You know you’re old if you recognize these…
And half the time you just left the key in the ignition…
You won’t ever see this product again, it’s been judged too dangerous!
Ours was the green version of the table and chairs.
And those damned little rubber booties on the chair legs kept breaking and getting glued back together and shoved back on the legs… Grrr… Because if you scratched the linoleum, your butt was going to get beat.
Even today, I’m paranoid about dragging a chair across the floor… LOL
Good old ‘Sangre de Chango’ (i.e. Monkey Blood), Grandma put that stuff on our childhood boo-boos.
Same Grandma had the same table as pictured, but with yellow pattern instead. Matched the kitchen yellow floor tile. Must have been free give-a-way, a lot of people I know had the same kitchen tables at their Grandparents house too. The chairs I remember had some differences – I don’t recall the top handle pull-out. Then again, my memory is usually ‘sometimers mode’ ;^)
On every one of those square head GM ignitions I had, if you tugged on the key often while the vehicle was running, you could wear down the key retention mechanism inside the lock. That allowed you to remove the keys after the vehicle was running, but lock the ignition if you shut it off. Highly convenient for me.
The previous generation of GM keys (octagonal IIRC), had that as a feature. start the truck, pull the key, lock the doors, go inside for a hot cocoa (or cuppa coffee). By the time you are finished, the window ice was (mostly) melted and off you went in a nice warm vehicle. Of course gas was only 25 cents a gallon.
Job in college had access to two Ford Courier pickups…
The older one suffered from the worn out ignition, to the point you could start it with a screwdriver, pen, even a strong fingernail.
One was a manual, the other automatic.
The stick could be backfired at will.
I used to have one like that, I often forgot to bring the key, and once or twice accidentally “locked” it off. Remember telling people “DON”T turn the switch all the way off!”
Re “You won’t ever see this product again,” about last year or so they were rumbling an old fieldstone building near BAH HAABAH Maine that used to be a pharmacy and general store. Some guy found two cartons of 4oz bottles of REAL sperm whale oil! That stuff never goes rancid. He began selling them one by one on eBay and they were going for $35 or $40 each at first. The last one I saw went for around $95. Maine Fish and Game tried to hassle him about it but I think he beat them back, because he didn’t harvest the whales. Just like if you sold a family heirloom whalebone corset or scrimshaw as an antique.
I remember that Mercurochrome burnt like liquid fire.
Yes, the rubber booties were essential, AND a pain.
In the schools, we had a similar problem with the metal chairs and the hard tile floors, Some scuffing, but mostly the noise. The solution was tennis balls: slice ’em open, and slip them over the end of the chair leg.
Our table was red. Used it until the late 80’s. We were eating and suddenly the table legs went out from under it, and it came to rest on our laps. No fun atoll.
Hey Old NFO;
I have the Ford versions of the same keys…..LOL the things the youngsters have no clue about.
One of my first cars had the dual keys! At one point I had a key wallet, and my ‘door’ key kept falling off onto the floorboard. And I’d never notice when I pulled in and parked… only to lock myself out of my car.
After that happened a couple times, I switched to a steel key ring.
We had the white table into the mid-70s, when the last of the straight-leg chairs gave up. Still have the table, sturdy as all get-out.
We always used iodine and I think they may have pulled that too! We lived in one place from 78 to 88 that was only about eight miles from a minimum security prison so we left the keys in the vehicle so if an escapee came by they could take the vehicle and leave the house alone. Fortunately It never came to that
Heard of the key setup, but never encountered such. I think the same might true of the Mercurochrome (it’s legal to make and sell, last I looked, but cannot be shipped across state lines, so.. effectively banned). And the table & chairs scream “diner” to me. I do not recall seeing any there were not green.
Our kitchen table and chairs were just like that, except in red. Mom and Dad bought the set in the ’50s when we moved to the farm. It was still there and in use in 1985, when we sold the farm.
IIRC Merthiolate was the one that burned like fire while Mercurochrome was just really painful. Had generous applications of both in my childhood. It’s a wonder I’ve almost reached 80.
I have pads under all my chairs and dining table.
Checked on the effectiveness of Mercurochrome.
I think that’s the reason you no longer see it.
Guess I am old, grew up with all listed and still have item #2 in my medicine cabinet, come to think of it, that bottle is likely 30 years old at least. Wonder how long the stuff lasts?
My first car and truck had those keys. Pretty much never used the round ones.
74′ malibu and 78′ C2500
All- Thanks for the comments, and yes, Mercurochrome had a small amount of mercury, and wasn’t the ‘best’ antiseptic… sigh…
Heath- I think most of us were that way! LOL
Wow that looks like the exact table and chairs we had.
Ford did something similar with their keys. At some point, they switched which one fit the ignition with the other one. They were double edged, and had opposite offset for the two head shapes. A “better idea”…
The feds took iodine off the market, when they realized “preppers” were stocking it for water sterilization use. Mostly not available now as a result.
Randy- LOL, most of us had ‘some’ version…
Will- I vaguely remember the Ford version.
Had two Chevy Vegas (remember those?) that used that key scheme. One you could use the pull the key out while running trick. Handy.
If it hadn’t been for Mercurochrome, I might have died from skinned kness during one of my particularly bad growth spurts. I think I grew 6″ that summer.
We didn’t have the table and chairs, but my Granny did. Red. I suppose my Dad sold those off when he cleaned out the house.
I inherited my grandfathers 89 Ford F-150 Xlt truck when he died and it is duel keyed