I grew up at a time when store-bought toys were rare. We made most of the stuff we played with.
Slingshots were my speciality. All I needed was a forked stick, an old inner tube, sissors, a knife, string and a shoe tongue. I could make a weapon that would break those thick green glass Coke bottles at 50 feet.

We also made pistols out of wood. A clothes pin on the back of the grip served as a trigger. Our ammunition was loops cut from those old inner tubes. We had battles with those things. They would sting a little, but nobody ever really got hurt.

My favorite homemade was the "jittney." These were four-wheeled coasters made of wood. Most were a long thick plank with 2x4 axles. The front axle would pivot to steer and there were no brakes. I remember one jittney that had room for four kids. It took almost that many to pull it to the top of the hill. It had four wheels on two axles in the back and two more wheels up front. We rode it down a two-block long hill and then took another block of dragging feet to get it stopped. After about 10 rides, it disintergrated at top speed and
spilled us all over the street. I lost a little skin that day. No, we didn't worry about cars. That was during WWII and none of the cars had any gas.

Do kids really have fun with those safe, plastic, store-bought toys?
Howard