Johnny Reb was a 30-inch "authentic civil war" cannon that was sold in the 1950s. The Reb fired hard, plastic cannonballs with a spring mechanism—the aspiring secessionist need only pull a lanyard. No word on exactly how fast the cannonballs flew, but they traveled up to 35 feet and seemed perfectly sized to lodge into an eye socket, down an open mouth, or into a Republican convention. For only $11.98, young rebels got a cannon, six cannon balls, a ramrod, and a rebel flag. The last scene in the commercial of a girl in a nurse's uniform, patching up a kid with a head wound seemed highly appropriate. We kids were a hearty bunch back then.
2 comments:
Brings back some great memories. Man, how we loved those things when I was a kid! It made our war games all the more realistic. If a cannonball landed within 10 feet of you, you were "dead." 11 to 20 feet, only "wounded."
Today, the Consumer Products Safety Commission would sue us to make us stop.
I don't remember this at all. I guess we were too poor. Twelve bucks was our food budget, not something to be spent on a toy. At Christmas, each of us would get one present and it was either clothes or a used toy.
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