I used to buy cigarettes for my mother at a candy store that, if confused memory serves, sold all, and I mean all, kinds of pornography. Gone are the days . . .

I'll give you the cigs, but if you want to talk porn... Today's kids have much easier access to ALL types of porn than we ever had. Do I need to re-post the squid love page?

Then how can they possibly appreciate it?

Yes, please.

OH I want that
(Pretend that there are exclamation points on these phrases - my keyboard is malfunctioning, and I cannot be emphatic.)

anyway, that chemistry set looks amazing. I had one when I was a kid, but the instruction book was missing. My parents told me they would write away for a replacement, but they never did. My Mom was worried about me mixing things up unguided, so we went to the library, and I found a terrific book called Chemical Magic. It provided formulas for making invisible ink, changing color liquids, flame-proof dollar bills, colored smoke, all stuff that would go into putting on a magic show. I burnt a hole in the kitchen linoleum floor trying out the dollar bill thing. The whole endeavor came to an end shortly thereafter.

I used to ride on the tailgate of the pickup riding around the ranch - feet and legs dangling over the end.... either that or in the bed, standing up holding on to some support rack that was over the cab.

I would also leave the house in the morning, saddle up the horse - or ride bare back - and be gone for hours at a time out riding. Never telling anyone where I was specifically going. I fell off one day riding without a saddle. Was going pretty fast and literally slipped right off the backside. The horse was part belgian (big!) and I couldn't get back on - even climbing up on a stump. Normally I would have used a fence to climb up but there weren't any around. I ended up having walk him home.

We had giant lawn darts when I was a kid. It was great fun and of course you could threaten people with them when the ground was too icy to play.

As far as riding goes, I used to ride around hanging off the side of my uncle's tractor sometimes for miles at a stretch.

Also, I had a red rider BB gun at least until my brother shot me in the back with it and my parents decided that that was not a good toy idea.

I was at a flea market the other day, and a guy was selling a set of lawn darts, still in its original 70s box. Now I wish I had bought them.

Then there was the "$20 Cracker Bag"

This was a $20 assortment of fireworks (Crackers in the Oz vernacular) that always contained at least 1-2 hours of fun.

My favourites were the "Golden Showers" and the "Peacock Fountain". Flower Pots were pretty too, as were the various volcanoes.

Sadly, firecrackers have been outlawed in NSW for a looooong time now. Hence our excitement when we went to Texas in '02 and bought over US$300 of crackers and let them off at a private ranch just out of the city limits. Good times.

Anyone wanna explain this one to Lash, or shall we send him to the Urban Dictionary?