Just fun

 On Facebook you often see things from the past. Usually it is those do you remember memes. It will contain a picture of an object for you to identify. They do serve to make you feel a bit smarter, shall we say superior to those that don't have a clue what the object is. Yes, it's true, we all like to have that secret knowledge. I know something you don't know. I admit to enjoying that. Sometimes I look at the object and wonder how anyone could not know what it is. Then I think about it and realize many of these younger people, and that includes younger people in their forties now, have never seen or used that object. I remember how those were everyday things to me when I was growing up. Simple little things taken for granted. 

 One popped up yesterday and I was amused. It was a bumper jack. Having used one on more than one occasion, and being taught its' use in drivers' ed class, I did smile. Heck cars today don't have bumpers that would stand up to that use. I don't know the year but when the bumpers had to be redesigned to absorb a five mile an hour crash, like that's a crash, that was the end of the bumper jack. I've seen them on e-bay advertised as vintage, with prices as high as sixty dollars. I guess if you were a true collector and had to have the correct bumper jack that came with the car, but not me. I have used those old jacks as a method to pull a fence post. They can do a variety of jobs. But anyway, I was amused for a few minutes. Nothing wrong with a distraction, well unless you're driving or the wife is talking to you. Then you had better be paying attention. 

 This morning the wife is on her Chromebook and asks me about Romper Stompers. Now I don't recall hearing about those before. She explained to me they were sold in toy stores and advertised on Romper Room. Well, I never watched romper room. But these romper stompers were the same thing as tying a string to cans and then walking on the cans, stomping around the yard.. The only difference is they were made of plastic. I can only imagine the warnings and caution stickers that would come with such things today! If you ever tried walking on cans you know how easily it is to twist an ankle, stumble, fall down and probably you are not getting proper arch support. I laughed about that as it is a good memory. A #10 can works best in my experience. Then I remembered another favorite toy of mine. The gun that shoots around the corner. I got that toy Christmas 1964. I was eleven years old and certainly needed a gun that was capable of shooting around the corner. I had two older brothers and I could hide around the corner and still get'em. It was a pretty cool toy. It folded in the center with a mirror attached so you could sight it in. The tip of that barrel wasn't bright orange and would be hard to see. It was years later that the barrel tips had to be orange so the police could tell if the gun was real or not. 

 Yes it is a good memory of a favorite toy. Five years later, when I was sixteen, I got a shotgun for Christmas. It was a twenty gauge, bolt action with a poly choke. Now that was cool. I fired maybe six boxes of shells through that gun at cans, bottles, trees and other inanimate objects. I got my hunting license, every boy needed a hunting license in those days, you wore it in a pouch on the back of your hunting jacket, a sort of badge of manhood. I wore mine around but only went hunting a few times. I was never much on hunting. I have no issue with those that want to hunt and eat what they kill, I don't agree with just killing something for the sport of it. It's something I learned as a kid with my first BB gun. I shot a bird with that gun and killed it. I remember walking up to the bird afterwards and feeling sad about that. The bird was dead for no reason. I didn't shot any birds after that. I did try to shoot pheasants, ducks and a racoon once. Well I'm just not much of a hunter. Seems like a lot of effort to me. I'd just as soon get a good burger from Mickey D's. 

 I expect the kids of today will have their memories of favorite toys and everyday objects gone obsolete. They will laugh and wonder how their kids don't know what something was used for. I'm thinking many may not know what a steam iron is, might be true today. But the things we take as everyday, normal, even expected today will one day be nostalgia. I grew up with guns, knives, firecrackers and all matter of dangerous stuff. The cars didn't have seat belts, air bags, or radar for crash avoidance. The truth is using a bumper jack was pretty risky business if you didn't do it correctly. They are not the most stable things to use. But we were expected to have common sense and some understanding of how things worked in the world. We didn't think about suing someone when we did something stupid. That was our fault, not theirs. Yes a saw will cut your fingers off,  and we didn't need to be told to not use an electrical device in the bathtub. That and we knew the difference between fantasy and reality. Yes I had a gun that would shoot around the corner, that was a fantasy gun. It shot rubber balls using a spring, wouldn't hurt anyone. Heck the balls were big enough they wouldn't put your eye out, a constant danger when I was a kid. But a shotgun! Now that was real. You didn't load it in the house ever, you never brought in the house loaded, ever. You didn't point it at anything you didn't intend to shoot. And my gun just sat in the closet, didn't assault anyone. It just sat there for years. Far as I know it sits in the closet still. Wish I had my gun that shoots around the corner today. Just imagine the fun I could have with that.