When we were kids we had a lot of bad habits.

On those rare trips downtown we used to bug our mother to let us get a pack of these chocolate cigarettes!

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and we shot people with these!

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Oh my, how I loved Welch's grapejuice! Too much sugar for me now, but wish I could glug the whole bottle. And caps! I could almost smell the smoke now, loved banging those with cap guns, cap bombs or even rocks!
 
Yup, people of our generation were a rowdy bunch growing up. We spent hours outdoors playing instead of sitting in front of the TV, with cell phone in hand, and eating an endless array of snacks...and getting fat.
 
In church they served little cups of grape juice for communion. I figured that was what wine tasted like. My Mom collected salt shakers. One pair were little Chianti bottles with real wine in them. One day I sneaked a sip. I thought I was poisoned. I don't know if she ever noticed a tiny bit was gone from one.

Don
 
We had a little five and dime store near the school that had a rectangular candy counter, where the sales clerks stood in the center, one whole side was devoted to penny candy.

I remember the hard candy peach pits were 3 for a penny if you were really broke, LOL!

Also a lot of different wax items similar to these.

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The juice tasted so good out of those little wax bottles. And then you could chew the wax. We had a tiny candy store next to Pulley's Drug store, and they sold all kinds of penny candy. Remember the little candy bits on a strip of paper?

Once a neighbor was having their roof redone, and we kids swiped little pieces of tar to chew on. Nummy! I can also remember rubbing mercury from a broken thermometer into a penny to make it look like a dime.

Don
 
Grampa Don said:
The juice tasted so good out of those little wax bottles. And then you could chew the wax. We had a tiny candy store next to Pulley's Drug store, and they sold all kinds of penny candy. Remember the little candy bits on a strip of paper?

Once a neighbor was having their roof redone, and we kids swiped little pieces of tar to chew on. Nummy! I can also remember rubbing mercury from a broken thermometer into a penny to make it look like a dime.

Don
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GOSH -- I DO remember those little candies on paper. Haven't thought about those in well over half a century! If you chewed tar, didn't your teeth turn black?
 
Butterfly said:
GOSH -- I DO remember those little candies on paper. Haven't thought about those in well over half a century! If you chewed tar, didn't your teeth turn black?
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No, the tar was hard and tasted really nasty, so we didn't chew it long. It was just something dumb to try. From what I read in the news, kids are still trying dumb things. Some things don't change.

Don
 
Grampa Don said:
In church they served little cups of grape juice for communion. I figured that was what wine tasted like. My Mom collected salt shakers. One pair were little Chianti bottles with real wine in them. One day I sneaked a sip. I thought I was poisoned. I don't know if she ever noticed a tiny bit was gone from one.

Don
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Sounds like a Methodist church, Presbyterian or maybe Baptist. Lutheran's and Episcopals pretty much still serve real wine.
 
Grampa Don said:
No, the tar was hard and tasted really nasty, so we didn't chew it long. It was just something dumb to try. From what I read in the news, kids are still trying dumb things. Some things don't change.

Don
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Sometimes dumb things are a lot of of fun! And sometimes "dumb things" is in the eye of the beholder. My mother thought a lot of things were dumb that we thought were great fun. She was right, of course -- like when my cousin tied a garden hose to the stove pipe coming out of the roof and swung off the roof like Tarzan, hanging on to the garden hose. It was spectacularly unsuccessful. It's a wonder some of us reached adulthood.
 
I remember all those penny candies also. We had a Woolworth's,we called it the five and ten. They had a counter full of small toys that a kid could buy for a few cents. One that I remember that I'm sure was dangerous came on a card that said make your own balloons. It had a small plastic straw like a swizzle stick and a tube of some kind of goo in it. You put a glob of the goo on the end of the stick and while it was still pliable you blew into the other end and the air made a small balloon. It didn't last long but I remember getting pretty dizzy from inhaling the goo. I'm sure you could get high on it. Another was the little paper,not sure if there was metal in it, you put on your tongue and with practice you could make bird sounds. I'm sure that could have easily ended up in a lung. But as others have said we are all still here and I'm sure we had a lot more fun than the kids with their video games.
 
Butterfly said:
Sometimes dumb things are a lot of of fun! And sometimes "dumb things" is in the eye of the beholder. My mother thought a lot of things were dumb that we thought were great fun. She was right, of course -- like when my cousin tied a garden hose to the stove pipe coming out of the roof and swung off the roof like Tarzan, hanging on to the garden hose. It was spectacularly unsuccessful. It's a wonder some of us reached adulthood.
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LOL, sounds like it would be hilarious but I hope your cousin wasn't hurt.
 
The paper that made bird sounds brings back a memory. We were at the county fair, and a pitchman was making all kinds of beautiful sounds with one of these. I talked my Dad into buying me one. I couldn't get more than a pitiful squeak out of it. It turned out there was some skill involved. You can still buy them on Ebay. Here is a link. It does have a metal part.

We had a Ben Franklin dime store. There was a toy section and a grumpy old woman who chased you away if you played with them. They also had a small counter with magic tricks. I spent some allowance money there on cups and balls, money changer, finger chopper and other tricks.

Don
 
I still have a bunch of old toy store magic trick somewhere in the shed. Joy buzzer, finger cutter off thingy, hot gum, fly in the ice cube, etc.
Anyone remember the glass, yes real glass toys, that were filled with little candies. Pistols, cars, trains and lots more. Now, they are collector items.
 
Since we're talking toys now, anyone else have a set of these? Scottie dogs on top of two magnets. One direction they attract; the other, they repel. I loved these sooooo much, when I lost them I begged and begged for another pair.... and got them!!!!! Miracle. :playful:

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NancyNGA said:
Since we're talking toys now, anyone else have a set of these? Scottie dogs on top of two magnets. One direction they attract; the other, they repel. I loved these sooooo much, when I lost them I begged and begged for another pair.... and got them!!!!! Miracle. :playful:

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My Mom had those. I don't know what ever became of them.

Don
 
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