I’m thinking that this was the inspiration for Jarts.
Except that this is inconsistent with every site I have read on them and every pair I have seen. Hardened acrylic can look and feel a lot like glass. You find some real evidence that these things were made of glass and I’ll beleive it, but the 30 year old memories of people that were kids is not credible.
When I was a kid living in Erie Pa we were just 15 miles from the Ohio border which at the time had very lax fireworks laws. Every summer my dad would drive to Ohio and return with a trunk load of M-80s, silver salutes, roman candles and bottle rockets. One thing about the M-80s were they would burn under water so we put them in a bucket of water and watch as the metal bucket would be blown sky high with the water exploding out like a depth charge. My dad also had a boat and liked to light them up and throw them overboard so you had large geysers erupting from the water like a destroyer after a submarine.
It was Dan Ackroyd. The skit was with Jane Curtain, a fictional show called “Consumer Probe” or something like that. I searched the Internet for it, but seems like NBC Universal has managed to get most SNL content removed from the video sites. Maybe it’s on Hulu but I find that site hard to search.
Jarts? Check.
Clackers? Check.
Creepy crawlers? Check.
We also used to have BB gun fights (a raincoat was the Uniform of the Day). Same for cow shit fights (a hood was added for this evolution). My friend found a huge Hornet’s nest, which he thought would look good on his bedroom dresser. Until the hornets started crawling out a couple of nights later.
We had GI Joe when I was a kid, but he wasn’t the little mini one. He was a full sized doll (action figure?).
We used to substitute live ammo for fireworks. Take your old man’s shotgun shells, open the end, and separate the powder from the shot. Light off the powder, then put the shell in a vise, and bang on the primer with a nail and a hammer.
This was back when you could still burn trash/yard clippings on your property.
HA! I had one of those when I was a kid. Completely forgot about it until now. And yes, I did burn myself with it.
I remember getting a rock collection (geology kit) for Christmas…it included a chunk of uranium ore (carnotite). the rock would glow in the dark, being radioactive-did I shorten my life by having this rock in my bedroom? It was probably pumping out radon gas, which I inhaled!:smack:
Got kids?
My favorite toy back when I was a kid was fire. I would spend hours lighting random things on fire. Trashcans filled with paper light on fire when you throw embers in. Then they proceed to melt down
Of course empty plastic bottles of charcoal fluid melt down too. But that’s only after you and your friend figure out that the vapors stay inside the bottle and are just as flammable. We used to have a lot of fun. Fortunately, natural selection never caught up with us. 
No mention of Slip N’ Slide? I can’t begin to tell you how many bruises that thing created. Hey kids! Wet down a thin sheet of plastic on top of the grass and dive onto it at full speed!
yes, here’s a link to that Dan Ackyroyd skit.
Pics and transcript only, unfortunately.
For more information see Slingshots, Bottle Rockets and Cherry Bombs: A Child’s Guide to Low-Intensity Conflict Weapons and Tactics.
We made our own: bolt bombs, they were called. Take one bolt, the bigger the diameter the better. Half thread a corresponding nut on the tip, leaving a recess of about half the inside of the nut. Pack recess with as many powdered matchheads as it will hold. Thread another bolt onto the opposite end of the nut, and tighten each bolt - very, very carefully - until they begin to meet in the centre of the nut and compress the match powder. Hurl bolt bomb as hard as possible end-on at concrete. Warning: this is an excellent way of losing an eye.
That, Sir, would make an excellent sig.
My science kit came with a hand-sized plastic maze puzzle (clear on top). Inside was a drop (ball?) of mercury which you would work around the maze by tipping from side to side. Wonder what happened to that mercury?
I recall one schoolmate who actually broke a mercury thermometer and played with the mercury in his hand. Lost track of him, too.
Aw, we used to play with BEAKERS of mercury at my school’s science lab.
Also little garter snakes.
Sometimes simultaneously.
Never done us no harm.
'Scuse me, I need to trim the fingernails on my third hand…
-MMM-
(the snakes always seemed to dig the slick tops of the chemical-resistant tables, and would happily go skidding around at high speed…)
Not a bad idea!
Sexist sentiments aside, what the hell good is that? I’m picturing a tin box with empty glass bottles.
Now think about what a test tube is shaped like …