Dangerous Toys I've Owned (but won't be giving to my niece)

My nephew, Steve, called this week to tell us that he and Gina now know that they are expecting a GIRL!!! I was hoping for a girl - I have 6 nephews and zero nieces, so now I will have a grand-niece!! I get to buy her girlie things, take her to get her hair done, and for a spa pedicures. We took Connor for a spa pedicure - but it will be girlier experience with my new grand-niece. The name they have chosen for her (so far) is Ada, but they have not come up with a middle name. If you can think of a good middle name to go with Ada, let me know and I will pass it on to the judging committee.

Thinking about having a little girl in the family took me back (WAY back) to a toy that I had as a child. After an exhaustive search for a Betty Crocker Easy Bake oven on E-bay, I finally stumbled upon a picture of the exact oven I had when I was about 4-years-old - a Suzy Homemaker electric oven. It was a funky little teal colored oven with knobs in teal, red, yellow, blue and black. Marilyn and I cooked everything from little cakes and cookies to cough drops in that thing. It was a great toy to have, but there is no way anyone would sell anything that got that hot these days. It wasn't huge, but it was also big enough to fit both hands into. The toy ovens available now are much different. The baking areas have a slot so small that it would be very difficulty to fit one tiny hand through.
Kids today have no idea how buffered they are from the real world. Gone are the days of Irwin Mainway's Bag-O-Glass. This is a metal dollhouse that Marilyn had when we were growing up. We cut ourselves countless times on the sharp corners and edges.
I owned these skates, too. Notice the teeny tiny little brackets that are supposed to hold a small child's feet in place. Those brackets NEVER worked for very long. I would be cruising along, my foot would pop out, and then I'd be eating sidewalk and picking pebbles out of the palms of my hands. Good times...