mom has crossed into sainthood now that she's past 80. Most grandmoms get that designation, but my Mom has no grandkids. I love her and Dad nonetheless, and I am sooooooo lucky that they're still alive.

I tried to talk them into coming to the burn, but no dice. They said that it was more important to buy a big cabin cruiser that they could park near Neyland Stadium in Knoxville Tennessee to be part of the Vol Navy during football season at the University of Tennessee. I told them to get a motor home to tow it to Lake Lahontan (Pleistocene epoch name for the lake that's now dried up and is the Black Rock Playa), and they'd be set. Dad was worried about Nevada licensure.

[Thecatman]

Lake Lahontan (Pleistocene epoch name for the lake that's now dried up and is the Black Rock Playa),

It's been several months since I've seen modern day Lake Lahontan but I think I can safely say, it's almost dryed up too. The Tahoe Queen paddle wheeler tour boat on lake Tahoe is beached on a sandbar due to low water levels. 300+ passengers and crew had to be shuttled back to the dock by the Coast Guard, and various law enforcement and civilian volunteer boats. Took several hours. Fortunatley no injuries.
Sounds like you have wonderful parents.

[oscillator]

A Bob Clampett Cartoooon!

[media]

2nd fave to the somewhat more subversive Rocky & Bullwinkle

[media]

But Underdog ran a distant 3rd...

[media]

[FIGJAM]

[media]

[Elderberry]

I'm so old I have a hard time remembering anything.

[ygmir]

I'm so old I have a hard time remembering anything.

I blame the 70's..................

[^Rhino!]

Lake Lahontan (Pleistocene epoch name for the lake that's now dried up and is the Black Rock Playa),

It's been several months since I've seen modern day Lake Lahontan but I think I can safely say, it's almost dryed up too. The Tahoe Queen paddle wheeler tour boat on lake Tahoe is beached on a sandbar due to low water levels. 300+ passengers and crew had to be shuttled back to the dock by the Coast Guard, and various law enforcement and civilian volunteer boats. Took several hours. Fortunatley no injuries.
Sounds like you have wonderful parents.

Thanks, catman. I do have wonderful folks.

The whole 'yacht' idea is pretty much a running joke with us now, but don't be sad....they now want to meet me and my sister over in Tennessee some weekend at Land Between the Lakes. It's where the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers have a confluence. Just fo a hoot, I thought I'd bering along some dubstep or psytrans and see how they'll react. I think I know how Dad will react....he likes music at baseball games (on the mighty Wurlitzer) at funerals, and when Ohio State University's marching band does their script Ohio formation where at the very end the tuba player comes out to dot the 'i'. Mom prefers the Boston Pops and Henry Mancini. I think Tiesto would light a fire under them.

You mentioned paddle wheels, and I HAVE to bring this up, since you struck a funny chord with me. On my office wall I have a picture of what used to be the only floating Mc Donalds' in the US. It's moored at St. Louis RIGHT BELOW the Gateway Arch. One of my wag buddies did a little photoshopping on the pic, and made TWO"Gateway Arches" behind the paddlewheel McDonald's boat. I showed it to someone from the National Park Service one day. That park ranger was teary-eyed, trying to hold back his laughter.

My only comment:

"Somehow, I don't think the Park Service has either the funds nor the inclination for such a project",

**snickers**

[gyre]

You can tell them a lot more people over seventy come than most people realize.
You see them coming through the gate.
I think boats are for renting.
They do sound like they should go.

I can remember when Jkisha told new people to Go Away!

I can remember when Moxie was a drug.

[misfit]

i can remember when burning man was just a week in the dessert with art, music, and guns.

[^Rhino!]

And I'm so old I remember one of the early pioneers of comedy that my Mom introduced me to, Ernie Kovacs.

The Nairobi Trio still is funny.

[media]

[gyre]

Kovacs is sublime.

[Oldguy]

GI Joes were small enough to fit in my Tonka trucks. We'd pour a cup of kerosene on 'em, then throw firecracker "grenades" on them. BOOM.

I saved Junior Singh when my brother kicked over a firetruck full of gas, threw him to the ground and threw dirt on his legs. We threw stuff a lot ; dirt clod fights, rocks, each other.

We had 22s also. I caught my cousin hammering 22 shells on a block of wood in his driveway. A miracle we are all still kicking.

[^Rhino!]

Remember GI Joe 'with kung fu grip''?

I laugh at it now, but Hasbro cleaned up with it.

[d6]

I wore out a beatles 8-track........in german