Lil kids bullwhips and other toys of the past

Crockett

Crockett

5,000+ Posts
I watched some kids play with toys that shouldn't really have been out on a busy bike trail this evening and it made me think of toys I played with at their age -- Little Kids bulwhips (hey my momma wasn't dumb enough to buy them but the neighbors did) and firecrackers I lit and threw and one that blew up before it left my hand. Man, it was a simpler time in the 1960s unless maybe you were an emergency room doctor.
 
Most firecrackers weren't powerful enough to do too much damage.

Of course the exception was good ole "black cat" which could definately numb some fingers for a while.

We would hold the lit firecracker till the fuse went down to the point you could throw it and it would explode before it hit the ground. Also seeing how high we could blow a can into the air was a staple.

We also held Roman Candles and shook them to make them go higher. I don't think I ever saw anybody stick them in the ground like the directions said to do.

Also if you took a piece of pipe about 2 feet long you could shoot bottle rockets like little rpgs.
 
I remember bigger firecrackers like "baby giants", M-80's and cherry bombs, but they cost a lot. Black Cats were better because you could buy big strings of them for not much money.

This also reminds me of kids bringing dimes to school covered with mercury, real shinny and slick to the touch. They were probably poisoning us as we played with them.

Kids also brought cinnamon toothpicks, which were really hot and would burn your tongue if you kept them in your mouth too long.

Somebody gave me a bullwhip for Christmas one year and I learned to crack it. People said it popped because the end traveled so fast it broke the sound barrier. I never knew whether to believe that or not.
 
I had a lot of fun with my Lash LaRue bullwhip, still pop firecrackers to this day with my kids and we throw them in the air, and I make clove oil toothpicks. I am sure that is out of favor with the current nanny state but I really don't care. If I ever do blow my finger off with a firecracker I will just tape it up and drive on, no obamacare necessary.
 
Thank goodness this got political!

I remember all of those toys. Bullwhips seem so strange, but back then a number of kids had them. Seems like we only played with them once or twice and then they'd disappear.

Walkie talkies were also a popular gift that was similarly used for awhile and then consigned to a closet.

We used to have pea shooter fights in the new houses going up in the neighborhood.
 
I remember the bullwhips were irresistable toys and you could play with them in relatively safe ways, like using the whip to knock over coke bottles. I remember a lot of tears because it was easy enough to "accidentally" catch the whip on some of the other players. The tears weren't just because of the sting at the end of a whip. Fisticuffs and pro wrestling moves could result if the "accident" explanation wasn't accepted. Funny thing though is we all woke up friends again by the next morning.
 
I had a pretty good cinnamon and peppermint toothpick business going in fifth and sixth grades. I found the flat toothpicks held the oil better, had the right ratio and price. It funded extra snacks and desserts for myself and friends not to mention other things.

Slingshots or wrist rockets. We all had one and all of us got our butts whooped at one time or another for breaking something with 'em. We sure misjudged the trajectory and distance various rocks and shapes would travel. We'd overshoot the field we'd fire in and they'd reach the road sometimes. Nothing like seeing kids scatter like roaches when the lights are turned on.

I cannot think of anybody I know buying one of these for their kids now.
 
We used to make "spoke guns". Cut spoke off an old bike rim, put gunpowder and a bb in the "barrel", stick the spoke in the ground and hold a match on it until it fired. Great way to lose an eye.
 
Speaking of spokes, somebody in the neighborhood had the brilliant idea of holding playing cards or bubble gum baseball cards on the frame of a bicycle using clothes pins so that the cards stuck past the spokes of the back wheel. When you pedaled your bike, the cards whapped against the spokes as the spokes went by and if you went fast enough, it sounded like a motor. It sounded cool but the resistance of the playing cards against the spokes made it harder to pedal the bicycle, so you didn't do it for long.

The mention of Lash LaRue reminded me of my first memory of being in a movie theatre and seeing Lash LaRue (maybe a Saturday matinee serial). I loved those Saturday afternoon serials, always cliffhangers. I think Flash Gordon was one of them.
 
There was also the "clacker craze" that went on for awhile.

They were two hard plastic balls that were attached to each end of about an 18 inch cord. The idea was to hold the middle of the cord (sometimes there was metal ring in the middle) and shake your hand up and down to clack the plastic balls.

When you got up to speed you jerked your hand up hard to make the balls hopefully clack together up above your hand and then back down.

Needless to say there were plenty of bruised hands and wrists sported around school. Thankfully this craze died out as cool gave way to the pain.

Another craze thought not so dangerous but with all the dextrose and sodium involved they were probably worse than the cinnamon toothpicks were "Pixie Stix" which were like straws filled with the powder of "Sweet Tarts."

I must admit I was a fan for awhile, but I actually liked the Sweet Tarts better and always bought the large size at the movies. They lasted a long time and if you wanted the Pixie Stix effect just follow the advise on the Sweet Tarts and "bite em" for a burst of flavor.
 
NB, what about the giant pixie stix? The one in the plastic tube about two feet long and as wide as carrot. Talk about a sugar rush!!! We'd try to chug the whole thing in one try but end up spewing some of it in the air which was met with uproarious laughter. The buzz was second to none.

However, depending on how hyper or devious we were feeling before the chugging commenced, we'd whip one another with them in a sadistic game of tag. Those things hurt like hell but we still played that stupid game.

Sorta like wall ball. I look back now and wonder what the hell we were thinking. Oh yeah, we weren't.
 
The giant pixie stix again I thought mimicked the giant Sweet Tart which was the size of one of those old washing machine detergent tablets.

Sort of like an all day Sweet Tart which was like the all day sucker.

Which reminds me of something of my early childhood.

This would be the all day Corn shaped sucker which came in grape and either cherry or rasberrry I just remember it was red.

Now to show you how things were different then and I wonder if anybody remembers this. These all day cornsuckers which actually were corn shaped on the front with a flat back had coins in them.

Usually a penny, but sometimes there was a nickel in them. Can you imagine that today? Not only the health concerns, but the lawsuits waiting to happen when little Billy or Mary swallowed one of those coins.

I don't recall any uproar about these suckers they just sort of went away after a few years. Does anybody remember these as I swear they were around back in the 60's at least in northeast Texas.

I favored the grape ones with the tinge of copper or nickel flavoring.
 
Wowzers, really?! I have never heard of this candy and yes there would be serious uproar now.

How about candy cigarettes? I think those would make some heads explode.
 
The Link


I knew I wasn't imagining things even though I was really young at the time.

The ones I got didn't have the coins wrapped. They were just in the candy in the raw.
 
The people making comments on that page are in a craze to get one again. Damn, what was in it? Besides a coin if you were lucky. I cannot say I ever saw one of them thar thingamabobs.
 
I don't remember the corn candy with coins in them but y'all are probably 10-20 years younger than I am. I do remember the Slow Poke candy bars that lasted all day. I never finished one, and even never finished one that someone else never finished and gave to me to eat.

I remember candy cigarettes and I think legislation outlawing marketing cigarettes to children specifically outlawed candy cigarettes. They were pretty bad candy anyway and tasted like chalk.

Something about that made me think of cracker balls which were little round firecrackers that would explode when you threw them on the sidewalk.
 
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