Manufacturing in America

Gordy

Here's what I miss, and how much times have changed in construction site barricades. Anyone remember the smudge pots instead of the yellow lights on the barricades?

ChrisJ

My dad has pictures of me playing out in the snow when it was -10F out and windy. I've never minded the cold, but the last thing you'd want to be under those conditions is wet.

I used to ride my ATV when it was 0-10F out as well.

I miss riding them on frozen lakes, that was fun.

Gordy

It was snowmobiles for us. Ride them hard, and fix them. Water skipping ahh those were the days. A top of the line sled was 3500 bucks back in the early 80's. Can't touch one for 12k now days.

Fred

@Gordy, I remember those smudge pots well. They burnt all night long and there was no concern about someone stealing them or using them to set something on fire or the liability.

JUGHNE

We used to play with the smudge pots, try to blow them out or bury them in dirt. If you rolled them over then the oil would leak out and present a good flame. A little oil on your hands would burn also, learned to stick your hand under some dirt to put that out. As far as being a fire source.....no need.....we all had matches in our pockets....just because.....also a knife.
Learned to not carry a bunch of "strike anywhere" matches in your pocket. They will strike together and make for a hot pants pocket.

The 1950's were a time when something made really cheap was referred to as "made in Japan". There was a lot of really junky stuff from there. Those toys are collector items now.
We can't afford to buy products "Made in Japan" today.
Those Japanese products are outsourced to China and such for us to buy in droves. Think Mini-Splits.

Paul48

@BobC
We had a similar deal. There was hills on either side of the street, and they'd plow the road. We'd pack snow back across it so we could go down both hills. At the end of the bottom hill was a creek, which we usually wound up in. The water was moving pretty quick, so the ice wasn't usually thick.
We'd annoy the milkman, until he gave us chocolate milk. The teenager down the street used copper rods, an extension cord and a garden hose to get night-crawlers. I'll leave that to your imagination. We rode our bikes in the DDT fog....brilliant! If our parents had brought us to the doctors every time we "sprained" something, we'd have spent our lives in casts.

Mark Eatherton

I dragged my daughters through many a mechanical room. In fact, my first company was named after them. Eatherton and Suns I was at my youngest's yesterday fixing a hot water problem, and she had a chop saw out and was cutting and nailing large picture frames together for hanging Christmas cards. I asked her where she got her talents from, and she smiled and said, "Why YOU of course". She went on to say that all of her lady friends are amazed at the things she does, and want to know where she learned how to do them. She said she told them that she'd picked most of it up on her own, and wasn't really afraid to tackle anything within reason, because she knew that if she screwed it up beyond recognition, she can always call dad and he'll come and make it right... Made my heart swell.

ME

rick in Alaska

I remember my uncle getting worms with the two "hot" rods stuck in the ground. Worked well.
I also remember riding our bikes in the DDT fog, washing my face and arms in gasoline when I got asphalt on them while doing roofing, washing in solvents, and sniffing a lot of glue when gluing up pipes doing fire sprinkler work. Supposedly that is all what caused my Lymphoma, but it is gone now, so all good.
I believe all the things we used to do as kids from getting hurt to all the spankings have made us who we are though. I feel I heal fairly rapidly just because I have been involved in "eating dirt".
I think more kids should be out playing and getting dirty, not only to build up their immune system, but to just get out and have fun.
Yeah, we used to be out all day playing until the sun went down, and never had an issue. I used to walk 2 miles to school in the third grade and nobody had a problem with it, because it was safe, and we could handle it. Small town was like that though, and some what still is in most places.

Got lost on this thread.
I am not sure what will happen in the future, or how to fix it, but I can say whenever I see a photo of some manufacturing business from the turn of the century, there are usually about 200 faces looking at the camera. Rarely see 200 smiling faces, but at least there are 200 people with a job. I would rather have a bad job then no job if I had a family. So many people want faster, cheaper, and easier, but are not willing/able to do the work it takes to get there.
I wish I had the energy and resources it takes to be able to pass on the limited knowledge I have to the younger crowd, but just can't fully pull it off, and time is running out in a hurry.
Rick

Erin Holohan Haskell

rick in Alaska said:

I wish I had the energy and resources it takes to be able to pass on the limited knowledge I have to the younger crowd, but just can't fully pull it off, and time is running out in a hurry.
Rick

You're passing it along here. Thank you!!

Mad Dog_2

Did anyone have a "bangsite" cannon? Grampa Norb Kearns bought me one when I was 10. Used to be in the back of comic books...you know right next to the ad for sea monkeys. You added water in the reservoir and then had a gunpowder slot...Well, added too much in once...BOOM!!! figured I was deaf AND blind...face covered in black powder...ran to backyard...dove in pool. All good. Grew up in Howard Beach Queens, Mafia Suburb near JFK. The fireworks available in the 70s and 80s was UNREAL. Blockbusters, pineapples m 80s we would gather all the "duds" July 5th and make a bomb in a 55 gallon drum in the weeds...crazy times...best times...there was a great excitement running wild like that. Made us extremely street smart. At least once a week there was a stolen car at the end of the block that would be stripped in two hours by the jr. grease monkey kids. Amazing to watch...learned what was under the hood. We made vast forts dragging plywood, tools, crates...way in to the weeds. You always had to carry a bat, pipe or two by four....weirdos and packs of feral dogs that would show up sometimes...Atleast once a summer the REALLY bad kids would light the whole baja on fire....crazy Man I miss that. Young, wild free...wouldn't trade those times for anything, but good thing we moved when I was 12....Mad Dog

rick in Alaska

Is that how you got your moniker? Thrown off a horse and hit head, bicycle jump and hit head, and then explosions in your face. Seeing a pattern here. LOL
Seriously, you have had a rugged life. I don't think I would have made it very well in your neighborhood. Little too rough for me.
Glad you made it here though. You are very insightful.
Rick

Gordy

Ahh the fireworks. Dared to hold a lady finger in your hand. The trick was to never close your hand. Cap guns, BB, and pellet guns. We ran all over the neighborhood no one called the cops.

If someone was walking around with a BB gun in the hood in this day, and age there would be six squads to the vicinity..........

Gordy

Hey you know what they say about life cycles. Once an adult twice a child. I could relive that era. Body couldn't though...........

ChrisJ

Gordy said:

Ahh the fireworks. Dared to hold a lady finger in your hand. The trick was to never close your hand. Cap guns, BB, and pellet guns. We ran all over the neighborhood no one called the cops.

If someone was walking around with a BB gun in the hood in this day, and age there would be six squads to the vicinity..........

I had a few Daisy BB guns and a Crossman model 1 .22 pellet gun. Still have the pellet gun, though it had to be rebuilt. Always have to store it with 1 or 2 pumps in it otherwise the seals fail.

Fastest way to get smacked by the old man, ricochet a BB off a tree and have it bounce off the cabin window.

Mad Dog_2

Ha ha. I'm sure growing up in Alaska wasn' t too namby pamby either! Ever wrastle a Grizzly? ha ha.....yeah, we were a bit on the wild side, but knew when to stop. Many did not. Paid heavy prices. great thread by the way Mad Dog

Gordy

The polish cannon anyone? Back in the day of straight edge steel beer cans. Tennis ball fit perfect. Cut the top, and bottom out of four of them then the fifth bottom one leave whole with an ice pick size hole in the side near the bottom of the can.

Duck tape the whole works together. Squirt lighter fluid in the side hole of bottom can shake the cannon to vaporize the lighter fluid. Drop tennis ball down the barrel, and stick a match in the side hole. At night we tried dowsing the tennis ball with lighter fluid. Real cool until it landed in the dry grassy field 100 yards away....

DanHolohan

Gordy, how is it that you're even here to write to us? ;-0

Gordy

Model rockets, balsa wood gliders, and ones with propellers you wind up with the rubber band. Erector sets, model trains, and race car tracks. Chemistry sets. All the toys that taught you to work with your hands, read instructions, and use your imagination. They were the toys that hatched, and inspired the children of those times to become the "Men, and Women who built America".

KC_Jones

Funny stuff. I guess I was a little more tame. Our "trouble maker" was a 3 man slingshot and the thought of "what can we launch out of this?". I was working in a restaurant at the time (16), we launched every piece of food you can think of with that thing. The best was leftover uncooked pizza dough. You could take a tiny piece and make a large pizza on the side of someones house. What finally did us in was golf balls....launched into a busy road....that really was stupid. My parents weren't real happy about that one.

Water balloons were fun too, we could launch them far enough when you got hit you had no idea where it was coming from especially at night.

Fire....cap guns, a gasoline soaked stick and a bunch of dry leaves, that almost ended poorly as well. My uncle caught us and he was more forgiving than my parents.

Gordy

DanHolohan said:

Gordy, how is it that you're even here to write to us? ;-0

Fast learner Dan.......sometimes

bob_46

I thought a polish canon was what we had on the job that let one man move 12" pipe around by himself.

bob_46

Polish canon !

Mark Eatherton

Hatterasguy said:

Gordy said:

The polish cannon anyone? Back in the day of straight edge steel beer cans. Tennis ball fit perfect. Cut the top, and bottom out of four of them then the fifth bottom one leave whole with an ice pick size hole in the side near the bottom of the can.

Duck tape the whole works together. Squirt lighter fluid in the side hole of bottom can shake the cannon to vaporize the lighter fluid. Drop tennis ball down the barrel, and stick a match in the side hole. At night we tried dowsing the tennis ball with lighter fluid. Real cool until it landed in the dry grassy field 100 yards away....

This is better accomplished with a 12" piece of 2" Pvc with a cap on the end............hole in the cap...........and potatoes...........

Check out "potato gun".

Potato guns eh. Sounds really dangerous, like you could get arrested or something, right Dan ? That or shoot someones eye out...

I will save everyone from my stories. Just glad t be on this side of the dirt.

ME

DanHolohan

Yes, Mark. That could happen.

Paul48

Don't be silly!...Everybody knows ya gotta aim low.

BobC

A buddy of mine used to build gas powered planes and when it was getting near the end of it's useful life we would fuel it up, cover it with glue and let it take off through a pool of burning gasoline. It would go soaring over the river in flames till something important burned off. We usually got about half way across the river before it crashed. The folks in Weymouth used to get really mad at us.

The other trick was emptying shotgun shells into tomato paste cans and sealing the cans with wax, light the fuse and throw it quick. We were lucky to never lose any fangers.

Bob

Gordy

> @Hatterasguy said:
> The polish cannon anyone? Back in the day of straight edge steel beer cans. Tennis ball fit perfect. Cut the top, and bottom out of four of them then the fifth bottom one leave whole with an ice pick size hole in the side near the bottom of the can.
>
> Duck tape the whole works together. Squirt lighter fluid in the side hole of bottom can shake the cannon to vaporize the lighter fluid. Drop tennis ball down the barrel, and stick a match in the side hole. At night we tried dowsing the tennis ball with lighter fluid. Real cool until it landed in the dry grassy field 100 yards away....
>
> This is better accomplished with a 12" piece of 2" Pvc with a cap on the end............hole in the cap...........and potatoes...........
>
> Check out "potato gun".

Been there done that years ago.......

Abracadabra

Gordy said:

The polish cannon anyone? /blockquote>

Yes!!!! This!!!

bob_46

All the foolishness starts with the plumbers shooting little balls of putty out of supply tubes like a bean blower. The sparks retaliate with wire nuts in a length of 1/2" EMT, then the fitters put empty pop cans in some 2 1/2" PVC a cap and a little acetylene and you should see everyone hit the floor. It will flatten the can against a concrete wall.
When I was 10 my folks gave me a lead soldier set. An electric ladle some lead and a mold ,liquify the lead, pour it in the mold wala lead soldiers. Molten lead is really really really hot.

Fred

Ah yes. The things we could do with lead, back then and all the hours we spent playing with mercury! We'd break every thermometer in the house, including the ones used to take body temps.

Gordy

> @Mark Eatherton said:
> The polish cannon anyone? Back in the day of straight edge steel beer cans. Tennis ball fit perfect. Cut the top, and bottom out of four of them then the fifth bottom one leave whole with an ice pick size hole in the side near the bottom of the can.
>
> Duck tape the whole works together. Squirt lighter fluid in the side hole of bottom can shake the cannon to vaporize the lighter fluid. Drop tennis ball down the barrel, and stick a match in the side hole. At night we tried dowsing the tennis ball with lighter fluid. Real cool until it landed in the dry grassy field 100 yards away....
>
> This is better accomplished with a 12" piece of 2" Pvc with a cap on the end............hole in the cap...........and potatoes...........
>
> Check out "potato gun".
>
> Potato guns eh. Sounds really dangerous, like you could get arrested or something, right Dan ? That or shoot someones eye out...
>
> I will save everyone from my stories. Just glad t be on this side of the dirt.
>
> ME

Come on Mark give it up. Don't take your stories to the other side of the dirt!! Never heard any of yours we had to be saved from.

Paul48

@Fred
Dare I ask? What do they taste like?

Fred

Paul48 said:

@Fred
Dare I ask? What do they taste like?

LOL I'm not sure why we never tasted them ????

ChrisJ

Fred said:

Ah yes. The things we could do with lead, back then and all the hours we spent playing with mercury! We'd break every thermometer in the house, including the ones used to take body temps.

Fred said:

Paul48 said:

@Fred
Dare I ask? What do they taste like?

LOL I'm not sure why we never tasted them ????

Why did you break thermometers?
It seems like you ran wild as a kid @Fred

There's no way breaking a thermometer would've even crossed my mind. I wouldn't have been able to sit down for a week if my old man found out, and he would've found out.

Fred

We broke them for the mercury inside, of course. No one considered it running wild back then. It was just kids being creative /resourceful and playing with whatever was available. We were very poor (although we didn't know it at the time) and real toys weren't an option.

ChrisJ

Fred said:

We broke them for the mercury inside, of course. No one considered it running wild back then. It was just kids being creative and playing with whatever was available. We were very poor (although we didn't know it at the time) and real toys weren't an option.

Strange for a poor family breaking all of the thermometers was considered acceptable. Thermometers weren't exactly cheap.

I have no idea what was going on in Ohio, but this was considered running wild in our area. I cannot imagine what my grandfather would've done to my father if he did that in the 1950s, but it wouldn't have been pretty.

ChrisJ

@Fred I do have to ask,
Where those thermometers silver, or red or blue?

Curious.

Fred

It seems to me that in the glass, they were red but when we got the mercury out the mercury was sliver.

Gordy

Fred said:

It seems to me that in the glass, they were red but when we got the mercury out the mercury was sliver.

The Red ones were alcohol, The silver ones Mercury. Did you drink the red ones Fred?

Fred

Gordy said:

Fred said:

It seems to me that in the glass, they were red but when we got the mercury out the mercury was sliver.

The Red ones were alcohol, The silver ones Mercury. Did you drink the red ones Fred?

Nope, never drank them. I just know, whatever color they were in the glass, we had mercury balls that we played with for hours. Hit them with your hand and they'd split into several tiny balls and then we'd push them back together (at least the ones we'd find). Today we'd have to call a hazmat crew out for a clean up.