Reminds me of the basement of the Physics building at LSU. The soda machine made the small bottles of soda so cold that they turned into slushies when you opened them. Yum.
Hell yeah! Swam in the Mississippi River (but only once because my mom had a conniption when she found out about it), grew up swimming in Bayou Sorrell and Bayou Pigeon but you had to watch for the tugs pushing barges, Momma's arm was your seatbelt, didn't know anybody who used a bike helmet or pads, used to fight to ride in the bed of a the pickup, went to my first bar with my grandfather at about 8, drank a Coke and played the bowling game while he had a couple beers with his buddies. Good times, I tell you, good times.
Yep, adhd medication was daddy's belt. We pushed our Tonka trucks through the mud and made the engine noise with our voices. We were almost NEVER inside and that was even if it were raining. Really good times.
Yeah, but my dad thought we were spoiled rotten. THEY never had Tonka trucks or any toys except those they made themselves. THEIR games were rolling a hoop down the road with a stick or a burlap bag race. THEY didn't have cap pistols or BB guns, they made slingshots out old old inner tubes. None of those things sounded like much fun to me. OK, I did make a slingshot. I did a lot of whittling and wood carving as a 8-year-old kid. I gave a 14-year-old son of a former girlfriend of mine a pocket knife for Christmas and his mother berated me for giving a weapon to a child!
I was about to question your manhood until this part. Looking for that perfect stick for a good sling shot then acing a bunch of blackbirds with your new weapon is something every little boy should do.
Toys were made tougher and harder to break back then. Tonka trucks were made of steel as were other action toys. Now everything is made in China out of cheap plastic. Slingshots were a lot of fun. I made them with pieces of old inner tubes. Do they even make inner tubes any more? And Coke used to be good for you. Watch this 1961 commercial about how Coke keeps you thinner And this famous Mean Joe Green Coke Commercial
Check out this TED talk. I couldn't agree more. http://www.ted.com/talks/gever_tulley_on_5_dangerous_things_for_kids
Christmas is right around the corner and its never too early to start thinking about that perfect gift for your own little bundles of joy. Here is an ad for some fun safe toys that will give the little tykes hours of fun. Toys include Johnny Switchblade and Bag O' Glass