I'm so old I Remember when:

[MROO]

Remember when us older folks wanted to, and worked towards, getting out of mommy and daddy’s house as soon as we could? The mere thought of living with the parents into our adult years made us cringe.

DS wants desperately to be out on his own, but with this economy, the poor kid doesn't stand a chance, even with a good job. We're making it work with as much independence (for both of us) as we can, but it's hard on him. As far as I'm concerned, he can stay as long as he needs to; it's my his home, too.

 

[sdm111]

Are home ec classes still taught? In seventh grade everyone had to take a semester of home ec and a semester of shop. We learned cooking, sewing, and woodworking.

The home ec classroom looked a lot like this. One of the first things we learned how to make was chocolate chip cookies. To discourage kids from eating the raw dough, the teacher told us a very nasty story about a spider who laid her eggs in flour. It was so traumatic I don't even remember the rest of the story but it was very effective.

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We had home ec and industrial arts. I did the latter. Pretty sure neither is done today around here.

 

[RoyalChick]

Is poisonous.

Kinda.
Liquid elemental mercury that we played with as kids is not readily absorbed through the skin, so playing with the mercury in broken thermometers really isn't such a hazard.
Mercury is certainly not great if ingested but it takes quite high levels of exposure to be worrying, though mercury vapor is not something I would want to be around. I think I still have a tooth filling or maybe two that are old enough that they are mercury based.

 

[R2elk]

Kinda.
Liquid elemental mercury that we played with as kids is not readily absorbed through the skin, so playing with the mercury in broken thermometers really isn't such a hazard.
Mercury is certainly not great if ingested but it takes quite high levels of exposure to be worrying, though mercury vapor is not something I would want to be around. I think I still have a tooth filling or maybe two that are old enough that they are mercury based.

Where mercury was really hazardous was for the gold panners who used it to recover fine gold.

"When mercury is brought into contact with gold particles in sediments or crushed ore, it forms “amalgam” - a soft mixture of roughly 50% mercury and 50% gold. To recover gold from the amalgam, it is heated to evaporate the mercury, leaving the gold behind."

Breathing the fumes was deadly.

 

[RoyalChick]

Where mercury was really hazardous was for the gold panners who used it to recover fine gold.

"When mercury is brought into contact with gold particles in sediments or crushed ore, it forms “amalgam” - a soft mixture of roughly 50% mercury and 50% gold. To recover gold from the amalgam, it is heated to evaporate the mercury, leaving the gold behind."

Breathing the fumes was deadly.

Yes. Mercury vapor is nasty stuff.

 

[Rick589]

Playing a game of Croquet was dangerous
( those mini bowling balls could break a toe or foot )

Especially when they were thrown at you.

 

[Rick589]

start the rumor the "Sky is Falling".

wait! It’s not???

 

[Rick589]

When it was hot, we used to sleep with the front and back doors propped open for cross-ventilation. We never worried someone would come in.

You mean during those years when, even though we still had criminals, the vast majority of people respected each other, each others property, each others privacy, and neighbors looked out for each other? Well we had to give most of that away for various dubious rationales BUT we received cell phones, social media (which brings us all closer together, correct?), safe spaces, and emotions and sensitivities hanging from every available shirt sleeve. What a fabulous trade off!

 

[Rick589]

In my book Henny Penny had an acorn fall on her head.

We can at least agree that they were hens involved in the stories.

 

[MROO]

Sounds fun.

It was ... until we found out the stuff was exTREMEly toxic and never, ever leaves your system. ... sigh ... still, it WAS pretty cool!