Culture artifacts that ...maybe not ONLY you remember....but its getting close.

[DummyGladHands]

Remembered these guys the other day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FPjri3fpW0
And realized I could remembered every word to the theme song.
Now where Da’Fuq did I put my keys?

[Dung_Beetle]

@ExTank

I’m sure that here on the SDMB, I’ll get plenty of, “Oh, hells yeah, I remember that!” responses, but out IRL I typically get blank looks.

Big Trak

Yeah! Me and my brother had one of those! Let me tell you, when you’re a kid with a toy that can be programmed to “fire” 99 times in a row, you never ask it for any less.

[Hypno-Toad]

@ExTank

I’m sure that here on the SDMB, I’ll get plenty of, “Oh, hells yeah, I remember that!” responses, but out IRL I typically get blank looks.

Big Trak

I loved my Big Trak and the automatic tilting trailer that came with it. I would program it to leave my room, turn 90 degrees left, go down the hall, make another left, go straight under my parents bed, and then fire it’s gun 99 time. My parents did not find this funny at 11 PM. But I have to say that my dad thought it was a really cool toy as well and had a good time checking it out with me on my birthday.

[Sternvogel]

@aurora_maire

I checked it out and looked at some on ebay but that’s still not what I had. The pieces are too big and it doesn’t come with the mat and the little trees and stop signs. I’m thinking maybe what I had was some sort of playset. Probably bought at TG&Y or the Ten Cent Store since we were poor and didn’t get a lot of name brand toys.

Sounds like a Playskool Village, although the one I remember from my child was simpler than the ones I’ve seen by Googling. Also, mine came in a white duffel bag, as opposed to a box. I’d have played with it during the late '60’s or (with my youngest sibling) early '70’s.

[rjk]

@terentii

There was another thing we played with back in the '50s, but I don’t remember what they were called—snakes or worms or something like that. They were small pellets that looked like charcoal and smelled like sulfur. If they were exposed to heat, they’d fizzle and spit and expand into long, gnarly strips, hence the name (snakes or worms). We used to put them on the sidewalk and focus sunlight onto them with a magnifying glass until they were hot enough to ignite.

<snip>

(Yes, I was late coming to this thread.)

Since several people way back on page 1 liked the fire snakes, it’s easy enough to do your own.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fire+snake

[ExTank]

@Hypno-Toad

I loved my Big Trak and the automatic tilting trailer that came with it. I would program it to leave my room, turn 90 degrees left, go down the hall, make another left, go straight under my parents bed, and then fire it’s gun 99 time. My parents did not find this funny at 11 PM. But I have to say that my dad thought it was a really cool toy as well and had a good time checking it out with me on my birthday.

Mine was an XMas present in, I want to say 1980, may be misremembering, but yeah, I was the last one who got to play with it that day, behind my Dad, Uncle, older brother, and two older cousins.

[ramon]

i remember cool fireworks as a kid, those are gone now, atleast where i live

[ftg]

The variety of local live TV. Sure, there’s a lot of hours of local live TV now. But it’s all sports, news and the odd quasi-news morning show.

I remember the daily cooking show, exercise show, etc. The local franchise of Romper Room. The local Friday night wrestling* show. The weekly local talent show. The daily movie show with a host. Etc. All live.

Esp. for wrestling and the movies there’d often be a local car/appliance dealer doing live commercials. Johnny Carson’s Art Fern was right on the money.

Of course a lot of people remember the kiddie show. But at one time we had three of them: The cowboy, the clown and the “normal” (???) guy.

The variety was amazing compared to today. And live as live can be. No videotape and kinescope wasn’t usually an option.

• I don’t fit “pro wrestling” in the same slot as sports.

[bump]

@ExTank

I’m sure that here on the SDMB, I’ll get plenty of, “Oh, hells yeah, I remember that!” responses, but out IRL I typically get blank looks.

Big Trak

I had one! Believe it or not, it was what got me initially interested in programming and computer stuff, since you basically were writing a computer program to get it to do stuff.

[Horatius]

@ftg

Bah, didn’t see that. Well okay then. Anyway…

To me, a lot of my culture is tech culture. E.g., today I needed to measure a cord and couldn’t find my metal ruler. But I did find my IBM Flowchart Template, still in its original sleeve.

My dad worked his entire career as a computer programmer, and back when he would take us to work on days we had off school, I’d often use that template to draw fleets of spaceships having massive battles!