Hooray for dangerous toys! Part 1

I just read a great article in The New Yorker* that spoke about the dangerous toys of our youth. As the writer put it: “Most of the toys that I used to covet were things that, nowadays, are considered … potential causes of injury or blindness: cheap slingshots… BBs…Greenie Stik-M-Caps… Shootin’ Shells…red roll caps (for hitting with hammers)…and model cars and their intoxicating glue.”  It brought back so many wonderfully scary memories that I thought I would share some of my scary toy stories with you in hopes that you could share your scary stories as well.

Let me start with guns. I can vividly remember smoking my cap gun. I, and many others of my kind, thought it was the ultimate of cool to fire off a shot and then suck the smoke in out of the end of the barrel. Cool indeed! We will probably all eventually die from some rare form of cap gun cancer.

And while we are on the subject of caps, I can distinctly remember making a very nifty cannon out of the ink barrel of a ball point pen. Lest you think, “How could he do that, ink barrels are made out of plastic,” let me assure you that in those great, dangerous days of yesterday, ink barrels were made out of metal. 

Accomplishing this task called for an amazing confluence of little kid danger: A sharp scissors and fire. Here is how we did it; we took a roll of caps, cut out the gun powder, rammed the powder down the barrel, shoved a piece of broken pencil lead in after it and then applied a candle or match. The result was a satisfying blast that drove the lead for several feet until it struck an object or an eye. 

In my next posting; how our city government and parents tried to kill us through the joy of play.

*The New Yorker, The Dime Store Floor, David Owen, 1/25/10