The Pecan Park Eagle

Cap Guns were our treasures as kids of the post WWII era.

With Christmas coming up faster than some of us can finish shopping, a few of my thoughts turn to the toys that went away from the shopping lists of Santa and our parents in the post World War II years. I’m not all that sure about changes in the girl toys, but there seems to be a major turnover in the toys for boys that are out there.

Exploding cap six-guns and rifles that all of us pre-teen boys down to ages 3 or 4 had to have back in the day seem to have vanished completely from the toy shelves. I guess today’s more violent world, one in which some real kids run around with real guns, pretty much precludes the opportunity for playful gun fights. In 2010, holding up anything that looks like a gun is also a good way to get yourself shot by the police. There was a story this week about a young man who was shot dead when he held up a detached garden hose nozzle and pointed it at the police when they came to check out a neighbor’s 911 call that the man was walking around the yard with a gun in his hand. It’s pretty easy today to see how that might happen. And also pretty scary. The threat of violence in our world today is always only a few seconds and a wrong turn on the streets away. That leaves no room for gun play as child’s play. Not in this world.

I was a pin ball wizard at the baseball part of this game.

Once upon a time, I got to the proficiency point of pretty much being able to call my shot on home runs in this little Christmas present pin ball game shown in the picture. The one in the picture is the exact model I played, way back in the late 1940s. Of course, we all know what happened to pin ball games and just about every other sports game involving pin balls, dice, or playing cards. Specific computer programs  and game company technologies have pretty much taken over the gaming world, for now and forever.

Too bad, There was some considerable mechanical skill required in the game of pin ball – and it was all something we developed over thousands of pulls and releases on the firing knob at different forces that taught us where the little silver  ball probably was going to end up.

Those too were the days my friend. Again, we thought they’s never end.

Perhaps, some of  you readers will also be able to comment on the differences you see in the Christmases you recall from your own personal “old days” in comparison to the ones that kids are having now. All I know for sure is – Christmas has changed in so many ways.

Let us hear from you.