I wore cloth diapers, the old fassioned ones fastened tight by PINS. Sharp ones. - Yup.
I rode a tricycle made out of steel, not plastic. - Me, too.
When I got a little older I played in a backyard sand box with toy bulldozers made of steel with sharp corners on them.
- Didn't have a sandbox, but the toys were metal.
I "drove" a pedal powered toy tractor, also made out of steel, with REAL rubber tires.
- Nope, we stole baby carriages, knocked the wheels and axles off, got a couple of 2x4s, stole a milk crate (they were wooden back then), grudgingly paid a few cents for a carriage bolt and voila! A kid-powered go-cart!
My swing set consisted of swings with hard wooden seats and a metal slide.
- The swings sets in our neighborhood were vandalized long ago - the local elementary school had metal swings, slides and monkey bars - all on concrete.
We had a rotary phone. - Yup
Our telivision had dials on it. - Yup, and it was black& white
Remote control, cordless phones, and power windows in cars were all still novelties.
- Yup, except for the power windows - Dad bought a used Cadillac (with the big fins) and it had power EVERYTHING.
Merry-go-rounds in playgrounds were not considered dangerous. In fact, the goal was to have Dad spin us so fast we all flew off into the sand, and be so dizzy we couldn't walk for 5 minutes there after..
- Didn't have merry-go-rounds, we had 'whirly-gigs' that had the same effect.
Band aids on knees and elbows were present on almost all kids between the ages of 3 and 12. - Yup
My cartoon hero was a space cowboy named Bravestarr. - Bugs Bunny and Quickdraw McGraw
My friends and I were given toy guns and encouraged to play with them. - Yup, and we had the ones that fired plastic bullets.
Most young boys wanted to grow up and be fire fighters, jet pilots, locomotive enginers, or heavy equipment operators. We had no idea what the "I.T." field was. - Yup
Policemen driving through our neigborhood would wave to us, and sometimes throw us candy.
- Didn't see cops too often - mortified Mom once when she was pulled over for running a red light (the lights, by the way, went from green to red, no yellow); by singing the theme song to 'Car 54, Where Are You?'
The Berlin wall still stood and the Russians were the usual villans in most action movies. - Yup, along with Nazis, THRUSH and K.A.O.S.
I saw "Snow White" in the theater. - Nope, but I watched the Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday night.
When I thought of video games I thought of Pac-Man and Pole Position. - Pong and Asteroids (Pigggggssss in Sssssppppaaaaccccceeee!)
Our home computer was good for word processing..... if you were really really patient. - Didn't have one, used Dad's 'word processor' - a Royal typewriter.
We had no idea what the internet was. - Well, no - it didn't exist
My first car was an old Dodge pickup truck with a five speed. I could fill it up for $20 and still get change back.
- First car was a '65 Chevy BelAir, fire engine red, with a straight six cylinder engine and power nothing. Dad got the car from an informant.
When I left my highschool graduation I got in that old dodge and went to work. - Yup.
I'll guess you're in your mid forties... my brother just hit 40 and when he was little, he had a BigWheels, not a tricycle.