1

The other night a friend of mine, who lived only six blocks away when we were kids, told me that he used to make the washers out of the paraffin that used to be on the top of jars of homemade jam. Now he tells me!

2

Now I’m sure I could do it right now, because I just did. I went out in the front yard and set it up just the way the picture goes and the third time I tried, I did it. I’m still not sure I could do it right this minute.

3

It has been brought to my attention that some kids don’t know how to make paste any more, that they think paste is only something that you can buy. With us, it was the other way around. We knew how to make it, and later on found out it was possible to buy it. Well, I’m not going to draw any pictures or give any careful instructions here. You take flour and water and mix it until it’s paste, and if you have some salt you can put it in, too. I don’t know if the salt does any good, but we figured we had nothing to lose. It wasn’t our salt.

4

I hear tell hairpins are pretty rare now. Maybe you can make them out of bobby-pins, but I don’t know about this.

5

That stuff called silly putty works, too, but that costs money.