Now, THIS is exactly what you want around the house for kids to play with

[Guy Fawkes]

A 10 piece ginsu knife set: only $19.95! It's cheaper then any of the new game systems!

http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/ginsu.html

"Hey, Timmy, I bet you can't catch this!"

[soothsayer]

1. we used to hurl ski poles at each other, ala David Carradine in Kung Fu

You know, try to block them with our arms as they came at our faces.

Oy!

[salvorhardin]

2. Heh -- remember lawn darts?

My brother's and my favorite game was hurl them straight up as hard as you can and get out of the way at the last second. I think this is the reason you don't find lawn darts anymore. At least, not the heavy steel, highly sharpened (on our father's lawn mower blade sharpener), incredibly dangerous ones we used to play with.

Amazingly, both my brother and I escaped childhood without a lawn dart through the head (or foot). However, I did shoot my brother with a BB gun once, in the stomach, just to see how he'd react. That was a rather ugly incident as I recall.

You know, I often wonder how we, the children of the 70s and 80s, as perhaps the last generation of kids to grow up before the safety craze set in, how we ever survived? I mean, things like riding out bikes with absolutely no protective clothing and no helmets at dangerously high velocities downhill, pedalling as ahrd as we could to increase our speed even further... or the lovely little game we played when swimming in the lake where a couple of bigger kids would jump you and push you underneath the water and hold you there? I don't think I had an abnormally violent childhood and I don't recall thinking these sorts of games cruel either. It's interesting how times change.

[flamingyouth]

3. Yes! My dad and I used to play with them when I was about 3

I kid you not. Oh man, lawn darts. Does that ever bring back some weird memories. For some reason, I remember going to see "Escape to Witch Mountain" one afternoon, and then coming home to play lawn darts with my dad...:D

[salvorhardin]

4. Escape to Witch Mountain

I was like 8 when that was in the theaters (or theater in the case of our town, now there's none). I remember that movie really freaked me out. To this day I'm not sure why I got so scared watching that movie.

[salvorhardin]

5. 3!?

I just noticed that in your post. A parent allowing a three year old to play with lawn darts!? I think that'd be considered abuse now! :-)

[Reverend_Smitty]

7. Safety meant nothing back in the day

My dad tells me stories about his childhood that frighten the ever living crap out of me. He and his brothers grew up in the city so they had to improvise by playing such timeless favorites as Fire escape tag (yep just as dangerous as it sounds) Hide the belt and paper clip wars. Every time he talks about it he chuckles to himself and wonders how none of his friends died in childhood.

[flamingyouth]

8. Yeah - no kidding

You think of all the crap we did as kids - rode bikes and climbed trees without a helmet or anything (my next-door neighbors' kids make them wear helmets to play on the jungle gym!). But I suppose I turned out okay. What was the question again?;)

[flamingyouth]

6. I really kind of got freaked out too

But that was when I started to get seriously interested in Witchcraft too. That and "Bell, Book and Candle." :D

[daligirrl]

9. A friend of mine

says she has a picture of she and her mother from about 1966 where her mom is pregnant (with her sister), is holding a cigarette, and my friend is encaged in an upside-down playpen. Her mom is mowing the lawn, and there is a beer can on top of the playpen. Ah, it was a different time, yes?

[salvorhardin]

10. Ah, the old upside down playpen trick

I'm told that worked on me for about a month and then I figured out how to disassemble the playpen. I don't remember much from that time, but who does. Of course, I'm also told that I managed to rock my highchair back and forth to the point where it tipped over and I hit my head on the floor hard enough to knock myself out. My father says they were in the car rushing to the hospital but I regained consciousness so they turned around and came home. Somehow I think a lot of my early childhood memories got wiped out that day. :-)