As promised, once again we delve into the days when I was writing for one. This story was about one of my favorite Christmas's, albeit long ago.
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In my formative years kids did not have rights, so I still have trouble with the notion of parents soliciting the opinions of children. In the olden days, parents rarely gave a moments consideration to what their kids wanted, or the safety of the toys they gave their children. One of my favorite all time gifts was received Christmas 1957, that golden age of kids toys.
Plastics were just coming available. The possibilities were endless. On that glorious bygone day, Santa brought a Mattel Fanner 50 toy pistol. Young moderns watching the video below will be aghast at the gincracks found on this baby. But I swear this is true,and was widely available.
Yes in fact, it did shoot real plastic bullets, at a pretty good distance. The greenie stickem caps sucked, and I still remember attempting to peel them off the backs of the cartridges.
While I can't accurately say for sure, I do believe that this gun, and the better shooting rifle which was released the next year may have had something to do with the inception of product safety laws.
You might not only put your eye out, but with luck could blind your best friend too!
Toad
4 hours ago
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5 comments:
Those same safety laws also brought about the demise of Jarts, which I always wanted. I hope to find a set every time I walk into an estate sale.
Toad...I'm painfully sentimental and the cap gun-bb gun-army men-pocket knife reality was still alive and kickin' a decade later when I was getting the same kind of loot for Christmas. I got the entire cowboy kit for Christmas when I was about six. Plastic chaps-vest-tin badge and cap shooting six shooters.
Regarding plastic...I remember getting bags of plastic army men for a buck. The hand painted lead ones were instantly obsolete when one could buy a hundred plastic ones for the price of five metal ones.
Kids rights....I lived under a loving dictatorship until 18. Then I was loosely tethered to a socialistic state (purse strings for tuition etc) till 21. The way it should be.
I showed the youtube commercial to my boys, ages 7 and almost 5, and they are in awe. John said he REALLY wants one and then started running around the house shooting with his fingers and making those sounds only little boys can. When I told him those were made over 50 years ago, but no longer, he sighed and said "Those were the good old days".
You Tube is amazing!
I am continually astounded at what some of you pro-bloggers can find.
Mumbly-peg (who gives a kid a knife now?) riding on the bikes handle bars, smashing a roll of caps with a rock. That was summer vacation. No art camp for us. Just hangin round and doing junk.
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