16. Making your own “toys.”
“We used to hang steel wool on a modified wire hanger then light and spin it. Hot metal going all over the place. How did I survive childhood?” –weaselpoopcoffee
17. What’s the worst that could happen?
“When I was 8, I got this helicopter toy that you launched by pulling a string on the launch stick. The string would turn a shaft attached to the copter to get the blades turning fast enough to make it fly.
The string was too short for me so, in order to make the thing fly higher I tied a 5 foot string to the helicopter launch stick. Then I had my little brother hold the launch stick and I pulled the string as hard as I could.
The bottom of the launch stick pointed at me when I pulled the string, which meant the helicopter was pointed straight at my little brother’s face.
It launched all right….the METAL blades of the copter sliced both his top and bottom lip and took out a chunk of his nose.” –OLDGuy6060
18. ATVs
“3 wheeled ATVs killed so many people in the early 1980s that they had become banned in some countries. Shortly before their decline here in Canada (mid to late 1980s); my family owned two of them. I can remember several times where myself or my two brothers rolled them onto our heads/necks. Luckily none of us were very seriously hurt. But now that I have kids, I would never let them use a 3-wheeler.” –wendiggler
19. Happy Halloween.
“I had the Daniel Boone costume kit that included a coonskin cap, knife and hatchet. The knife and hatchet were real, not toys.” –sp1kline
20. A little water never hurt anyone, but these did.
“Super Soakers where getting a little out of control from the mid 90’s to the early 2000’s.
They held a ton of water and felt like someone was spraying you with a pressure washer; hitting someone in the eyes would temporarily blind them and crying wasn’t uncommon.
Slip and slides whew also pretty rough when a rock poked up through the plastic and caught your stomach after a 30 foot head start. So much blood.” –iBody
21. Playgrounds were different.
“Playground equipment like see-saws, merry go-round, and metal slides. I once burned a layer of skin off my thighs going down a hot metal slide (summer in Georgia) in shorts.” –its_moki
22. Choking hazards.
“Polly Pockets and littlest pet shops are now made gigantic because i guess too many kids choked on them.” –Ditovontease
23. Don’t take it outside the house.
“A toy gun that looked like a real gun – no joke.” –TheDeadlySquid
24. A horror story.
“I had a large red plastic toy box that looked like a treasure chest in my bedroom closet growing up. When I was around 7, late at night the toy box would start talking to me from the closet, calling my name, Michael, in a low, creaky voice. For weeks, I was terrified to fall asleep because I knew I’d wake up to the voice again, yet every morning when the sun filled my room I’d open the lid to the box and it would just be toys, like it should be.
Finally, I was able to convince my mom that I wasn’t making it up, and got her to sleep in my room that night with me, and shortly thereafter she woke me up with “Michael wake up, I hear it”.
Long story short, we discovered it was my Talking K.I.T.T. with very low batteries, talking away in slow motion by itself.
I don’t know if those should be illegal, but I definitely feel like the experience damaged me.” –criscodisco6618
25. And finally, the old “where the hell did they go?”
“The real answer is “freedom”. As in completely unsupervised play time where you and your friend just… Go off and play. What are you doing? Who knows. Wrestling in the grass? Throwing rocks at trees. Sword fighting with sticks? Whatever.
As a third grader i probably averaged three to four hours outside just playing around with my buddy. And it would have been impossible for my mom to find me.” –NegativeChirality
Times have changed.
h/t Reddit: r/AskReddit