"I remember having hard plastic water rockets when we were kids. They were only about a foot long. You'd fill 'em up and pump them with an air pump. They could knock you out if they launched while you were leaning over them. I think they took them off the market because of the danger. But the one like you have looks much safer as it seemed soft. How full do you have to fill it? How high do you think it went?
As for the fishing gear... I haven't bought any recently, but good gear keeps going down in price as even better gear comes onto the market. I remember drooling over the high dollar stuff as a kid... you know... the stuff that was $50.00 seemed like a lot of money back then. Have you priced the top end stuff recently?"
That rocket went about 100 or so feet high spraying a trail of water. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif. I don't know how we ever made it through childhood with no helmets, knee pads and real chemistry set with real chemicals in them. I think my set had a pretty complete assortment of chemicals--imagine selling something like that today--no wonder kids today only want to play ninetendo--thanks to the lawyers.
Yeah, on the fishing gear, I guess I was just surprised at the low cost. Much of it is made in China but some is still from Swedon and the USA. Back in 1974 you could buy a nice new car for 5,000 dollars, now 25,000 is the average price. Therefore I figure a reel that cost 60 dollars in 1974 should cost 150-300 dollars. I think maybe that precision ball bearings and spaceage materials and new manufacturing processes have had a huge impact.
As I said , I think, I have told my wife that our tech level is dangerously low. I think it is an indication of becoming old people /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif. My beautiful neice recently got married to a naval officer, a very nice young person. BUT, here is what she said. I was asking her about her upcoming move to Hawaii and she told me that she and her fiance "were going to be an active couple". /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif. The direct inference was that I and other (older) persons there were not active couples /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif. I was furious but of course smiled politely. I complained to my mother---what is she talking about--let's see--me and my wife have flown airplanes, sailed boats, got left in the ocean once kinda like this movie Open Water (only about an hour), scuba dived all over the place, cave dived, climbed mountains and hiked all over, got chased by a bear, raced motorcycles and triatholons, got mugged in Miami (where my wife bargained the mugger down to 20 dollars)---no--we have not been an active couple /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif. J