It’s tough to be a kid these days, especially this year. We wish we could give them the carefree days of our youth. Remember the endless summer days, hanging out around town with your friends until the streetlights came on and it was time to go home? There was no texting, no TikTok, and screens were the things you used to keep the mosquitos out of the house. Looking back though, was it really that great?
Scorched Elbows
Before there were lightweight lawn chairs in a bag, complete with side table and built in drink holders, there was the summertime classic aluminum webbed lawn chair. A mainstay in every backyard in town, these brightly coloured finger pinchers were made of wide strips of glossy fabric wrapped around a piping hot aluminum frame. The arms of these chairs were known to heat up to at least 100 degrees in the afternoon sun and would burn the skin off the elbows of any unsuspecting swimmer looking for a place to have a seat.
Soggy Sandwiches
Today’s most sought after cooler, the YETI Tundra, sells for over $500, and has more options than an entry level car. Makers say the YETI is “Built to Last.” No comparison to the $1. 79 Styrofoam of coolers of summers past that were built to last from Shawville to, maybe, the four corners, if you were lucky. If Dad took the corner too quickly, the tire jack smashed in the side of the cooler and it was wet beach towels and soggy egg sandwiches for the rest of the trip.
Deadly Darts
Early lawn darts were modeled after ancient Roman weapons of war. That’s the truth. Look it up. These particularly perilous “toys” consisted of a metal spike with plastic fins on the sides and brought a whole new meaning to Mom’s warning, “You’ll take your eye out with that.”
Burning Black Rubber
Kids today, would never believe that, before inflatable pizzas and flamingos, we used the actual inner tube from tractor tires to float around the lake. Who could forget the feeling of hot black rubber against bare flesh and the long pokey valve the jabbed you in the back.
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