Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm 47. My first thought was the chemistry set I got one Christmas in the mid 1970s. But in truth, it would probably be the electric train set. For this set to work you had to wrap bare copper wire around two poles on a transformer. You plug in the transformer and move a lever to send electricity to the bare metal train tracks. The more you move the lever, the faster the train moved. Looking back on it now, how the heck did I NOT get electrocuted or poisoned?! The next dangerous toy was a bicycle. No helmet nor pads. Before I was a teenager I was riding my bike across town sometimes 10 miles away from home.
You didn't get electrocuted because you weren't grounded. Although helmets and pads are obviously smart to use, don't let modern day brainwashing let you believe that riding a bike without them is a death sentence. We ALL rode our bike that way for decades and were fine. I'm all for safety, but we've slowly been turned into a society of people that are hypersensitive and afraid of the world. Parents would rather bubble wrap their kids instead of teaching them how to not be idiots.
It is interesting but it turns out that the most dangerous toy that my daughter had was when she was in college. She was wearing roller blades and come across a bad combination of an overly steep sidewalk on a bridge, cracked pavement and broken glass. And, she was not wearing knee pads (hardly any 22 year olds still wore knee pads). She ended up breaking her knee cap, needed several surgeries over a two year period, needed several years of physical therapy and six years later still has chronic pain.
Flubber. A 60's era toy inspired by the Disney movie The Absent Minded Professor. It was a rubbery, goopy substance you could shape into a ball and bounce. It was so toxic it gave people, including me, full body rashes. Stuff was poison. They had to stop selling it and it was eventually recalled. It was so dangerous Hasbro, the manufacturer, tried to burn it to get rid of it. It produced toxic smoke. Then they enlisted the Navy. The Navy tried to sink it into the ocean. It floated back up to the surface. Finally they rounded it up and buried tons of it in a deep pit and paved the top of the pit. Flubber was a ton of fun.... until the rash, cough and sore throat hit. I was sick for a week.
Stupidity is dangerous Those toys were not dangerous, the abuse of anything is dangerous, drinking too much water at one time will kill you.
Millions of kids played with those toys and had no trouble , helmets and pads give a false sense of security, and people that will be stupid still are stupid.
If parents don't teach their children common sense and personal responsibility, and leave teaching to some one else, of course things will be abused, and some one get's hurt .
People love to blame some one or something else for their own foolishness, going for the deep pocket lawsuit, and it's just plain wrong .
But that's the liberal for you. A person and lawyer will put a company out of business to satisfy their own greed, sherk personal responsibility and make every one else suffer .
I had knives and guns and a whole workshop growing up to work and play in since I was 7 . dad taught me the dangers and need to be safe and use the right PPEs while working .
I made a steak knife for my mom when I was 7-8 as well as other knives and things and dad gave me a gun when I was 12 .
No one was endangered in any way by me or the things I had .
Yes there were living examples of stupid that we knew growing up ,but I never felt compelled to be stupid too.
By the time I was 14 dad was letting me learn to drive and at 15 I was driving his 1 ton dump truck not yet even having a learning permit.
Never a collision nor even a scratch on any of his 15 different cars and trucks he had through the years ,no collisions of my own for that matter, and I'm 65.
Are you KIDDING ??
I am as liberal as they come and although I DO NOT LIKE GUNS , I am from Tx and shot my first deer thanksgiving of 1968 -age 6, learned to drive a 3 on the tree at age 10 and had a pellet gun at age 8 that my neighbor and I shot all kinds of crap with ( he had one too and yes I am a chick ) I see the whole padded up crap too and its ridiculous and I gallop ( exercise) racehorses for a living so I really DO have to have my helmet , body armor , goggles etc on or I cannot be allowed on the track and will lose my license.
I was born in 1962 and had GREAT long lasting toys that I am sure would be considered dangerous today. Primarily my Shetland pony Chipper ..... but ahem , we won't go there.
.. I LOVED my diamond tiara .. much more realistic than today's plastic versions. Actual metal with set rhinestones. They were more like today's wedding versions you see at Hobby Lobby and such but they were everyday tiaras for little girls( or whoever) at the toy store . Not a toy but I did swallow one of those mini colored glass Christmas tree ornaments . Like the silver glass that lined the inside of thermoses years ago . Dr told mom to feed me bread . I am here today ..... I was a wild one
We live in such a VIRTUAL world today , that changes alot of things.
Last edited by DutchessCottonPuff; 02-27-2016 at 12:46 PM..
I got the typical things for a kid in the south -- electric trains, bikes, power tools, guns. But the most and only dangerous thing I got was a chemistry set. Why? Well, it expanded my mind. I could create. It opened a Pandora's box onto the world. I am a physicist.
Flubber. A 60's era toy inspired by the Disney movie The Absent Minded Professor. It was a rubbery, goopy substance you could shape into a ball and bounce. It was so toxic it gave people, including me, full body rashes. Stuff was poison. They had to stop selling it and it was eventually recalled. It was so dangerous Hasbro, the manufacturer, tried to burn it to get rid of it. It produced toxic smoke. Then they enlisted the Navy. The Navy tried to sink it into the ocean. It floated back up to the surface. Finally they rounded it up and buried tons of it in a deep pit and paved the top of the pit. Flubber was a ton of fun.... until the rash, cough and sore throat hit. I was sick for a week.
Yes. Flubber. Loved the movie! That darn rash. Not so much. I went back to "Silly Putty" after Flubber.
Metal roller skates were pretty dangerous too. Skinned my knees innumerable times. Chipped a tooth, too.
Still, I loved skating, roller and snow. My parents never thought that my skates were dangerous. They thought these were "normal things that happen to children".
I happen to agree. Too many kids are raised in a parental bubble, these days.
Also those little snapper things you throw, usually sold at the fireworks around July 4th. Fireworks! Now there's some dangerous 'toys'. Kids have free reign of them more than they should, and some adults are even more careless with them than kids.
They still sell the little snappers. My kids love them. The best use they've found for them is to wait until their dad has just finished lighting a big firework and hasn't moved back yet, then toss a handful of snappers and watch him jump a few feet in the air, thinking the big one went off too soon.
But I made sure it was dangerous. When Mom said no to this toy, too (killjoy!), I decided to make my own. I don't remember what I put around my ankle, but I wrapped some rope around a rock, and started the foot motion that was supposed to start the toy swinging in a circle. Ow! The rock repeatedly hit my ankle bone!
But I made sure it was dangerous. When Mom said no to this toy, too (killjoy!), I decided to make my own. I don't remember what I put around my ankle, but I wrapped some rope around a rock, and started the foot motion that was supposed to start the toy swinging in a circle. Ow! The rock repeatedly hit my ankle bone!
LOL - I had BOTH of these!!!
I went through several pairs of "clacker balls", yes that's what we called them. The balls were made of some kind of acrylic material and would shatter. Unless they shattered your forearm or you clonked yourself in the head first!
The Footsie was an instant face plant game. Skip, skip, trip!
Looking back, I must have endured several concussions growing up.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
