Summer has descended with the intensity of a relentless inferno, leaving many American towns simmering in its wake. I don’t recall summers ever feeling this hot when I was a kid, but that probably has something to do with the fact we were always soaking ourselves with cold water in some manner.

Every day was a new adventure when you had very few responsibilities, except for maybe a paper route or babysitting the neighbor’s brats. We always made sure to be back in the house before the streetlights came on and re-runs of Laverne & Shirley started (dating myself here).

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With no screens to distract us (outside, at least), we made our own entertainment, and we were really good at it. Hide ‘n Seek was a favorite, though we’re still not sure if we ever found Derek. Red Rover, Red Rover was fun, and I still have the scars to prove it. Come to think of it, many of the things we did to keep ourselves busy were really quite dangerous.

And when I say dangerous, I mean even the toys we played with. Water toys turned us into little stunt professionals (or amateurs) and were quite plentiful. I remember buying low-grade fireworks at the candy store. Many of these toys were likely to poke your eye out, stab your foot, or practically strangle you.

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But here we are, mostly okay. So let’s take a look at some of the summer toys that kept us busy while we were pretty much running wild in our neighborhoods. From the wet and wild to the shootin’ and tootin’, these playthings had us keeping cool, looking cool, and only a few trips and falls away from the emergency room.