Will Bubbles Become The New Illegal Toy

     If we all think hard enough we can remember at least one toy in our childhood which now is blacklisted from children to play with today.  My mom would tell me that as a child her and some neighborhood friends would have competitions of rolling mercury balls down the driveway and seeing who would win.  Today, we have to turn in our mercury thermometers and exchange it for digital ones.  I understand the evils of mercury but my point is, that at a time in our history, mercury was a toy. 

     Think of the playgrounds back in yesteryears.  Remember the teeter-totter?  Now look at today's newer playgrounds.  What is missing?  The teeter-totter.  Due to our generation of giving each other cherry bombs and hopping off just to let the person on the other side come crashing down this outdoor activity is now deemed dangerous.  Kids get hurt.  This is a part of childhood.  It is learning about knowing your limits and figuring out situtations.  I even remember falling off backwards trying to do a silly stunt and having the wind knocked out of me.  It hurt.  But I got up, wiped away tears, and went back at learning to master the silly stunt I was doing. 

     Another playground item that is missing in today's playground is the merry-go-round.  You can still find these in older parks.  Kids would spin themselves sick for the fun of it.  When the child was sick enough to vomit they would stand off to the side, get sick while other kids laughed with delight, then the sick kid would hop back on for more spinning.  Again, children got hurt from time to time but it was expected.  Now the once favorite item at the parks is disappearing.

     Lawn Jarts.  Popular outdoor toy where a person has to toss this razor sharp object into a circle placed on the ground and the jart will stick into the Earth.  Sadly, a little girl died and her dad went on a crusade to have them banned.  In 1988, a full ban was in place.  You can still play the game but it has a weighted ball for a tip instead of the pointed end.  As a child I remember playing with the original jarts.  It was fun.  I recall my friend David and I, up at our cabin at Houghton Lake, would toss them up in the air real high and run out of the way before the jart hit us as gravity pulled it back towards the groud.  Looking back I realized we were being stupid with it and not realizing the dangers of it at the time but I am sure if either one of us got struck by a jart then we would then of known its dangers.  We would of pulled the jart out and continued playing. 

     There have been children in past generations who had their mouth washed out with soap.  I know I chewed on a bar every now and then growing up.  And I deserved it.  I don't disagree with that punishment I received at all.  Today, it is child abuse for having a child's mouth washed out with soap.  In the new liquid soaps children have got sick over digesting it. 

     The other day I was outside blowing bubbles with my 4 year old son, Levi.  As I blew into the bubble I was thinking that I am putting my germs into this soapy bubble.  I am healthy so I wasn't really worried but I gave more thought into it especially when my son tried catching the bubbles with his mouth.  I watched my germ filled bubbles floating off into the day sky thinking my germs are being spread everywhere.  What if I was a preschool teacher blowing bubbles for my class and they tried eating the bubbles?  Is the soap used for the bubbles strong enough to kill off my germs?  What if I had a cold and did that?  Would my cold germs carry over and infect another child?  Think of the birthday cake.  The birthday person blows all over the cake and then we eat it without a thought to it.  If we were in a restaurant and a waitress blows all over our food we would be grossed out by it and not eat it, but for cake it is okay?!  Popping someone else's bubbles with their germs inside is okay?  Or perhaps the next generation will discover the ill ramifications of blowing bubbles and this once beloved activity of childhood will be then deemed dangerous. 

As a final twist of thought; the yo-yo was once used as a weapon.