Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

Did all of that except the tar. However, I did swap chewing gum with my girlfriend. Don’t know which is worse.

clint f. Loc: Priest Lake Idaho, Spokane Wa

Mercury in an open wound. That explains a lot about my life. Grandma, where we spent the summer, bought it in the economy 5 gallon size. 😀

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

Ah, chewing gum swap..... hopelessly romantic.

Scruples Loc: Brooklyn, New York

Yes, I remember drinking from the garden hose, riding my bike around the neighborhood without a helmet and getting home when the street lights came on. Speaking of riding a bicycle I remember all the cuts and scraps I got. Mom was very liberal with the “Devil’s Red Spit.” Man!…. that stuff stung like a bee and left you with a nice red tattoo for a few days.

One Bottle of Devil’s Spit
Attached file:
(Download)

bodiebill

REAL MEN USE IODINE!

chikid68 Loc: Tennesse USA

Mom used to tell us that the sting was because the germs were being killed.
I guess that means the more it stung the better it was.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Your Mom & my Mom must have gone to different schools together!!!
Mark

chikid68 Loc: Tennesse USA

Quite likely

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Also picked the ice up off the street, wiped it off on our shirt and ate it, cast lead soldiers in my room no face shield. or ventilation, road bikes in city traffic without a helmut, had BB gun fights, made a cigarette lighter out of a 14000v neon sign transformer and carbon rods salvaged two of big 1.5v batteries, made pennies look like dimes rubbing them with mercury with bare hands, never could fool the old guy at the corner store .

Moondoggie Loc: Southern California

Yep, I did the same growing up.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Splendid childhood, Frank!! Bullet proof!
Mark

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

LOL haven't tested the Bullet proof yet

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

Fantastic! Put pennies on railroad tracks to flatten them. Also grabbed onto the back of ice trucks and buses on skates to go a couple of city blocks. Also in movie houses where they ran 50 cartoons for 25 cents on Saturday mornings, dropped water balloons off of the movie balcony on to girls below. (I know I was terrible.)

Reuss Griffiths Loc: Ravenna, Ohio

This has been a fun posting going over the way we used to be and the crazy things we did. Everyone has stories like this and leap at the chance to tell them. But what emerges is the concern about safety and how did we escape all these terrible things.

What we're really talking about are two technical terms; toxicity and hazard. Toxicity is the potential for some chemical to cause harm and hazard is the likelihood that that will actually happen. A lot of the things talked about here, mercurochrome and merthiolate contained mercury compounds which are definitely toxic if exposed in large enough quantities. The reason we survived is that the levels we were actually exposed were not very hazardous.

In today's world we are just not willing to accept any risk, no matter how small and that's our loss. And why we are so eager to relive those memories for the everyone's enjoyment. Here's my contribution to handling some "nasty" stuff". If you take a few iodine crystals and mix them out of doors with a couple of ounces of ammonia that you can buy at the supermarket and let the sit for 10 minutes (you do this outside so the ammonia fumes don't bother you), then carefully pour off the ammonia so only the crystals remain. Transfer the crystals onto a paper towel with the tip of a spoon and then sprinkle them on any hard surface like your floor or driveway. In about half an hour, if you step on these crystals (which are generally so small you don't notice them) they will explode like caps. Quite a surprise if you're not expecting it. Downside is that iodine crystals leave big brown stains on whatever surface you do this on. Upside, iodine sublimes and the next day all stains are gone. I'm not too concerned about anyone actually trying this these days as iodine crystals are pretty hard to come by.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Nah! You were just young & alive!
Mark