Did you ever...? (another nostalgia thread)

[trof]

Tie either end of a partially inflated "weenie" balloon to the fender brace on your bicycle, flipping it between the brace and the spokes, so it made a way cool dub-a-dub-a-dub-a motorcycle sound when you rode down the street? You could also use a clothespin and a playing card, but the balloon made a far superior sound.

Discover that if you added a few drops of mom's food coloring to the water, you could REALLY tell where those water balloons hit?

Rub an inflated balloon against your hair and "stick" it on the wall?

Use Sheaffer's "SKRIP" fountain pen ink with the little "well" on the inside?

I think we had to use the blue-black. I can still smell it.

Have a school desk with a hole for the ink bottle?

Eat Kool-Aid right out of the envelop and scare the crap out of your mom when you showed her your tongue?

Play Jacks? Mumblety-peg(sp?)? Split (Also played with jackknives or sheath knives. Don't let your mom see.) Scrub? Paper kites with balsa ribs that were usually good for only one flight?

Lay them childhood memories on us.
;-)

[EmmaP]

1. How about

Playing rock/paper/scissors
Having your brother give you an Indian brush burn
Playing "slug bug"
Wax lips
Pixie sticks
Candy necklaces that would leave your neck and chest a sticky mess
Lincoln Logs

[trof]

2. Yeah, we called it "Indian burn".

I wonder why?
Slug bug?

[EmmaP]

4. Slug bug

Some people call it "punch bug" - does that help?

[trof]

8. no help

mashing bugs?

[EmmaP]

10. Slug/Punch Bug

Every time you see a Volkswagen Beetle, you have to be the first one to say "Slug Bug _______ (insert color of car)." If you're the first one to say it, you get to 'slug' the other person.

I still play it. Tends to piss off friends from time to time.

[trof]

13. That's a new one on me.

And welcome to DU, BTW.
:hi:

[EmmaP]

14. Thanks.

And I thought everyone knew about slug bug. I'm surprised.

[trof]

16. sort of slug bug related

If you made a circle of thumb and forefinger, and got a kid to look at it below his belt (didn't count if it wasn't below HIS belt) you got to slug him in the upper arm.
It had a name, and (I think) something you had to say if he looked, and before you could slug him. Can't remember it now.
We walked around with black and blue arms.
Dumb and dumber.
:shrug:

[EmmaP]

17. Another game

And then there was the game when I was in seventh grade where everyone was going around trying to rip the Levi's tag off of everybody else's back pockets to see who could collect the most. Don't know that there was any "prize" involved.

[trof]

19. In high school

we ripped off the whole back pocket.
There were lots of fist fights and pissed off mothers.

[areschild]

31. My 12-year old granddaughter plays Slug Bug

with me and her grandpa when we're driving around.

[trof]

36. I bet she pulls her punches.

;-)

[BOSSHOG]

3. We must be from the same generation Trof

Koolaid and showing mom your tongue. Awesome fun.

how bout, pitching baseball cards in the early sixties. Totally ruining Maris and Mays and Mantle Cards. Putting baseball cards on the spokes of your Flyer. Listening to the Battle of the Bands on the AM Radio (Beatles vs Beach Boys). Having Nuns rap your knuckles because you were left handed.

[trof]

7. Got about a decade on you.

Saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan's show in my early 20s.
My formative years were spent in front of an RCA cabinet radio. I think I was around 12 when we got our first TV.

[liberalmuse]

5. Did you ever...

Hit yourself in the eye while playing with 'Clackers'?

Pop a 'Fizzy' and froth at the mouth? ('Zots' came along later).
Buy a blue carnation for 25 cents from a hippy standing on a street corner?

Put 50 cents into a vending machine at your local gas station, pop out a pack of cigarettes and sneak one behind a building before deciding they were gawdawful?

Play 'monsters'?

[trof]

12. I think I was 30 when clackers came out

and, yes, I had a pair.
One of the balls came off and went through an antique mirror and then Miz t. wouldn't let me play with them any more.

BTW, did you know you can nullify the 7 years od bad luck by throwing a shard of the glass into moving water.
It's true.
You could look it up.
;-)

[SoCalDem]

6. I still have some of that ink..

When we were clearing out my aunt's house after she died, I found it.. I still have it.. It has the price written on it in wax pencil.. 45 cents..

I still have an ink well too with the little flip close thingie..

[BOSSHOG]

9. Keeping the grades up

so I could get out of school and be an altar boy at funerals (circa 63-64). Families usually forked over five bucks each to the altar boys (a fortune back then.) and we got out of school for most of the day.

[oneighty]

11. Hmmm

1. Digging under the ice and snow looking for missed chunks of coal for the boiler.

2. Walking half a mile thru the snow and cold to fetch five gallons of fuel for the cook stove and lamps. Return trip was to be rememberd for years. Five gallons of kerosene (or kerosine) very heavy.

3. Operating piston waterpump for an hour or so to fill the fifty five gallon can stored in the attic. (Running water)

4. Helping Dad clear the snow from the long, long, gravel and mud drive way at five AM so he could go to work. He had an "A" sticker for gasoline.

Never played any of those games Trof, after 1939!

I remember the ink!

180

[trof]

15. Hey, ol' man.

Freezin' yer buttoff up there?

[BOSSHOG]

18. Daring Neighbor Kids

to put their tongues on the "hot ice" which was delivered to most homes in the neighborhood. (North Philly)

[trof]

20. dry ice?

CO2?
That's what we called it.
Made witches cauldrons with it. The popsicle wagon guy had it and would give it out at the end of his route when the cooler was empty. The "wagon" was a 3-wheeled bike with big metal cooler mounted between the front wheels.

Also found you could make a nifty bomb with a lump of the dry ice and a mayonaise jar of water. You had to get the lid on and toss it fast.
There was a run on band aids.

[BOSSHOG]

22. You know it Trof

We called it Hot Ice because it smoked. I remember one neighborhood youngin who put his tongue on it and had some serious skin loss.

[oneighty]

25. Not bad (YET)

Trof. Right on the edge of Lake Erie stays a little warmer than inland. Most of the snow has passed us over, but we may be greatly abused by the "God of Snow" Sunday evening!

Clams and oysters must be getting pretty good by now?

About 1938..I remember playing "Pick up Sticks" with the stunning beauty down the road. She was an older woman...About seven I am guessing. Whooohooo

Eddie

[trof]

26. Some kinda bacteria in a lot of the oysters.

Folks only eating them cooked right now.
Miz t. has a foolproof way of making sure they're OK to eat.
In a restaurant she says to the waiter "ARE YOU SURE THE OYSTERS ARE OK?"
"Yes, mam."
"OK, then. As long as you're sure."
So far it works.
;-)

[HamstersFromHell]

21. Tinkertoys....

....and discovering a green stick (the longest) connected to a hub piece made the perfect mallet for keeping your baby brother in line.

[trof]

23. now I'm laughing

WHOP!
Thanks.
;-)

[BOSSHOG]

24. And I was the youngest brother!!

[trof]

27. Coke bottle roulette

Cokes came in 6 ounce, green glass bottles.
Moulded into the bottom was the city where it had been originally bottled. Since the bottles were used over and over, many times you'd get an out of town bottle. If yours was from farthest away, the other guys had to buy your Coke. A whole nickel.

[HamstersFromHell]

28. We called that "pulling for distance"...

...and used to bet dollars on it. (The coke machines had the racks mounted on the side for the empties and at the office we'd hung a map with a thumbtack and string beside it for "official measurements".) When the rack got full, it'd be time to bet and everyone pull an empty off the rack.

And can't forget pitching pennies now...

[trof]

30. Man, you guys were serious about this.

I like "pulling for distance".
For some reason only the hoodlums who wore motorcycle jackets pitched pennies.
I was more of a lapsed Boy Scout with mild homicidal/self destructive tendencies.

[HamstersFromHell]

33. LOL...How'd you guess?

The "office" in question was the motorcycle shop we worked for.

The pitching pennies goes back to jr. high and high school. (Still rode a motorcycle then, however.)

[latebloomer]

29. Candy cigarettes

Milk boxes

Those wax bottles you sucked the syrup out of

Plaid Stamps and S&H Green

Bouncing balls over and under your legs (girls only)

Air raid drills

"Hey kids, what time is it?"
"It's Howdy Doody time!"

And just think, Howdy Doody grew up, stole an election, and now he's our Resident!!

[SiobhanClancy]

32. I hope nobody did this...

When I was really small,I was fascinated by the thermometers in the medicine cabinet. I liked to take them out and break them,and then play with the cool little silver balls of mercury.

Did anybody else ever make chains out of chewing gum wrappers?:)

[trof]

37. Swiped some mercury from chemistry lab

in high school. Nobody knew how poisonous it was back then. Sure made a (real silver) dime slick and shiny.

[areschild]

34. Remember

going to the movies and seeing 2 features, cartoons, and Saturday serials? And, you could sit thru them as many times as you wanted? And, you didn't need to spend a fortune on candy and popcorn.

Bazooka bubble gum with the cartoon wrapper?

Remember Sparkle and B.O. Plenty comics (I think they were part of the Dick Tracy strips)? Ally Oop? School tablets with movie stars on the front?

[trof]

35. Oh yeah. I did it for a quarter.

Walked to the neighborhood movie (daylight).
Dime to get it, a nickel for popcorn, and a dime to ride the bus home (night).
Except sometimes I cheated, blew the transportation dime on a Coke and a hershey bar, and walked home in the dark. Don't tell mom!
;-)

[moof]

38. Picking the klinkers out of the coal furnace

shoveling coal into the coal furnace.

"Those wax bottles you sucked the syrup out of"
Do you mean Nik-O-Nips ?

[trof]

39. I remember The Iron Fireman

A hopper with a big driving screw that slowly fed the furnace. Before we got it the furnace had to be fed every so often. Now you just filled the hopper morning and night.
Grandpa took the klinkers out every morning and spread them in the alley.