Like Whatever

Death Trap For Cuties

• Heather Jolley and Nicole Barr • Episode 64

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A shy compliment in a grocery store. A late-night laugh spiral with Anderson and Andy. A winter week where the calendar melts and we can’t tell Friday from Tuesday. From those small, human beats, we leap headfirst into the wildest museum of Gen X childhood: the toys that taught us physics the hard way and turned backyards into low-budget action sets.

We break down the legend of lawn darts, the steel-tipped “family fun” that sent too many kids to the ER before the 1988 ban. We slide through the kinetic chaos of the Slip ’N Slide, why adults took the worst hits, and how redesigns tried to tame a toy built on momentum. Then it’s the Easy-Bake Oven, a 100-watt rite of passage that baked tiny cakes and real burns, the 2007 recall that reshaped safety thinking, and the surprising end brought on by the death of incandescent bulbs.

The most jaw-dropping artifact arrives from 1950: the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab, a kid’s kit that shipped with uranium ore, a Geiger counter, and a manual for backyard prospecting. We track how it happened, why it vanished in a year, and what it reveals about risk, science, and optimism. From there, we wrangle the Water Wiggle’s pressurized whiplash, the sulfur-and-smoke nostalgia of cap guns, and the brutal honesty of old playgrounds—spinning steel, sun-hot slides, and seesaws that weaponized gravity.

Between the laughs and winces, we sit with what these artifacts taught us about judgment, resilience, and design. We connect the dots to today’s worries—AI robots in factories, self-driving cars making baffling choices—and ask what smarter safety looks like without draining the joy from play. It’s a tour of culture, engineering, and memory that invites you to pull your own threads: which toys shaped you, which scars still whisper, and how we build better thrills for the next generation.

If this episode sparks a memory, share it with a friend, hit follow, and leave a review. Tell us the most dangerous toy you survived and what it taught you.

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SPEAKER_03:

Welcome to Like Whatever, a podcast for, by, and about Gen X. I'm Nicole, and this is my BFFF, Heather. Hello. So happy New Year, everyone. Happy New Year. I hope everyone had a lovely New Year's. Mine was pretty low-key.

SPEAKER_01:

As was mine.

SPEAKER_03:

I did stay up, and um it's funny. I actually watched um Andy Cohen and uh Anderson Cooper. Um, because I've been seeing their commercials a lot, and I know that they're supposed to be funny because they get drunk. Yes. But I was like, man, they seem like they'd be really annoying. But I'll give it a try because it started at like nine, eight or nine. I watched the whole entire thing. It was hilarious. Like Anderson Cooper just totally gets the giggles when he's drunk. Like he constantly was just like falling back laughing. And Andy Cohen just is Andy Cohen times 100 when he's drunk, and they're trying to interview people and they're slurring their words, and it it really was pretty funny. But yeah, now watch the ball drop, turned off the TV, said happy new year to the cats, and went to bed. I did not see the new year, and then I slept till 8 a.m.

SPEAKER_01:

Ooh, I I know that's late for me. Stupidly. Like I figured I it was weird because my dad has always been a oh shit, has always been a morning person, and I've always been a morning person. And then I always thought it was weird that now he sleeps until sometimes he sleeps till like 11, like they both do. I'm like, that's really weird. And now I realize that once you get older, I always thought it was the opposite. Like old people get up at like four in the morning.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, it was the opposite for me because I used to even having like a day job and having to get up early, I could get up at six every morning and go to work. But Saturday I'd sleep till 10, 11 o'clock, no problem.

SPEAKER_04:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

But now I can't. So I guess it's opposites. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

It's just a mess. I slept till the other day I slept till like 8 30. I got up and I was like, oh my God, the whole day is gone. I mean, literally, guys, I have gotten up at like but seven is usually like sleeping in late for me since I was a child. I'd never sleep past like maybe when we were in college, I made it to like eight, but it was rare.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and then on New Year's Day, I was um door dashing and I was the victim of someone's New Year's resolution because I'm walking around redners looking for stuff for this dash. And this younger guy comes walking by and he looks at me, he goes, I really like your sweater. I was like, somebody made a resolution to say nice things for no reason. But I was like, he seemed nervous, like he wasn't used to it. So I made, oh my god, thank you so much. Like made a big deal out of it. So he'd be like, All right, that went good. I'm gonna do it again. Being nice isn't so hard. It is really, really is. But I thought he was really cute because it was so obvious. But oh well.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I haven't really done anything. You'd think I have, but um tomorrow I finally get my my day off again. It's bittersweet for me. Yeah, so I gotta take two days off again. Damn government workers for two days all.

SPEAKER_02:

I hate it, but I like money way more than days off.

SPEAKER_01:

So this is supposed to be teaching me because I did get quite used to having two days off. And then so this last couple weeks, I've been working for like two days and then off, and then working for like two days and then off, and then working for two days and then because of the holidays. Right. So when I get back, like I had off was New Year's was Thursday, right? Mm-hmm. So I worked Friday, Saturday, had off Sunday. Mm-hmm. And then the week before that it did the same thing, and then I had Monday, Tuesday, and then I'm off tomorrow. And now I'm gonna have to work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Oh yes. I know. You might sleep in on Sunday, you're gonna be so excited.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, this nothing screws me up more than the holiday schedule because so you know, state workers have all this time off throughout the um holiday season. But then we do get a little reprieve because we get the Martin Luther King Day like three weeks after we come back. So it's like, okay, show. It's really holiday heavy this time of year. Yes, yes. But then I always end up reaching a point where I'm like, all right, I'm ready to get back in my schedule. I'm ready, like this is just chaos. I never know what day it is. I never know if I'm working or not. Like, I don't know. It's crazy, but yeah, it's been an alright week. But um oh, I did watch a really good movie. What's that? Uh the new Leonardo DiCaprio movie. Um uh something battle one battle after another.

SPEAKER_01:

Never heard of it.

SPEAKER_03:

It's like two and a half hours long and it's on HBO, but um super, super good. Like very action-packed, like it's always just moving. So it's like um revolutionists fighting against the government, and Leonardo DiCaprio's daughter gets kidnapped, and like, yeah. It was really cool. Although his daughter was basically old enough for him to date, so that was a little creepy, but we watched um Heathers last night because he had never watched Heathers.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm like, how have you made it this far into your life and you've never seen Heathers? Um It actually kind of does hold up. Nice, yeah. I mean it's dark. I love that about I'm so happy that when they made a movie called Heathers, it was just disgustingly dark. Um But yeah, I think it h I mean there's a lot of gay bashing, but they kind of are like it's not fucking cool, like you know so ahead of their time. I mean, of course, my favorite line from it, and me and Christine used to say it all the time, and I wanted to tell I wanted to text her last night and I almost texted her husband, but I was like, he might not know what I'm talking about. If I just randomly text him, my favorite line from that movie is I love my dead gay son. And I didn't get to text it to her, so yeah. I said it out loud. Nice, but that's my favorite line from them anyway. It was ever it was it was uh yep. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We've been on a murder show kick. That new Andrea Yates one comes out actually today, I think. Oh I think it's today.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm excited for that one. There's gonna be a lot of psychology in that one, and that's what I really love about the murder shows.

SPEAKER_01:

Man, that lady. There's a lot going on with that one. Yeah. That's a shame. It's a shame. It really is. It's super sad. It is super sad all all the way around.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Because I think somebody was trying I think she was trying to get help. I think she wanted help. I think and I from what I've heard from other things, I think she was trying to she was she was definitely showing all the signs that somebody needed to step in and help her. And it's just a shame that nobody did.

SPEAKER_03:

It is. But doesn't that just seem to be the way though? Nobody wants to step in ever and like help anybody. It's really weird. Yeah. I don't know. Like I I constantly check on my people. Like not like in a weird way, but yeah. Just making sure. You you good.

SPEAKER_01:

My sister is going. I didn't tell you this, but my sister I mean maybe I told you. Um, I was talking to my mom before we got here. I my sister is going away for their anniversaries this week, and um she texts me uh the address. I wish she will be staying in case she gets murdered. Oh that was her exact words. Here's where we're staying, we're going leaving the eighth, we're coming back to 10th. No, the 12th, and here's where we're staying in case we get murdered. And I was like, Nice. Thanks. Then I said, Does the kids know? I mean, they're not kids anymore, but although my mom first thing out of her mouth to my sister was, are the kids gonna be okay? And she's like one of them's gonna be 21. So yeah, he needs to find his own place to live. But it reminded I I called her, I told her she sounded just like our mom, who used to say, if anything happens to us, here's where the will is, here's who you need to call, don't do this.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm like, okay, I'm seven, like I'm not that's hilarious because I'm 52 and my parents are in their 70s, and just this last time I was down in Florida in November, they finally gave me like at least a contact number of like really who to reach like they yeah, but I mean that's fine.

SPEAKER_01:

Some people just don't I don't think about that. Our family obviously is a little on the morbid side. I don't I didn't come out of nowhere, yeah. Yeah, I didn't drop out of some other apple tree.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, yeah, so they've always been a little and it really was just kind of like the name of the cremation place, and I mean nothing like super.

SPEAKER_01:

I have a de I know detailed plans of every single solitary thing they want. I took it down to the goddamn time of day to think my dad wants to go in the outgoing tide in the ocean city inlet, and my mom wants to be dropped in like 47 different places, and I'm like, I'm not doing all that. It's one of them in the Eagles Stadium. Yes. And I said no. And Disney World was another one, and I said no. But they have I mean, I knew where the will was every time they went somewhere. I knew who we were supposed to call, who was the first phone call, who was in charge of because my uncle was a lawyer, so he obviously had the will, but you know who had the custody agreements and who I we were supposed to go with, and I don't know what she wanted me to do. Like, I mean, but then again, when it did happen, I was ready for it.

SPEAKER_03:

I was ready for it. I just hope they outlive their cats because I don't need three more cats. Yeah, but I will definitely take them, especially my brother Harry. He's my favorite, and he loves me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. We're trying to um distract from what is actually happening in the world right now. We just yeah. The war crimes that yeah. We're just gonna talk about dead parents.

SPEAKER_03:

That's that's happier than what's actually coming on. All right, yeah, yeah. I think that's it though. Like, I swear I checked my notes though. I just nothing's going on. It's just that time of year.

SPEAKER_01:

It's that time of year. Everybody's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

A lot of murder shows. Yeah, it's cold outside. It is today's not bad.

SPEAKER_01:

Tomorrow's supposed to be nicer. Yeah, Friday's gonna be like 60. Really? Oh, that'll make my middle day of having to work in a row in here. Playing around outside.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I think that's it for me. Okay. You wanna do the oh yeah. Um please like, share, rate, review. Yes. We are on all the socials. We are. You can find us wherever you listen to podcasts. Yes, you can. We have a shiny new website. Yes, we do. At like whateverpod.com. Yep. We are on the YouTube where we are just killing it. Heather sends me screenshots every time, and I wrote text her yesterday, and I was like, it's shocking every single time you send me one of these. Like, where are all these people coming from? I don't know. So, yeah, again, I'll just say we are going to make some more video content. Maybe. I don't know. Whatever. We've got a lot of people. We've only been saying that for like a year and a half. Yeah, yeah. We haven't even been doing this year and a half, and we've been saying um, and uh you can also send us an email at like whatever pod at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_01:

So we have been off our little schedules because we yeah, just another thing that's yeah thrown into the chaos of life at this time of year. Then I saw that it was in fact, because I am I am that person that has to have everything planned out.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and I yesterday I was like, I should really text Heather and ask her whose week it is, and I was like, meh, if it was my week, she would have told me. So thank God it's our week.

SPEAKER_01:

And I was gonna text her and be like, it's my week, but then I was like, I'm gonna wait and see if she I own asked. Nope. Or if she shows up with the script, because if she shows up with the script, then we'll just do it next week.

SPEAKER_03:

No, I did put a tiny bit of thought into it, and I was like, I'm pretty sure the one before all the holiday stuff was Rob Reiner.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And yeah, I always put it in the calendar, yours, mine, yours, mine. That way, like because that's what I do when I have an idea, I put it in the calendar under my week. Yeah.

unknown:

Yep.

SPEAKER_03:

I just run a never-ending note in my phone and just never do any of the topics. I always think of something else and then on a week. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

And I and I have I actually did think about um doing one of the scripts I have already done. But then I was like, nah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, save it for a rainy day.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, because they were very dark. Uh this, I mean, this one's also dark, but more fun. Dark and fun. Yay. So let's fuck around and find out about dangerous toys. Ooh. This is gonna be a fun one.

SPEAKER_03:

Yay. Um, I hope my favorites in here.

SPEAKER_01:

So um, it's the story of the most dangerous toys of our youth, how they were created, how they became cultural icons, and how they were eventually pulled from shelves after leaving a trail of ER visits, lawsuits, and parental outrage in their wake.

SPEAKER_03:

And we didn't have little screws that held the batteries in when we were kids. No. Everyone. So if you wanted to eat a battery, you just ate a battery. You know what? Nobody got sued over it.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like batteries corroded way faster back then.

SPEAKER_03:

I think so too.

SPEAKER_01:

Like when you opened up a thing you hadn't used in a couple months and it was all that cakey goo or whatever, you'd be like, ew. I know. And I have not I have not once opened anything that has had a corroded battery in it. Do we just go through batteries faster? Are we just not using batteries?

SPEAKER_03:

There you go. I think that's it. Everything's charged. Charging. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

That makes sense. Figured it out. Don't worry.

SPEAKER_03:

Except for when you're the TV remote, but then you know when that bitch died and you are changing those batteries right away. Immediately.

SPEAKER_01:

Ours has been warning us for about four months now. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

That isn't is it a fire stick? No. Oh. The nice thing about a fire stick, too, it will warn you forever and ever and ever.

SPEAKER_01:

This is a smart remote, although it's not very smart, it sucks.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm not a big fan of the smart TVs.

SPEAKER_01:

I like the I like the smart TV because then it eliminates having to have 14 other pieces of equipment attached to it.

SPEAKER_03:

That is true. But what I don't like about it is you can't just turn on the TV. You have to turn it on, you get the menu, you have to go down to the app that you want, you have to go to the channel that you want. That's true. Like, I just want to turn on the TV and the news is on in the morning. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

I gotta put on my glasses, stand there trying not to pee myself. I'm trying to get the news on. Where's the fucking?

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Um anyway. If you want a single object that captures the chaotic, unsupervised, will be fine spirit of Gen X childhood, look no further than lawn darts. They weren't just toys, they were weapons of recreational destruction, sold in cheerful boxes, marketed as wholesome family fun and tossed around by children who had no business handling anything sharp enough to pierce the earth. Did you have them? I did.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't think I did. We did. You and your sister probably tried to kill each other with them.

SPEAKER_01:

One of the things I did in here, we absolutely tried to kill each other with.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. And it always the those lawn darts always make me think, like you seen gr see grown men now, it's actually a scene in a movie, but I've seen it other places where they shoot an arrow straight up in the air and then everybody has to run to try. It's the same thing. Yes, it is. I mean, although an arrow could kill you.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I guess a lawn dart could if it hit just right.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, because arrows, once they go up, gravity is pulling them back down, but they're not going that fast. Yeah. Anymore. But lawn darts, they had weight. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

They were coming for you. Yes. Um I wasn't an adventurous, crazy, I didn't do I didn't I I didn't like danger as a kid, so I wouldn't have really.

SPEAKER_01:

Oddly enough, I did, but I didn't. I was a real tomboy. Like I don't know. I've I I'm sure I've said it before, but I used to go fishing a lot and I would just stick minnows in my pockets, and my mom would get pissed off because they were in the washing machine, dead minnows everywhere.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, but I think being a tomboy and being an actual boy are very different because boys are stupid.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's true.

SPEAKER_03:

Sorry to boys, but you all sh if you don't know this, surprise. I mean, they just do spoiler dumb as shit. Like, watch ridiculousness if you don't think that boys are stupid. Like they just let people drop bowling balls on their deck, and I don't know why you would do that. Like, what do you think's gonna happen? So, yeah, so that would make sense that you're tomboyish, but you're not into stupid boy stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's true. That is I did not like stupid. Well, we no, no, no. We had dirt ball fights because at the time they were um building everywhere. It was like a building um explosion, and uh everybody was getting beach houses and they would bring in dirt. Yeah, but a lot of times the dirt balls had rocks in the center of them. Oh also, my sister, because we weren't supposed to be in construct their construction sites, right? Don't play in a construction site, but we did, and then one day my sister stepped on a nail and went straight through her foot with the board and everything, and we were not supposed to be in a construction site. Great, yeah, and I was like, uh-oh, so I had to carry her home. Uh fireman style. And I had to yank the board out of her foot. Ew. And then luckily my dad was there, and he was like, What happened? And I was like, She has a hole in her foot. And he was like, Why? And I was like, We don't really need to talk about that. And he was like, Bet, we're not gonna talk about it. Was it Rusty? Yes, he did not take her to. The emergency room. Of course he did. And he never told my mom. He just kept his eye out for her. And she walks just fine, so.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I used to I didn't mind dirt and I used to make mud pies, but that was more of like cooking, baking thing than it was playing in the dirt kind of thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

We just threw dirt like dirt balls. It was like a dirt ball war where you'd like climb a mountain and then throw dirt by and if you got hit.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't know what happened if we got hit, but I just played the traditional tag, hide and go seek, um, mother may I, red light, green light. We didn't do any of that. Really?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, there's only like one other kid in the neighborhood.

SPEAKER_03:

So and I also went to public school, I forgot.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I actually had people to play games with last night when we were watching the movie. I guess they have local commercials. What was it on? It was only like Tubi or something. Um or Play-Doh. I don't know. One of them. But they have local commercials on for whatever reason. And one of them was the school that I went to. And I was like, Yeah, that really worked out well for me. All of our students, and I was like, Lies.

SPEAKER_03:

They're telling lies. You should call them and be like, Can I be in your next commercial?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm gonna whip out all the tattoos and be like, what's up, baby? Um anyway, so then I looked up tuition. Holy shit. Oh my god. Oh my god. I I guessed, and then when I was I was floored because it was significantly more than my my guess. I sent it to my sister and I was like, no wonder you didn't want to send your kids. Holy shit. Um, high school, 18 G's a year. That's college.

SPEAKER_03:

That's I guess that's more expensive than going to Delta. Delta.

SPEAKER_01:

Way more expensive. That's just stupid. Anyway, back to lawn darts. Nobody cares where I went to school. Um lawn darts originated in the late in the 50s, inspired by ancient javelin-style games. The idea was straightforward to throw a weighted dart into a plastic ring on the lawn. The execution was less straightforward. Um, each dart was about a foot long, tipped with a solid metal spike, weighted to ensure it flew point first, heavy enough to embed itself several inches into the ground.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't think I realized it was intended to be thrown into a ring. I thought they were for you to throw in the air properly.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I knew they had ring. I don't think I don't know that who used the rings. Um manufacturers insisted the darts were safe when used properly, which is adorable because no child in the history of childhood ever has any used anything properly. No. Um playing they're also called jarts. Playing them required a backyard, a plastic ring, and um no personal safety. Kids would stand at one of the yard, take aim, and hurl the dart skyward in into the um no. Towards their brother. The problem was the dart that didn't always land where you wanted it to. Um that's the whole point of darts. Uh the real game was get was not hitting the target, it was not getting hit. Um, everybody has stories the dart landed inches from someone's foot, the dart stuck in the picnic table, it got embedded in the side of the house. Um by the late 70s and early 80s, uh the emergency rooms were seeing a steady stream of lawn dart injuries, skull fractures, puncture wounds, internal injuries, and permanent disabilities. And tragically, several child fatalities. Um safety advocates, oh no, manufacturer shrugged and added a tiny little warning label that essentially said, don't let kids use these while selling them directly to families with kids. Uh, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission first attempted to regulate lawn darts in the late 70s, restricting their sale to sporting goods stores. But since the injuries continued, because kids still have them. Uh the turning point came in 1987, which is way later than I would have expected. Um, after a particularly heartbreaking fatality involving a seven-year-old girl, uh, public pressure surged, investigations intensified, and in 1988, the CPSC issued a full ban on the sale of lawn darts in the United States.

SPEAKER_03:

It's funny that they um their solution was to sell them at sporting goods stores because if they don't have them in the Kmart, then kids won't get them. Right. Right. Yeah. And sporting goods stores were like a thing back then, too. Like they don't, I guess what disks is what we have, but there used to be all sorts of places.

SPEAKER_01:

Like mom and pop kind of the deal.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, exactly. So just go there.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, 1988, they were pulled from shelves and uh they were stopped production. I think they did redo them again, but they're not dangerous at all. They're probably like nerfing.

SPEAKER_03:

Mm-hmm. Stupid.

SPEAKER_01:

Next up, I also had this. Although yeah. The slip and slide was invented in 1961 by a man named Robert Carrier, who came home one hot day to find his son sliding across the driveway on a wet piece of sheet metal. There you go. Which is even smarter. In a moment of um genius and concern thought, what if we made this safe? The result was a long narrow strip of plastic that when soaked with water became a runway for human projectiles.

SPEAKER_03:

What a genius cheap idea. Yes. It must have been like three cents to make one of those things. Because it's just a piece of plastic that you tie it turn the hose into, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. The uh it was marketed as wholesome, outdoor fun, a way for kids to cool off, burn energy, and experience thrill speed without leaving the yard. What the commercials didn't show was the reality. It turned children into missiles with no braking system. And I don't know if you had a slip and slide. We did not have an official slip and slide, but because we have a restaurant, my dad would just buy those long tarp things and cut it. And then we would spread dawn all over it.

SPEAKER_04:

Ooh.

SPEAKER_01:

Which which just made it woo. And then because we lived on the lagoon, ours would end at the drop off of the dock into the lagoon. Oh, that sounds like fun. It was.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I don't think I don't know if I had one, but I know my kids had one.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

It's not a good idea.

SPEAKER_01:

It's not a good idea, kids. Um, so you had to take a running start.

unknown:

Oh, wait.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah. Kids requires three things a running start, blind faith, and a willingness to accept whatever happened next, which was true. Like you did not have any control once you hit the plastic. Um the ideal setup was soft grassy lawn, but most of the time it was patchy grass, hidden rocks, and exposed roots. And uh a slight downhill slope that turned the slide into a luge track, which is not wrong. Uh, you would sprint full speed, leap onto the plastic, and hope for the best. Sometimes you glided gracefully, sometimes you hydroplaned into a tree. Sometimes you overshot the end entirely and skidded across the grass like a skipping stone, which is exactly why we then moved it so that we ended in the lagoon because hitting that grass hurt like a motherfucker. Uh then there was the burn, the friction burn you got when your skin stuck to the plastic. Uh the slip and slide exfoliated you against your will. Um, for adults, it was a lawsuit waiting to happen. The toy was designed for lightweight bodies. Adults with their greater mass and momentum hit the ground with more far more force. This led to serious injuries, spinal damage, neck injuries, and in some cases paralysis. The Consumer Product Safety Commission eventually issued warnings specifically telling adults not to use it. But did that stop Gen X dads from trying it after a few beers at a barbecue? Absolutely not. So this is wasn't so much dangerous as children, but it is dangerous now. And you all know who you are when that thing gets wheeled out and you're like, I'm gonna do it. And then you you can't walk for three weeks because you broke something.

SPEAKER_03:

I think I would still be tempted to do it if I was at like a picnic. That's what I'm trying to say.

SPEAKER_01:

That's why they were like, Stop doing this, old people. Um, it was never fully banned, but it did undergo multiple redesigns, thicker plastics, softer landing zones, built-in bumpers, clearer warnings, and kids-only labels. Boo. They also added inflatable versions, double lanes, and splash pools, all attempts to make the toy safer while preserving the thrill. Um yeah. I didn't well, always we had the one like I said, we ended in the I do remember seeing somebody had the maybe my sister's kids had the one with the pool at the end. But she just fly right outside of that.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh yeah. Per share.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. This one I also had. I feel pretty sure you had it too. The Easy Bake Oven. Yes. Introduced in 1963, powered by a hundred-watt incandescent bulb, it allowed children to bake tiny cakes in a tiny oven that got very, very hot. Burns were common, especially when you tried to receive the retrieve the creation without the proper tools. I never had the little stick. I just did this. Uh the original concept came from watching street vendors use use heat lamps to keep food warm. Oh, let me tell you, as someone who has worked in a restaurant forever with heat lamps, those fuckers get hot. Oh yeah. They will burn the shit out of you. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

As a waitress, I can tell you, picking food up off the line. I have it. A number of them.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh-da. Designers thought, what if we let children cook with that? And thus easy bake oven was born. A plastic shell housing, a metal baking chamber heated by a bulb that could reach temperatures of 350 degrees. Damn. Mm-hmm. It did undergo uh, it wasn't removed entirely, but it underwent multiple redesigns. By the 2000s, the light bulb model was retired due to new energy regulations replaced by safer heating elements because they got rid of incandescent bulbs. So you can use them. Yeah. Um the early models were styled like mid-century appliances, complete with pastel colors, and a tiny window. Uh you mixed a tiny packet of cake powder with water, pour it into a pan, that was teeny tiny, slide it into the oven with the plastic pusher tool, which you never had, that lost immediately. Wait an eternity, and then get it out without touching the metal interior. You're right. Not without the poker tool. The cakes were small, dense, and vaguely sweet, but the process was intoxicating. Um I seem to remember that they tasted good.

SPEAKER_03:

I think I was just sitting here thinking about the brownie. I didn't think it was a chocolate cake. I think that was a brownie. Really good.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Because they weren't ever done in the middle. And I liked it, I like a cake that's not completely done.

SPEAKER_03:

And brownies these days, basically, you add water.

SPEAKER_01:

I think you might add an egg, but box mixes. Yeah. So it was closer, I guess, to um the mm, the it had its flaws. The metal baking chamber got extremely hot, and the opening was just large enough for small fingers to fit.

SPEAKER_03:

Um change your own damn light bulb.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Uh burns were common. So were stuck pans, melted plastic tools, and the occasional, I think the light bulb exploded. Uh by the 90s and early 2000s, the safety standards tightened, the oven's design became more enclosed. The real turning point came in 2007 when a redesign model with a front loading slot caused hundreds of burns at at least one partial finger amputation. The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a massive recall, and Hasbro redesigned the oven yet again. The final blow came not from injuries but from legislation. When the incandescent bulbs were phased out from energy efficiency, the easy bake oven lost its heat source. The classic design was retired, replaced by a safer, fully electric model with no exposed heating element.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. So Yeah, that was an awesome toy. I can't believe there weren't more. Um I know. And I I I thought that was gonna be like one of the things you said.

SPEAKER_01:

No, it was all burns. And I'm sure the light bulb exploded a lot because I'm sure once you put that cake in there and it spilled and hit that light bulb. Or you put the cake in the wrong way and tapped it. Yep. So now we're going back in time.

SPEAKER_03:

All right, so now we are um going to do Nicole's 1984 diary. Yes. When I was 11 years old. Um, we are on Wednesday. Wednesday. April 11th. Wednesday. Uh-huh. And I spelled Wednesday wrong. I'm very sure. Of course. Um it's a hard word to spell. It really is. And there's letters that don't belong. Right. But I have mastered it as an adult, so I have not. I'll forgive my 11-year-old. I just say W E D S. It's wednesday. I know. Okay. Um stupid. All right. Wednesday, April 11th, 1984. Today I went to Mrs. Fox's as usual. Sarcasm. Yeah. I got it. I I felt it. Yeah. Two more days, and I won't have to go there anymore. Uh oh. You know what's nice about that? You all won't have to hear about Miss Fox's anymore.

SPEAKER_01:

Um until next week, or are we done completely? Who knows? Stay tuned. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

It's hanging by a thread. Um, well, anyway, comma. Yeah. Uh because I had good grammar back then, yeah. Um, in school, I had band again, and we got a sheet of paper for getting band pictures. Oh. Uh at lunch, Daphne didn't sit with me. What the fuck? Right. Just the day before she came to my homeroom for us to meet up. What are we doing, Daphne? Right.

SPEAKER_01:

That's it. She's fired.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh, in fifth period, we had free period because we had an Easter movie. It was called The Magic of Lassie. Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

I bet that was really uh when Lassie got what? Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on. Okay. What does Lassie have to do with Easter? I mean, I imagine you're gonna tell me, I hope. I don't think so. Oh.

SPEAKER_03:

No, but the magic of Lassie. And I even put quotes around the title. See, I was I was a good student. Yeah. Um, all right. Uh when Lassie got taken away from his family, I cried.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I don't blame you. Yeah, it's sad. Right in the middle of class. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um in math, we played Alch. Do you remember a game called OUC? I put it in all caps with an exclamation point. So I don't know if I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Was it like a mash situation? Like, I don't think so. I don't know. You know, like a I don't know. Maybe it's a weird math thing.

SPEAKER_03:

At Girl Scouts, we played games. Oh man, you were just I'm just a good time girl. And talk over stuff. Then we that's important to talk over stuff. Then we came home and I had a banana with peanut butter. Which I happen to remember as being one of my favorite snacks back then. Mostly because my mom went and buy sweets and we didn't have any good food in the house.

SPEAKER_01:

So, like a banana and peanut butter was like chocolate cake to me because I think for my whole life I remember, I think the first time you came over to my house.

SPEAKER_03:

I still remember sweet central. Yeah, you opened your pantry and it was like, oh light shined out and sprinkles and little angels flew around.

SPEAKER_01:

Because we are a house full of sweets. Oh it was amazing. Everything chocolate pop tarts. Yeah, everything, all the cereals are Oreos. Yeah, my dad has MMs in a jar. Oh my god. Yep. And you were allowed to eat whatever you wanted. Whenever. It was so there's no rules, just right. Yeah, exactly. It's like being at the outback.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. My mom would buy herself sweets and put them in the back of the pantry or geek pound, and we were not allowed to touch them. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Good times. We had soda. We would have soda for breakfast. Yeah. My dad would say, don't eat chocolate before nine. That was the rule.

SPEAKER_02:

Don't eat chocolate before nine.

SPEAKER_03:

He just wanted to feel like he was doing something. That sounds fair.

SPEAKER_01:

No soda or chocolate before nine. Seriously, that was the rule. We did have one rule. Yeah. Well, there you go. I was um what was I doing last? I was I wanted to tell you the story, not just to you, but um where was I writing? Oh, because I caved and downloaded the Sims replay for my phone. No, I did. Well, I have to keep it. It's gonna cut into your TikTok time. And I need to get away from my TikTok time. I also need to get away from the stupid gambling app.

SPEAKER_03:

So it's really that was what it was really for. Um I did a puzzle last night. Oh I was very proud of myself. Nice.

SPEAKER_01:

Um so I had to put my name in there. And I used to have a thing where I would spell my name with a silent eight. And I sometimes still do just to see if anybody is paying attention. And every when anybody ever says, Why do you have an eight? And you I almost changed it legally when I got married. I thought, I'm gonna throw that fucking eight in there. Yeah. I didn't, and I should have. I deeply regret it. Yeah. Um, because you could do it for free.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, but when if anybody catches it, I'm always like, well, the eight is silent because I am weird. So I made my character in The Sims, she has an eight. Yay! Just in case you all wanted to know. Yeah. When I get famous, I'm fucking throwing that eight in there. Yes, for sure. H E A T Eight H E R.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh by the way. I figured the T I feel like I've seen it before because as soon as you said it, I was like, I I can picture that. I put eights in, I put an eight in. Yeah. I uh yeah, so I decided, I think I talked about this a few weeks ago on here that I was gonna start doing jigsaw puzzles because my dad was just um diagnosed with early onset dementia. Uh huh. And it's good for your brain anyway. So I bought myself a nice thousand piece puzzle, which I haven't gotten to yet, but my roommate got me um a Bunch of little puzzles in little plastic boxes. So last night I was like, let me just try one of these little ones. It took me two hours. Oh my god. And it was a l, it was about this big. What would you say? Six or eight inches across. Not even. Maybe six. Yeah. And it was the surface of the moon. So it was hard because it was all white and black. But it wasn't traditional jigsaw puzzle pieces. They were cut into shapes. Oh. And a lot of hooks. And literally anytime I found two pieces that went together, it was like a celebration. I was like, thank God. Like you couldn't even tell. Some of them you could tell what were the outer edges, but some of them you couldn't. Like, so it's not like you could even start from the outside. And because they're not jigsaw, they don't snap together. So any move at all, they all fall out. Uh-huh. So oh my God. It was so hard. But I did it. I didn't give up. Good job. It's still put together on my coffee table because I'm too sad to take it apart.

SPEAKER_01:

When I got my dad one an all-black one, he was like, Oh, that's gonna take me forever.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, but I haven't done one in years. And so much fun. That was not the place to start, though. I want to do it, but I can't because of the fucking cats.

SPEAKER_01:

I have cats. Mine are I've tried, and they are demons, and they will get on there and knock the shit out of it just for fucking spikes.

SPEAKER_03:

It's been sitting on the table for two years.

SPEAKER_01:

I should try again because the last time one of them was a kitten, so or a little bit older than a kitten, and now he's an old man, so I don't know. Maybe I'll maybe I'll try.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, you should. It was very fun, it was frustrating, and I had to keep taking breaks, obviously, over two hours of doing a six-inch round puzzle. But yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_01:

It was very satisfying. Um, so my next one, technically, it isn't Gen X, um, but I was fucking floored that this was ever a thing. I've never heard of it. And I'm telling you, when I saw it, I was like, I don't care if it's Gen X or not. It's a boomer thing, but oh my god, what the actual fuck.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm dying to know that I write the name of it. You are terrible at it. Building up.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, oh, I just went down too far.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. It's a call. All right. It's the Gilbert U2 238 Atomic Energy Lab. Released in 1950 by A.C. Gilbert. Um, the same man who gave the world the erector set. This toy was less a plaything and more a starter kit for amateur nuclear physicists. It came with real radioactive materials. Shut the fuck up! Pretend not simulated actual uranium ore. When did it come out?

SPEAKER_03:

1950. Damn, that seems kind of late. Like, I know they used to put like cocaine and heroin and stuff, but I feel like they had kind of figured stuff out by the 50s.

SPEAKER_01:

It is, without exaggeration, the most dangerous educational toy ever sold.

SPEAKER_03:

I wonder how many kids grew up and had cancer because they played with post-World War II.

SPEAKER_01:

America was obsessed with atomic energy. Nuclear power was the future, clean, modern, full of promise. AC Gilbert, a former magician, turned toy magnet, believed children should learn about the exciting new frontier. So he created a kit that included four types of real uranium ore, a Geiger counter, a cloud chamber to watch alpha particles, a spintharoscope to observe nuclear reactions. What? A Wilson chamber for tracking radiation trails, a 60-page instructional booklet titled A Prospecting for Uranium.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, because kids are gonna read a 60-page book.

SPEAKER_01:

And a comic book called Learn How Dagwood Splits the Atom. Learn about cancer. It wasn't a toy, it was a portable nuclear lab. And it was marketed to kids at ages 10 and up. The price tag. The kit cost$49.50 in 1950, the equivalent of over$600 today. So only the rich kids got cancer. He believed that the high price would ensure only serious young scientists bought it. That doesn't make any sense. What about the poor kids? Fuck you. Kids who owned this kit could detect radiation, watch particles decay, conduct experiments involving nuclear reactions, handle uranium samples with their bare hands.

unknown:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01:

The instruction manual encouraged children to prospect for uranium in their backyard. Use the Geiger counter to test household objects. Observe exciting radioactive phenomenon. I wonder how many kids drank that uranium. Um the uranium samples were low grade, but still potent enough that the kit would never pass modern safety standards. The Geiger counter wasn't a novelty, it was necessary.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and then when you got sick of that toy, all that uranium went to the landfill.

SPEAKER_01:

The potential risks included radiation exposure, inhalation of radioactive dust, contamination of household surfaces, and long-term health effects. That is insane. The kit also encouraged kids to go outside and look for more uranium. Imagine a 10-year-old wandering the neighborhood with a Geiger counter, knocking on doors, asking if they can scan your basement. The Atomic Energy Lab was discontinued in 1951. Nice. After just one year on the market. The reasons were a mix of low sales, high cost, growing public concern about radiation, and the dawning realization that maybe children should not handle uranium. That's insane. It's become a collector's item almost immediately. Today, a complete kit can sell for a thousand uh for thousands of dollars. Not that much more than it cost back then. I mean, wow. When I saw that, I was like, no, I know that's not Gen X, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

It does sound like if you were given three options which one of these is true, that's not one that you would pick. No. Which one of these toys was real? Definitely not the uranium one. I was just like, you've got to be.

SPEAKER_01:

That's what's fucking wrong with them all. Yeah, exactly. We were out searching for uranium. Um, the next one I did not realize was so dangerous until I was told because when I was running this past um last night, he said that this was a very dangerous toy, and I didn't I did not have it, so I did not know. The water wiggle. That was the octopus that sprayed water all around like a wire with like the hoses.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01:

Um introduced in the 1960s by Whammo, uh, the same company behind the Frisbee and the Hula Hoop, the water wiggle Whammo was marketed as a fun, silly sprinkler toy for kids. In reality, it was a pressurized flailing plastic serpent with no off switch and no mercy. Um the water wiggle's design was deceptively simple. A long, flexible plastic tube, a hollow, cartoon-ish plastic head, a connector that attached directly to a garden hose. When the water turned on, the head filled, the tube pressurized, and the entire contraption came to life, whipping, spinning, and thrashing unpredictably. The idea was that kids would run around in it, laughing as it sprayed water in random directions. The reality was it behaved like a hydrated cobra on a bender.

SPEAKER_03:

What were the legs made out of that made it? Hose.

SPEAKER_01:

Like flexible hose. Like flexible hose. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Because I was gonna say I got something similar to that a couple years ago from my little baby nephew. But it was it was just little.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, oh no, these were like long. Um the water wiggle didn't gently spring water, sprinkle water it attacked. It whipped around at high speed, smacking kids in the face, the legs, the back, wherever it happened to land. It could knock kids over, wrap around ankles, hit with surprising force, sprayed water directly into eyes and noses. And because it was unpredictable, kids never knew where it would strike next. The water wages danger wasn't just in its whipping motion, it was pressurized. Garden hoses can generate significant force, and the toy's design amplified that. The most serious hazards came from the toy detaching from the hose. Oh, no. The head coming loose, kids getting entangled in the tubing. And tragically, in rare cases, the toy caused fatal accidents when the pressurized head created suction hazards. Get out. By the late 70s and early 80s, reports of injuries and at least two child fatalities prompted serious scrutiny.

SPEAKER_03:

Did they get sucked up into the panel?

SPEAKER_01:

After multiple lawsuits and mounting safety concerns, the U.S. Consumer Product and Safety Commission stepped in. In 1985, WAMO issued a massive recall of more than two and a half million water wiggles citing risk of entrapment, risk of suffocation, risk of injury from whipping motion. Wow. WAMO redesigned the toy, but the original version, the one we remember, was effectively retired.

SPEAKER_03:

It was fantastic. Created a lot of really good visuals.

SPEAKER_01:

Getting sucked in. Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. I was trying to think of that like how you would get sucked in. I don't know. Yeah. But it you did, because people died. People died. Man. Um this I also had. Mostly it was all just shit I had. Um cap guns. I didn't have those. At the heart of every cap gun was its true magic, the roll caps. Tiny dots of red explosive powder that delivered a sharp pop, a puff of smoke, and the intoxicating smell of burnt sulfur. And that is what I remember. I would just shoot them close to my nose, which is probably what is wrong with me. And I like the smell of it.

SPEAKER_03:

I didn't, I don't think I even knew there were guns for them. We just used to throw things on the ground. The little bag on them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. But then they had ones where you loaded, it was a roll of them. Yeah, like a tape of them. And then you the cap gun. Cap guns first exploded onto the scene in the 40s and 50s, riding the wave of Western domination, radio, film, and early TV. By the time Gen X Kid came along, cap guns were everywhere in toy aisles, birthday parties, backyards, and every kid's dress-up bin. It was simple a metal or plastic toy gun, a hammer mechanism, a chamber for roll caps or ring caps, and a trigger that struck the cap and ignited the tiny explosive. Um roll caps were long paper strips dotted with small, circles of Armstrong's mixture, a shock-sensitive explosive compound made from potassium chlorate, sulfur, red phosphorus, glue, and a sprinkle of good luck. They were cheap. No uranium. No, no uranium. Unfortunately. They were cheap, accessible, and wildly fun. Kids fed the roll through the cap gun, pulled the trigger, and reveled in the sound, the smoke, and the smell. Mm-hmm. Um cap guns were only the beginning. They kids quickly discovered that roll caps could be activated by hitting them with a rock, scraping them on sidewalks, smashing them with a hammer, twisting them into little bundles, lighting them on fire.

SPEAKER_03:

Ooh, that one sounds fun. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I'm telling you the smell. Oh, I know the smell. Yeah, it was great. Oh, it was so awesome. Um the guns themselves weren't the biggest hazard. It's was the caps. Um, common injuries include burns from igniting caps outside the gun, cuts from exploding paper strips, blisters from touching freshly fired caps. Fucking paper cuts hurt. They do. I think I'd rather sever my arm than get a couple of things.

SPEAKER_03:

Paper cuts are the fucking worst. And they always sneak up like you have no idea it's about to happen. And you're in excruciating. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

And then you forget about it, and then you touch something, and you're like, holy mother of God. Hearing damage from firing too close to ears. Eye injury. Huh? Eye injuries from sparks are fragments. That must be what's wrong with my hearing. Um kids lighting entire rolls at once, smashing whole boxes with hammers, trying to make homemade fireworks, and putting caps under objects to see what would launch. By the late 80s and early 90s, concerns grew. Um they were too loud to cause hearing damage. They could ignite clothing. Um, kids were modifying them. And the guns looked increasingly realistic. Uh, so they responded by making the caps quieter, reducing the explosive content, switching to plastic ring caps, adding bright orange tips to guns, and rebranding them as a noise toy instead of weapons.

SPEAKER_02:

Boo.

SPEAKER_01:

They never fully disappeared, but the era of metal, smoky, and loud as head cats how loud as hell clap guns faded. We used to get them at the five and dime. We only had them in the summer because that's when anything was open here. And we used to go to the five and dine or seashell city and load up on them.

SPEAKER_03:

You reminded me of um some years back, gosh, it's probably been like 10 years ago at least. My dad had found some old um firecrackers uh that he had from like the 60s, and they were in it's they almost look like a cigarette pack, like a soft pack.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03:

And then the firecrackers themselves almost look like candy cigarettes. And then you just lit the end, but they were powerful. And um we played with them one 4th of July. They were very loud, and we we made uh we had cook crabs that day. Uh-huh. And we shoved one in a cook crab and lit it, and it exploded all over the yard. And then my nephew's a skateboarder, so we would light them and he would like jump over them as they popped. Oh my god, it was it was really, really fun. But they one of those things they definitely don't make them like they used to. Like there was a couple packs in a plastic bag. The plastic bag was completely covered in what like look like soot on the inside. Like it was just all black. But yeah, they they were really, really fun. I wish I had some more of those.

SPEAKER_01:

I I wasn't a big fan of they're very loud. I that was just surprising why I like cap guns, because I don't like loud.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, loud doesn't bother me. My my middle child hates loud. Can't stand loud. She has always hated loud, and to this day, if there's anything loud, she will stick her fingers in her ears. Yeah. I I I have to I have. She's done it since she was a baby. Yeah. She I don't like loud.

SPEAKER_02:

I can't be always loud. Um, okay, I got one more. Okay. Let's hope it's mine.

unknown:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

The merry-go-round? Nope. Oh, look at that.

SPEAKER_01:

What did I miss? Oh my god. I'll tell you at the end. Um the merry-go-round for me seems to be the worst of the worst because they just looked dangerous. Um, the merry-go-round dates back to the early 20th century, originally designed as a way for children to develop balance and coordination. It actually developed a generation of kids with a high tolerance for dizziness, bruises, and centrifugal force. Made of solid steel, often painted in bright primary colors that chipped into razor-like flakes. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Leaving rusty spots all over the place. Yeah. The Merry-Go Round was engineered to, I'm sure it all had lead in it, too. That paint. Um, it was engineered to spin faster the harder kids pushed. And we pushed it hard. Oh, yeah. The goal wasn't fun, it was velocity, it was physics, it was survival. Um, so the playground had its own rituals, the launch crew, kids who stayed on the ground, running in circles, pushing the wheel faster and faster until their legs gave out. The riders clinging to the bars, knuckle white, face distorted by G Force, silently praying not to be flunk onto the gravel. And the one kid who let go.

SPEAKER_03:

I was always part of the launch crew. I had no interest in flinging off of that thing.

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't I didn't have any parts. Honestly, didn't have any parts of any of it. Not interested. I enjoyed making it go fast and watching my friends get dizzy. I had dizziness. So I never had an issue with dizziness. Like I never had a motion sickness problem, nothing. And then we went to Disney with your two children. And your oldest talked me into going on the teacups, which I have never had a problem with. And I had, I thought, I think I was begging for help to get off of it from you people. And I think I remember your brother-in-law looking at me like, Are you gonna be okay? I'm like, I don't know if I can get off this fucking ride right now. I literally, my world is still spinning, and this thing has stopped for 10 minutes now.

SPEAKER_03:

And I wouldn't have been on it because I was pregnant. Because you were pregnant. Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh man. That's why I I don't know how I don't know how I got volunteered for it, but I did.

SPEAKER_03:

Because my kid asked you to do it. Yeah. God damn brats.

SPEAKER_01:

Um by the late 90s and early 2000s, safety advocates began pointing out that maybe just maybe a 600-pound spinning steel disc wasn't ideal. I'm surprised it took that long. Injuries ranged from broken bones to concussions to occasional accidental launch into the fence. Slowly, the merry-go round disappeared from playgrounds. Replaced by safer, softer plastic alternatives, it became a relic of a wilder time. Um today you can spot them in the wild occasionally. Um, and that was it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I mean, I think you could pretty much go with any toy that or any playground equipment. I remember in elementary school, we had and now I know I was little, so it probably looked bigger, but I swear to God, it was a 12-foot slide.

SPEAKER_01:

It was really big.

SPEAKER_03:

Where you just climbed up, no kind of guardrail. I mean, you would break your neck if you fell off the top of that thing. And then it was made of metal. Yeah, so it was like the surface of the sun. It was the surface of the sun when you went down.

SPEAKER_01:

And you just and you just peeled off the back layer of my skin.

SPEAKER_03:

It was the worst.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And then like the monkey bars and that sea fucking saws. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, you I mean we intentionally Yeah jumped off to make our friend fall.

SPEAKER_01:

Um that's why I was missing half a tooth. She she did that to me and I busted half a tooth off.

SPEAKER_03:

I broke a tooth on um it was the bars where there's one that's like normal height and the one right next to it is a little taller. And I used to love to get up in there and just do flips. Like I was really good at that. And one time I fell off and faceplanted on the ground and broke my tooth. But you used to bang your head on the monkey bars all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

My s my niece broke her elbow on the monkey bars. Ugh. Because they had to set it home.

SPEAKER_03:

And even the swings were like heavy chain. Like you could snap a finger on it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. And then the little the spring-loaded things that you went back and forth. I mean, that thing would like go all the way to the ground and then shoot you in the back.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my god, I love those things. Man, how we survived is really Yeah, that's why we're so tough. What was your toy? Cabangers. Do you remember cabangers? So kabangers were like a little four or five-inch plastic handle with two pieces of rope hanging from it and two hard plastic balls at the end.

SPEAKER_01:

That's what I raced. They called them clackers.

SPEAKER_03:

Mine were kabangers. But yeah, so for those of you that don't remember, you'd hold the handle and you would move your arm up and down and try to get the balls to go up and bang each other. But they were like really hard plastic. And I bruised my wrist up so much playing with those things. But I was obsessed. Like, because when you could get a good one going, oh man, there was nothing like it. But when you were having a bad day and you couldn't get it, who bruises everywhere.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I didn't have those. I I just had like the little wooden racket with the ball on the last thing. Those always frustrate me.

SPEAKER_03:

I still to this day, if I see one, I'll try it, and I'm not good at it. I think we just ended up cutting them, just be like, oh, it doesn't work now.

SPEAKER_01:

But the rest I had, I'm almost all I had.

SPEAKER_03:

That was really, really fun.

SPEAKER_01:

I've I thought we should have a little fun in this dark time. And it could be worse. We could all have been playing with uranium. Exactly. So exactly, you know. Yeah. What's a little world leader extrication when you can play with uranium? And now I've decided that I'm gonna make it my life's mission to at least find one online to see how much it actually is. Yeah. I can't when I saw I'm telling you, when I saw that, I was like, what? That is so funny.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my god. Yeah, unbelievable. So thank you. That was so much fun. I really enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_01:

Good. I'm glad. I needed it. I can't wait for you to see the title. I can't wait either. I hope everybody gets my title. If you see this, it's because either I did use my title or she poo-pooed it and said she'll like it.

SPEAKER_03:

It's very rare, but I do have to write back sometimes.

SPEAKER_01:

You can do better than you. But this one, I think this one, she now she's gonna just say yes because I've No, that's not true.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, anyway, if you like the title, hopefully it's the one I wanted. Yeah, that's it. Yay. Oh, wait, one more thing, real quick. We were watching a show on the newest fucking robots that they have coming out of whatever that company is in Massachusetts. Holy motherfucking hell. I don't like it at all. It is horrifying and scary. And now, of course, they're using AI, so they learn.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

No. Yeah. No, no, no.

unknown:

Nope.

SPEAKER_03:

I know. I know. Nope. Yep. I I am not a fan of the robots. And they they did a segment on the um Saturday morning news this past week, and it was a guy that owns a laundromat, and he had got a robot that can fold clothes. And it was really just the arms that did it. But it took them like 10 minutes to fold a shirt. I'm like, that would drive me nuts. I'd be like, just give it to me, I'll do it myself. Like, goddammit, robot.

SPEAKER_01:

No, this this one, the new one that they have coming out. I can't remember the name of that company, but they have them now. They have them working in um Hyundai plants because he's an engineer for Hyundai. So they have them. They have them working in there. And it's going to replace all the blue collar workers.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh yeah. So yeah. And then the Waymo's, did you see the one that drove through an active police shooting scene?

unknown:

No.

SPEAKER_03:

Like the cops had pulled somebody or a chase, they stop the guy, the guy's out of his car, he's fire firing at the police, the police are firing at him, and a Waymo just doo-doo drives right down through the middle of it with a passenger in it.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Progress. I guess.

SPEAKER_01:

That's what they say. Yeah. I guess so. Anyway, yeah. Thank you all for listening. Yes. Uh, we do appreciate you. We do. Um, you can like, share, rate, review. Please. If you would like that, because that is helpful for us. It is. Um, not that we plan on stopping because we could just talk to each other wherever. Yeah. But it makes things better. Yeah. Um makes us smile. Yeah. You can listen to us wherever you listen to the podcasterinis. Um, you can visit our lovely um website. Yeah. Like whatever pod.com.

SPEAKER_03:

Or you can also find all of our podcast or all of our episodes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. And merch. Um you can find us on all the socials at Like Whatever Pod. Or you can send us an email telling us about what tools you use to mine uranium from the earth. Likewhateverpod at gmail.com or don't like whatever. Whatever. Bye. Red alert.

SPEAKER_05:

Red alert.

Contributor

Heather Jolley

Host
Contributor

Nicole Barr

Host