Ah yes the chemistry set! I used all of the sulfur, a charcoal briquette, and some saltpeter from the pharmacy to make some black powder. I tinkered around with the formula until I got a long burn, unfortunately it was in a glass ashtray which cracked and the flaming contents set my bed on fire. I put it out with a bucket of water getting ready for my aquarium and slept in a damp bed for a night. there was only a small hole in the blankets but the mattress took a bigger patch.
Have you seen the Arrow? WWW
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#4323046 - 12/24/1606:54 PMRe: What was the best Christmas gift you received when you were a kid?
[Re: LB4LB]
My favorite gift was the Evil Knievel stunt bike, dragster and RV. I don't know how many times I bloodied my knuckles trying to wind those bikes up on the sidewalk. A close second would be the Atari 2600 clone I got one year from Sears. Getting those catalogs every fall was great.
Quickcord
LOL ! The one design flaw in what was a great boyhood toy. I too bloodied my knuckles trying to wind up that thing. Thanks for the good laugh. That brought back some great memories.
What ever happened to Chemistry sets ? I got a few of them thru the years.
LOL. Yup. Have the ramps all set up, winding as hard and as fast as you could then...sudden stop to launch! How did that pause launch work anyway?! Was a mystery to me, like the continuous looping of an 8-track tape!
The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in Gives way and suddenly it’s day again The sun is in the east Even though the day is done Two suns in the sunset, hmph Could be the human race is run
#4323047 - 12/24/1606:54 PMRe: What was the best Christmas gift you received when you were a kid?
[Re: Quickcord]
My favorite gift was the Evil Knievel stunt bike, dragster and RV. I don't know how many times I bloodied my knuckles trying to wind those bikes up on the sidewalk. A close second would be the Atari 2600 clone I got one year from Sears. Getting those catalogs every fall was great.
Quickcord
I still have a scar on my chin from 1974 after taking a Kenner SSP Smash-up Derby car right to my face when I was a kid
#4323048 - 12/24/1606:57 PMRe: What was the best Christmas gift you received when you were a kid?
[Re: Robbster]
Always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie Wiesel. Romanian born Jewish writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, Holocaust survivor. 1928 - 2016.
Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. C.S. Lewis, 1898 - 1963.
#4323082 - 12/24/1609:27 PMRe: What was the best Christmas gift you received when you were a kid?
[Re: Robbster]
Joined: Mar 2012 Posts: 5,420LB4LB
Still lurking about
My favorite gift was the Evil Knievel stunt bike, dragster and RV. I don't know how many times I bloodied my knuckles trying to wind those bikes up on the sidewalk. A close second would be the Atari 2600 clone I got one year from Sears. Getting those catalogs every fall was great.
Quickcord
I still have a scar on my chin from 1974 after taking a Kenner SSP Smash-up Derby car right to my face when I was a kid
Holy flashback Batman !!!! I had those too.
#4323087 - 12/24/1609:51 PMRe: What was the best Christmas gift you received when you were a kid?
[Re: Robbster]
Can't believe I'm the first and only one saying this, but by far the best thing I got for Christmas as a kid was my first bike. Sure I had other cool things too, but NOTHING has as strong of memories as my first bike.
I was 6, and my "world" instantly went from a couple streets to like FIFTY streets (back in the early 70's when a kid that age could actually roam around that much).
I don't even think my first car gave me that much of a thrill.
#4323089 - 12/24/1610:11 PMRe: What was the best Christmas gift you received when you were a kid?
[Re: Robbster]
My first bike was a piece of crap hand-me-down, my first new *real* bike was the black and yellow one in this ad...
It wasn't a gift, though.
I know what you mean about a bike giving you freedom to roam, also why we were all twig skinny kids back then (a fat kid was rare in those days).
I remember one summer, guess I was about 12 or so, the neighborhood bicycle gang decided to see just how far we could ride out in one day, getting back before our parents returned home from work. Using Google Earth, I estimate we rode at least 10 miles out (on BMX type, no gears). I remember being exhausted on the return trip, wondering if I had the stamina to make it back home in time.
#4323131 - 12/25/1601:04 AMRe: What was the best Christmas gift you received when you were a kid?
[Re: MarkG]
Reminds me of the time I rode in the Bicentennial parade Mark. Mom said I could ride in it but she meant only through town on Main Street (Athens, IL) but I followed the parade out of town heading to Springfield. She didn't catch me until I had made it to the Springfield airport, mainly because she didn't have a clue where I went. Lol I passed out in the truck from exhaustion shortly after she found me. 11 miles on one of those single speed Sears bikes was a workout.
I took the 1A route. http://tinyurl.com/j8svxqn (via Post St, N Cantrall Creek Rd and IL-29 S) About a mile or so out of town I couldn't keep up with the motorized parade or the people on ten speed bikes so I rode most of the route alone. I caught the parade at the airport again and that is when MOM finally found me and boy howdy did I catch heck for taking off on my own. HWY 29 may look like a peaceful country road but it was heavily traveled even then and for the most part didn't have any paved shoulders so I was riding in the gravel.
A bolt action airsoft rifle. To my 12 year old mind, it was mindblowing because it fired the BBs out of cartridges that the action would actually eject. It wasn't exactly durable though
#4323334 - 12/25/1611:22 PMRe: What was the best Christmas gift you received when you were a kid?
[Re: Robbster]
I got a blanket one year (first year they had those microfiber blankets. Was expecting it to be a remote controlled car. Was completely heartbroken. Then proceeded to use that blanket for years and years and it turned out to be my favorite gift I've ever gotten. I always feel completely horrible about the way I acted when I got that blanket but as a kid a blanket doesnt mean much. As an adult a comfortable blanket is better than any 100 toys I had as a kid.
It would have been this exact magic set when I was about 8 or 9 years old, so 1953 or 54.
I was kind of surprised that I actually found a picture of one on the net. All my toys for Christmas were ordered out of the Sears Christmas catalog back then. I think I thought that Santa Claus worked with Sears. However, that was about the same time that I figured out that there was no Santa, when I found some stuff I had asked for under my parent's bed a week or so before the big day.
Anyway, it got me started on a life long off and on hobby of learning and occasionally doing magic trick for friends and family. After I retired in 2007, I worked part time in a local magic shop demonstrating the tricks we sold. The shop finally closed at the end of 2015. Like many specialty shops, the owner couldn't compete with the internet and he didn't have any interest or the know how to take his business on-line.
Cheers
Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.
#4323600 - 12/27/1608:29 AMRe: What was the best Christmas gift you received when you were a kid?
[Re: Robbster]
Joined: Dec 2001 Posts: 4,920Dick Dastardly
I Don't Care Bear
#4323666 - 12/27/1602:35 PMRe: What was the best Christmas gift you received when you were a kid?
[Re: Robbster]
Joined: Apr 2001 Posts: 121,468PanzerMeyer
Pro-Consul of Florida
PanzerMeyer
Pro-Consul of Florida
King Crimson - SimHQ's Top Poster
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 121,468
Miami, FL USA
I would have to say the Atari 2600 gaming system that my dad got me for Christmas in 1979. Man I played the heck out of that thing! I think that's when gaming got into my blood.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”