r/interesting • u/lb3a3 • 1d ago

HISTORY Atomic Bomb Cereal ring with real Polonium-210

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u/SinoSoul 1d ago edited 1d ago

Real *polonium plutonium in toy bomb, real coke in Coca Cola. Kids back then lived their best lives.

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u/heavensto_mergatroid 1d ago

4th of July they give you a baggy with 10 m80s and say don't blow your fingers off. 8 yrs old.

One of those of m80 was probably like 1/8 of a stick of dynamite. Big explosion

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u/Uncaring_Dispatcher 1d ago

I grew up with lawn darts and, yeah, M-80's. It was fun, indeed, but the real fun was had by my grandpa, who was able to buy actual dynamite at the hardware store...as a kid.

Those must've been the good ole' days!

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u/heavensto_mergatroid 1d ago

I'm 50 and I remember seeing dynamite being sold in the small farm community hardware stores outside Denver like in the early 80s! Lol it's crazy how recent you could buy dynamite at a hardware store

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u/Loud_Produce4347 1d ago

Explosive boulder removal kits were still available at the hardware store 20 years ago IIRC. Dexpan was still sort of a novelty.

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u/doge_lady 1d ago

What purpose did they use besides mining?

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u/Uncaring_Dispatcher 1d ago

It was considered a labor-saving tool at the time. People would remove large tree stumps, boulders, dig large holes and ditches, etc.

It's crazy how times change and how people change. And yeah, bad people did do bad things with it. Check out the "Bath School Disaster". It's a wonder dynamite was still easy to buy even after that. You could order it from the Sears catalogue!

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u/-Seedy- 1d ago

Old fashioned stump removers.

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u/hgrub 1d ago

Also dead whale remover yes?

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u/Educated-Troll420 1d ago

According to the Oregon highway division anyways

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u/heavensto_mergatroid 1d ago

All purpose lol

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u/wildjakes 1d ago

all season

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u/Old-Personality-4241 1d ago edited 1d ago

I was 12, in 1983. I could walk to the Armory in town in R.I. and buy a Lb of black gunpowder... no i.d., no questions. We'd take take it home, , dig a 2' deep hole, run some powder for a fuse, bury the 1lb container in the hole, light it and run to the shed to watch it go BOOM! The good old days.

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u/IvyGold 1d ago

Kitty?

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u/Old-Personality-4241 1d ago

Thanks. Flipping auto correct thinks it's so damn smart.

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u/MrLancaster 1d ago

When my grandfather died, we found half a dozen sticks of dynamite in his safe, INSIDE his house lol. He used them for blasting stumps out of the ground, apparently.