One of my dear friends and I were discussing the old Chemistry Sets that we got for Christmas - the one I got was USED and most of the chemicals were gone but friend said what was in that kit was enough to blow the house apart - among other dangerous experiments.
We also had that children’s toy where you could make those rubbery insects by pouring a solution into a mold and then cooking it in a metal device - damn thing heated up to about 500 degrees. We burned the heck out of our fingers making those things - and this was in elementary school.
Parents never said a word -if we were burned, it was our fault for not being careful enough.
There was also the Suzy Homemaker Oven — the REAL one, not the fake one now that’s heated up a little bit by a light bulb - the original oven really cooked things are real temps like a real oven - some children’s toy,huh?
We also chased each other around with squirt and cap guns that we bought at the local 5 and dime - they were LOUD and I understand would get a kid expelled from school if he were caught with one.
But, God did we ever have fun.
Remember wood burners? I burned myself so many times I threw mine away.
I started having children later in life. I was 40 when my first son was born. He's 5 now. It had been decades since I visited a toy store but now with kids, it's a regular occurrence.
I recall the first time as a father that I visited a Toys 'R Us. It was depressing. No chemistry sets. No Revell or Monogram models (and, needless to say, no paint or model glue). No Estes Rockets, electric train sets, gas-powered Cox airplanes. None of the toys I loved as a child.
In fact, it seemed like there wasn't a single toy that would challenge a child's creativity. Even today's ghastly expensive Lego sets are engineered in such a way to be assembled with as little imagination as possible.
What a wonderful generation of safe, compliant worker-bees we are producing.
Creepy Crawlers. We had a set too. The little cooker that heated up to 500 degrees was called the Magic Thing-maker.