Ah...fond memories!

Seeing this forlorn parachute brought it all back! When I was a kid in the 70's, one of the cheap, crappier toys that was available to us was a badly moulded soldier with a parachute attached at the shoulders. Cheaper than dirt, and about as entertaining, we spent minutes flinging these soldiers into the air, watching them float gracelessly towards land. After a few minutes, of course, one would get caught in the branches of a nearby tree, we'd try and dislodge it with sticks, give up and go home. A few days later, someone else would buy one, and the whole series of events would start again! I also had an Evel Knievel dragster which had a parachute, but that parachute rarely made it out of the back of the car...damned thing never worked properly! I think we learned that the Evel Knievel bike with its wind-up rampy-thingy was the real deal. Nice to see, though, that kids today still get suckered into buying daft things to throw into the air...quality seems to have improved, mind!