Played with mercury? LOL We hid in fields to get sprayed by crop dusters as kids

[RB TexLa]

It was fun. You stood up and held your arms up in the air as the plane came over. Most of the pilots thought it was funny as well. The ones who didn't think it was funny were probably too drunk to notice us.

[Maine-ah]

1. my husbands boss keeps a jar of it on his desk

probably about 3 ounces of the stuff.

[RB TexLa]

2. A jar of pesticide, what does he do with it?

[Maine-ah]

6. mercury.

[lumpy]

13. My brothers had a jar of mercury we would have a lot of fun with.

When I was dental assisting I would express the mercury from the amalgam using my fingers, then compress the amalgam into neat little balls. I believe that practice is no longer used. I have often wondered if this contributed to my arthritic bones. There were no protections from taking dental x-rays also, most often cradling the patient's head against my upper body using my fingers to hold the film in place. No lead aprons were used and I got the full dose of those dangerous rays. This is no longer in practice, thank heavens. Luckily I haven't had cancer...yet. I did know a dental assistant who had cancer on her hands that later spread throughout her body. This was in practice in dental offices during the 50s. Also yearly chest x-rays have gone the way of the past. Remember the x-ray mobiles anyone? My sister also worked for an orthodontist, same x-ray filming procedure. She also drove a mobile x-ray unit and administered chest rays. It caught up with her and sure enough she developed extensive breast cancer followed up with cobalt treatments, cured the cancer, burned her body badly; she is still living at 92. Strange world.

[mr_hat]

3. I drank DDT straight from the city sprayer!

[lumpy]

14. You must have had no problem with bowel worms.

Does DDT taste good, or what?

[TomInTib]

4. You, too?

Did you also run out to the road when they were black-topping it and chew the shiny black stuff that the steamrollers pushed off to the side?

And how about chasing the Mosquito trucks on your bike? Man, that DDT fog was a hoot!

It's a wonder that we lived to be 20.

[JohnnyLib2]

7. At LAST, a fellow blacktop chewer.

Did it as a kid in the west, but no one in KY believes me.

Yes to mercury, cinnamon sticks, playing chicken with pocket knives, chasing the mosquito truck too.

Did anyone else go outside to watch atomic explosions in the 50s?

[lumpy]

9. Where I came from all the kids chewed tar.

Also chewed on stripped willow branches. Little savages.

[soothsayer]

25. my mom chewed tar and also green glass!

[RB TexLa]

10. Chased the mosquito fogger as we called it.

[Saphire]

11. me too, {{twitch twitch}}my sister and I were just talking about that

this weekend. It's a wonder were not dead.

[Art_from_Ark]

12. Another mosquito truck chaser here

But I think DDT had been banned by that time (1967/68/69). Or maybe they were trying to use up their remaining supply? The mosquito trucks stopped coming around 1970 or so.

[LittleClarkie]

22. I didn't do that, but I ate salt from the water softener

when they'd go to fill the tank or whatever they did, and a bit would spill out of the bag onto the sidewalk, I remember eating some. I was a salt-aholic. It was sort of like the crack cocaine of salts.

[Emit]

23. Didn't chew it, but in Texas, where I grew up, it would blister and bubble in the heat

and we sat around and popped it. Didn't think to try chewing it. :)

[soothsayer]

26. yeah, we popped it in DC, too

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. What a great thread.

Laughing. Thanks.

[RainDog]

8. well at least you didn't stand near a smoker n/t

[soothsayer]

27. or a peanut

[DemGa]

15. We drank water with added industrial waste

fluoride...still do. lol

[sandnsea]

16. And babies flew out of the fronts of windshields too

I don't even think there's a full moon to explain the kookiness around here today.

[lumpy]

17. Oh my God yes. Before the seat belt era, I shudder to think

I drove with my first infant beside me on the drivers seat, no seat belt, nothing to protect her. No thought about safety. Thank heavens we got a clue.

[havocmom]

28. No full moon. But repeatedly getting sprayed with bug juice would explain a lot

Yes indeed. ;)

[Warren DeMontague]

18. I don't see what the big deal is. It didn't hurt this guy.

[EFerrari]

19. We poured paint thinner down the driveway to see the rainbows.

:(

[eppur_se_muova]

20. Took some to school once. Now they bring in the hazmat crews ...

and check EVERY kid in school for exposure, if they find even a little bit of it.

[blues90]

21. We ran behind the trucks that sprayed

I still talk about that to this day with the one friend I have left from those days . We also lived in an un- incorporated area out side of chicago and it was all once farm land , we had well water on each propert and to this day i wonder how many pestisides made their way itno these drilled wells , they were only 1500 feet deep .

[oldlady]

24. We had little hand-pump sprayers of DDT

to spray the cows for flies. It was a tedious job, so we children did it. All 52 cows. We thought it was fun and often had 'spray wars' with those pump sprayers. We'd be just greasy with the stuff afterwards. My apologies to those who drank the milk from our cows...sheesh!