Nostalgia ......remembering the fun stuff from when we were kids !

[achaios]

I had a used English Ford Anglia, when I was going to school in Florida.

What a clunker that was! When it got cold, it wouldn't start. I'd have to push it down the driveway, jump in and pop it into second gear. After I graduated, I got a job in New Jersey so I traded it for a VW Karman Ghia and drove it from Miami to Summit NJ.

When I first saw that picture, my immediate thought before reading the post was "Nash Metropolitan".

My mom drove a 1963 Ford Falcon, which could absolutely not be driven over 55mph or blue smoke would start coming out of the hood.

-- Tom

 

[stetam]

This was great in the mid 60's!

Steve

 

[amc rulz]

just think about what new cars cost when you were a kid , don't think our family ever had a new one till my parents won one in a raffle a new Corvair that they traded for a station wagon . 4 kids two adults needed the space.

I was 5 in 1967 when dad bought a big Ford country Squire wagon. Three-on-the-tree stick shift, and he fitted it with television in the back where my brother and I could watch on our long vacation trips. Had a futuristic-looking low profile tv antenna towards the rear top of the wagon. Never saw another like it. Sticker price on the car was $3,359. That’s $28,914 in today’s dollars. Gas was 36 cents/gal, roughly $2.67 today.

 

[MuddyMo]

Wow, glad you mentioned that, I forgot all about kites, I might had tried making a homemade one, not sure offhand, but the store bought ones were pretty cheap, I remember one kite I got to go really really really high

Don't remember doing the nail thing though. I guess you didn't want to be underneath it when it came down

But I do seem to remember making small homemade parachutes you could tie a weight to and throw it in the air.

Here's a kite ad from the 1960's I just found online.
View attachment 499453

Half the fun was making the kites. You knew you where doing good when you had a 2-3 hundred feet of sting out. A real lesson learned knowing how much tail to add depending on wind speed etc. Kids now wouldnt have a clue just like me on a computer.
The nails were were more dangerous when there was 3-4 of us throwing them up at the same time.

 

[achaios]

This was great in the mid 60's!

Steve

I had one of those. You would get soaking wet from the "exhaust" when launching those things. My yard was always too small to avoid having to go retrieve it from a neighboring yard.

-- Tom

 

[davidlhyde63366]

I was 5 in 1967 when dad bought a big Ford country Squire wagon. Three-on-the-tree stick shift, and he fitted it with television in the back where my brother and I could watch on our long vacation trips. Had a futuristic-looking low profile tv antenna towards the rear top of the wagon. Never saw another like it. Sticker price on the car was $3,359. That’s $28,914 in today’s dollars. Gas was 36 cents/gal, roughly $2.67 today.

nice station wagon , ours wasn't that fancy and no tv in back , but plenty of room to stretch out and nap and move around and great for camping trips .

 

[GKL]

When I first saw that picture, my immediate thought before reading the post was "Nash Metropolitan".

My mom drove a 1963 Ford Falcon, which could absolutely not be driven over 55mph or blue smoke would start coming out of the hood.

-- Tom

.....on the positive side it likely helped avoid getting speeding tickets

This was great in the mid 60's!

Steve

Yep, I had one of those, needed to be far enough from the house so as to avoid it landing on the roof

I was 5 in 1967 when dad bought a big Ford country Squire wagon. Three-on-the-tree stick shift, and he fitted it with television in the back where my brother and I could watch on our long vacation trips. Had a futuristic-looking low profile tv antenna towards the rear top of the wagon. Never saw another like it. Sticker price on the car was $3,359. That’s $28,914 in today’s dollars. Gas was 36 cents/gal, roughly $2.67 today.

WOW TV in your car in 1967 ? .....you were definitely ahead of your time on a long trip we'd have little pocket games to play

Half the fun was making the kites. You knew you where doing good when you had a 2-3 hundred feet of sting out. A real lesson learned knowing how much tail to add depending on wind speed etc. Kids now wouldnt have a clue just like me on a computer.
The nails were were more dangerous when there was 3-4 of us throwing them up at the same time.

Good point about the length of the tail, I seem to remember if it was too short there was a tendency for the kite to spin around in circles in the wind.

As far as store bought kites, it was hard to resist those neat designs printed on the kites

I had one of those. You would get soaking wet from the "exhaust" when launching those things. My yard was always too small to avoid having to go retrieve it from a neighboring yard.

-- Tom

We lived in a row house growing up with small yards, as far as getting wet from the "exhaust" I don't think I minded it on those hot summer days

nice station wagon , ours wasn't that fancy and no tv in back , but plenty of room to stretch out and nap and move around and great for camping trips .

We went on at least one really long trip in a station wagon, thought it was so neat to be able to get in the storage area in the back. Definitely not high tech, the rear window and other windows were manual and not electric, but it was still fun

 

[GKL]

Now it's not that I didn't think the high tech (for those days ) toys were fun, but looking back it's amazing how much fun we kids had with even the more simple basic toys.

As far as "high tech" back then:




....but we had an amazing amount of fun with even very simple toys like these:

 

[Skwerly]

hey, neat thread idea!

i was born in '75, and i do so miss those '80s. i never thought they were weird, because they were my time. gosh, going to school in a Hawaiian print shirt, black parachute pants, don johnson shades and red and black high top jordans, unlaced. ohhhh, to break dance again like that LOL!

here are a couple of my favorite things to do as a kid, besides reading, which i did a whole lot of. chronicles of narnia for the win!

i miss these:

and these guys:

 

[GKL]

Hey, can't forget the fun we had with water pistols

I liked the small ones as they were easy to conceal

....and when the trick water pistol first came out that was really neat to be able to point straight ahead but the nozzle would squirt the person to your side instead

 

[Skwerly]

yeah! those small suckers could be pocketed easy and shot inside the house without mom knowing lmaooo!

 

[GKL]

hey, neat thread idea!

i was born in '75, and i do so miss those '80s. i never thought they were weird, because they were my time. gosh, going to school in a Hawaiian print shirt, black parachute pants, don johnson shades and red and black high top jordans, unlaced. ohhhh, to break dance again like that LOL!

here are a couple of my favorite things to do as a kid, besides reading, which i did a whole lot of. chronicles of narnia for the win!

i miss these:

and these guys:

Neat, thanks for sharing !

......not familiar with the muscle toys but surprised I forgot all about Fisher-Price toys !

yeah! those small suckers could be pocketed easy and shot inside the house without mom knowing lmaooo!

yep, you could act nonchalant like you had no idea what's going on

 

[Skwerly]

haha, cool! yeah, not sure how i got into them, either. maybe some saturday morning commercial shown during cartoons, maybe wandering around Target with moms and i hit the toy section real quick. but i had a lot lot lot of these guys. i'll never forget when they began offering the colored ones instead of just peach... wow!

"mom mom mom! ive been really good, i need this robot lizard thing in red!"

 

[GKL]

haha, cool! yeah, not sure how i got into them, either. maybe some saturday morning commercial shown during cartoons, maybe wandering around Target with moms and i hit the toy section real quick. but i had a lot lot lot of these guys. i'll never forget when they began offering the colored ones instead of just peach... wow!

"mom mom mom! ive been really good, i need this robot lizard thing in red!"

When it started getting near Christmas I had to prioritize my list of what I hoped to get for Christmas because I knew it was unlikely I'd get everything I wanted

 

[Skwerly]

YEP lol! slowly realizing you should probably ignore anything over 50 dollars in the sears catalog LOL!

 

[GKL]

Now how many of these vintage toys does anyone remember having ?

 

[Skwerly]

haha! i spent a good amount of time in hospitals as a kiddo, and wooly willy was one of my buddies.

 

[GKL]

haha! i spent a good amount of time in hospitals as a kiddo, and wooly willy was one of my buddies.

yep, magnetic stuff always seemed neat to me (hope you are doing better now !)

YEP lol! slowly realizing you should probably ignore anything over 50 dollars in the sears catalog LOL!

I think even less when I was a kid in the 50's/60's

Hey, if you want a trip down memory lane check out this web site where they archived old Christmas catalogs, just find the year and catalog you looked at back then and see if you can find some of the things you wished for and things you actually got

http://www.wishbookweb.com/the-catalogs/

......I remember one really neat robot toy that launched missiles and threw small plastic balls that I never got I'll have to see if I can find it in one of the catalogs later on

 

[Skwerly]

omgggggggg, GKL, how fun! Thank you!

 

[GKL]

omgggggggg, GKL, how fun! Thank you!

Hey, if only we could still buy from those catalogs, at those prices, with the money we have today !

.......still fun to bring back some neat memories though !