My brother and mom and I were talking about how my brother and I used to play with mercury, snagged from the HS chem lab. Also, once we wanted to see how high the thermometer would go so we put a pan of water on the stove; the thermometer melted. So we just poured the mercury-laden water down the drain.
We also played with, I think manganese strips? Somehow we would make them burn or spark or something. Also snagged from chem lab. Mom said they used to play with pennies in mercury.
Nowadays you'd have hazmat hell. But none of it hurt any...(keels over dead.)
