Crazy Kid Stuff

[redrum]

Being that I recently turned 60 (Gak!!) I've been thinking back about some of the stupid things I did as a kid and for some reason did them anyway without thinking of the consequences. Pain was another unintended consequence.

Living in San Francisco at the time, my friend had what was called a 'Flexy Flyer' on wheels. This thing was very narrow and dangerously unstable at high speed. Well, being the dumb ass that I was I took it up USF hill which was a long, gradually sloping hill by the university. As I lay on it and got up to speed I realized (too late) that I didn't know where the brakes were and as my speed increased the thing finally flipped over and I went sliding down the middle of the street getting a bad case of road rash on my hand, arm, side and face. As I lay there a priest happened to be walking by and saw me laying there and asked if I was ok. I feebly said 'yes' and got up to carry the damned thing home where my Mother then patched me up. I gave it back to my friend and never went near it again.

I think that's the one the girl is sitting on.

I've got some other stories but let's hear from you.

[Virginia]

Yikes; I'm glad you are ok!

The dumbest thing I can think of was when I was a teenager, and tried to neaten my eyebrows with Nair (they did eventually grow back...)

A year or 2 earlier, I also used that Sun-in spray, and it turned my hair bright orange.

I can't think of any injuries, but I am a little klutzy and have fallen down the stairs a few times; have fallen pretty spectacularly into the mud at a college football game, and gotten my heel stuck in one of those office chair floor mats and gone into a split at work (while wearing a suit).

[zdr]

Well, when I was a child, I don't remember passing a summer vacation with my knees intact (I always had "good behaviour signs" on my limbs, although I didn't score any fracture (yet ) ; and those vacations, spended on the country side, in my grand-parents village, are my fondest memories). One time I've fallen from the top of a tall cherry-tree (I was visiting some relatives on certain occasion; I was all dressed-up, with elegant dress and shoes; and, of course, I met some of my other cousins there...). I still remember the impact (I could't breath for few seconds).

...Other time, I tried to jump over a fence in our garden, but there was a wire above the fence and my legs stumbled upon that wire, and I've fallen like a log, face down.

...Other time, on the bicycle, I started to go down-road from the top on the hill, and when I reached the base of the hill, I tried to take a 30 degrees (or so) turn to right.. Of course, at that speed, I went directly into the neighbour's fence..

...But the most dangerous thing (It could have costed my life) happened when I was about 4-5 years old. I was on the swing, and, of course, swinging was not enough. So I start to rotate with the swing, twisting the ropes (and, then, when released, the ropes were deplying fast, giving a very fast rotation to the swing). All good, except that, once, my muffler got into the ropes and hung me. Hopfully my older brother got to yell after my grandma, she came, saw the situation, ran back into the kitchen after a knife and cut my muffler in 3 pieces (idk, in her place I would have probably freeze..she tell me I was turning blue).

The fact is that I would never tell my parents/grandpas about my injuries (except when were visible )

[Bong-Man]

When I was a kid, I hung around with a family of 7 boys. The youngest was of course an obnoxious picked on little imp who was too young to play ball with us. One day his brothers got tired of his shit and duct-taped him to a picnic table behind the ball diamond. Then they hollowed out an M-80 leaving the wick intact, and duct-taped it to his chest and lit it. I could never do anything that cruel....but then again he wasn't my little brother.

There were a couple of kids called the Wilson Bros. a block over that were absolutely nuts. Their reputation in the neighborhood was so bad that my friends and I were banned from going over their house from the moment I could go around the block. One day Mrs. Wilson put a sign on her door which said the following......"If you have any complaints about my children, please return at 5:30pm when my husband is home. He will be more than happy to deal with you at that time. Kind of a unique twist on the old, "Wait until your Father gets home".

[sweetredwine]

Being that I recently turned 60 (Gak!!) I've been thinking back about some of the stupid things I did as a kid and for some reason did them anyway without thinking of the consequences. Pain was another unintended consequence.

Living in San Francisco at the time, my friend had what was called a 'Flexy Flyer' on wheels. This thing was very narrow and dangerously unstable at high speed. Well, being the dumb ass that I was I took it up USF hill which was a long, gradually sloping hill by the university. As I lay on it and got up to speed I realized (too late) that I didn't know where the brakes were and as my speed increased the thing finally flipped over and I went sliding down the middle of the street getting a bad case of road rash on my hand, arm, side and face. As I lay there a priest happened to be walking by and saw me laying there and asked if I was ok. I feebly said 'yes' and got up to carry the damned thing home where my Mother then patched me up. I gave it back to my friend and never went near it again.

I think that's the one the girl is sitting on.

I've got some other stories but let's hear from you.

My parents lived at the top of a long, sloping hill and sometimes parked their car in the driveway leading to the garage. One day a friend and I (she was about 7 years old and I was about 8 years old) were playing in the yard and got the idea to "drive" the car. We didn't have the keys but in those days the steering wheel would turn anyway, and we started pressing buttons, turning the lights on and off and then I took off the emergency brake (a first for me). She was scared because of the noise it made but I said "don't worry, the shift is in PARK position so the car is parked, it can't go anywhere". Then we left the car and ran somewhere else to play ... and the next thing I hear is mom and dad screaming "How did the car get in the ditch? Is anybody hurt?" The car had sped backwards down the long sloping driveway, crossed a busy road and landed in a ditch. Thank heavens it didn't hit a person or another car! But I remember quite well I was grounded for over a month because the repairs cost several hundred dollars ...

Yes, those were the days. I'll turn 50 this year if I make it ...

[ledzepfvr]

One thing I remember...I lived with my grandparents as a kid and they had a swing set in the back yard for me. I must have been around 6 and I thought it would be fun to fly. I got to swinging as high as I could and on the forward swing I launched myself out of the seat. Momentary fun until I hit the ground. My grandma came running because I was crying and yelling. Fortunately, I did not break any bones.

My dad just recently told me of this tale that I don't remember. Must of been around 4. Grandpa had a workshop in the back yard and in the early 60's safe guards were not in place on power tools yet. My grandpa had the table saw going and he and my dad were working on something while I watched and for some silly kid reason I stuck my hand up in the belt and it fliped me over before the power was shut off. Dad rushed me to the Dr. but didn't have any broken bones then either.

When I was learing to walk, I walked over the floor heater grid and fell on it because it was HOT and burned the crap out of my legs. Had bandages for quite awhile and for many years when I spent any time out in the sun you could see the burn grid on the back of my legs and the squares got bigger as I grew over the years. Don't see them anymore.

Lastly, when I was 18 my boyfriend, his brother and I got pretty wasted and since I wasn't as bad off as them I drove us home about 15 miles on the freeway. I don't remember most of the trip other than wondering..am I going too fast..am I going too slow..am I staying between the lines...oh I don't feel so well. I was paranoid and scared shitless and lucky to have gotten us home. Needless to say it scared me enough to never drink and drive again.

[sweetredwine]

One thing I remember...I lived with my grandparents as a kid and they had a swing set in the back yard for me. I must have been around 6 and I thought it would be fun to fly. I got to swinging as high as I could and on the forward swing I launched myself out of the seat. Momentary fun until I hit the ground. My grandma came running because I was crying and yelling. Fortunately, I did not break any bones.

My dad just recently told me of this tale that I don't remember. Must of been around 4. Grandpa had a workshop in the back yard and in the early 60's safe guards were not in place on power tools yet. My grandpa had the table saw going and he and my dad were working on something while I watched and for some silly kid reason I stuck my hand up in the belt and it fliped me over before the power was shut off. Dad rushed me to the Dr. but didn't have any broken bones then either.

When I was learing to walk, I walked over the floor heater grid and fell on it because it was HOT and burned the crap out of my legs. Had bandages for quite awhile and for many years when I spent any time out in the sun you could see the burn grid on the back of my legs and the squares got bigger as I grew over the years. Don't see them anymore.

Lastly, when I was 18 my boyfriend, his brother and I got pretty wasted and since I wasn't as bad off as them I drove us home about 15 miles on the freeway. I don't remember most of the trip other than wondering..am I going too fast..am I going too slow..am I staying between the lines...oh I don't feel so well. I was paranoid and scared shitless and lucky to have gotten us home. Needless to say it scared me enough to never drink and drive again.

Your stories are really getting my memories rolling ...

When I was about 11 years old I went for a ride on a neighbor's go-cart. She was 13 and more coordinated than me, and got the idea to pick up pebbles as we passed them while riding around in circles on the concrete driveway. I picked up several but then I guess I got less swift and cautious and the go-cart's wheel ran over the three biggest fingers on my right hand. I was terrified because blood was everywhere and the fingernail on my middle finger (the one you "fly the bird" with) almost disappeared (there was only a little bit of nail left at the base). Luckily her mother was home and knew exactly how to clean and bandage my wounds and took me to a doctor ... it was basically a burn wound so it hurt like hell and took a long time to heal but by the end of that summer I was able to write and "fly the bird" again ...

When I was 17 a friend and I would play pinball and dance at a local teenage hangout (it was named "TIME OUT"), we were especially known for having developed a line-dance to the Led Zep song "Trampled Under Foot" and we loved teaching it to others. Sometimes we'd get huge groups out there dancing it all together, it was great fun but tiring because for some reason they'd always want us to start the dance and as soon as we arrived somebody would get the jukebox going with that song and command us out on the dance floor ...

anyway, we had made fake id's so we could sometimes slip into the adult nightclub nearby (but only if the "right person" was carding at the entrance) and try to get an alcoholic drink. Being teens, we only liked the sweet and fruity pina-colada-type drinks and once we had to leave in a hurry but my friend managed to get a "to-go" cup and carried the drink out with her. As I was driving home I saw police lights flashing behind me and told her "Get rid of the drink!" ... she asked "What do I do with it?" ... I said "I don't know, but get rid of it QUICK!" ... she said "I can't drink it all or throw it out the window, he'll see me!" ... and I said "JUST GET RID OF IT!" --- so she opened up the glove compartment and threw it in. When he came up to the car and started asking the "usual questions" ("May I see your license" "Do you young ladies realize you were going ten miles per hour over the speed limit?", etc.) I knew he could smell the odor and see the sweet-and-sticky liquid dripping out of the glove compartment and I thought we were done-for-good ... but then he asked where we were going and I told him "Straight home, and we live right down this road about a mile further" and he said "Girls, this time I'll give you a warning but if there's a "next time" you'll be in BIG trouble, so just be VERY careful now and drive SLOWLY" and he followed us home. I was terrified he was going to pull up in our driveway and talk with my parents, but luckily he just kept on going ... anyway, it was all a great lesson about drinking and driving, something that I always avoided afterwards!

[redrum]

All good, except that, once, my muffler got into the ropes and hung me.

Yikes! That could've turned out bad.

We used to have a garage under our house and the driveway dipped down and the garage doors were double. One side was always locked and the other one would open just by bumping it. One day I came home on my bike and decided I'd be Joe Cool and ride my bike down the slope and bump the unlocked door and glide into the garage cool as ice. Well, it didn't quite work out that way as I misjudged the whole set-up and hit the locked door and ended up in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the slope. Me and slopes just don't get along.

[sweetredwine]

This morning this thread has got me thinking about the Garden of Eden, if Adam and Eve hadn't eaten the fruit from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, could they have had kids? And if they (theoretically) could have remained inside the Garden of Eden, could they have taught, directed and disciplined the kids to know what they should and shouldn't do?

And - knowing how crazy kids can be - if the kids had no direction to follow, what would they have looked like / what would they have been doing several generations "down the line"?

Looking at these posts, it's seems pretty obvious that kids are gonna naturally want to do anything that's - or seems to be -fun or feels good ...

[redrum]

Looking at these posts, it's seems pretty obvious that kids are gonna naturally want to do anything that's - or seems to be -fun or feels good ...

You must be referring to the jackasses on 'Jackass'

Pain is not fun!

[sweetredwine]

Being that I recently turned 60 (Gak!!) I've been thinking back about some of the stupid things I did as a kid and for some reason did them anyway without thinking of the consequences.

How about this for modern stupid crazy kid stuff

Game in secondary school gets five pregnant

Thank God we knew better than to do that "way back then", even though we knew much less about sex than the kids do nowadays ... what do y'all think, is there any hope of getting the kids to go back to playing "spin the bottle"?

[Texas Melanie]

I am laughing at what you posted Brad because all of it was so true.

I would ride in the front seat of my dad's car, backwards and when he had to stop suddenly, he would put his arm out to stop me. As if that would have helped if we were involved in a collision.

I would leave the house and not come home until dinner time. My parents didn't know where I was going and neither did I.

I never had swimming lessons. My dad taught me by having me jump from the side of the pool into his arms.

I drank as much Coke as I could get my hands on and no one stopped me. I can honestly say I was a Coke head when I was a child.

I remember having smoke blown in my face from all of the ciggie smokers in my family puffing away, in our house, right next to me.

I was often left home alone when my mom would have to work.

[Fool In The Rain 60]

My dad just recently told me of this tale that I don't remember. Must of been around 4. Grandpa had a workshop in the back yard and in the early 60's safe guards were not in place on power tools yet. My grandpa had the table saw going and he and my dad were working on something while I watched and for some silly kid reason I stuck my hand up in the belt and it fliped me over before the power was shut off. Dad rushed me to the Dr. but didn't have any broken bones then either.

That is Hilarious, I have a vision of you flying through the air...I can't stop laughing..

Lucky there were no serious Injuries..

[Jahfin]

Being that I recently turned 60 (Gak!!) I've been thinking back about some of the stupid things I did as a kid and for some reason did them anyway without thinking of the consequences. Pain was another unintended consequence.

Living in San Francisco at the time, my friend had what was called a 'Flexy Flyer' on wheels. This thing was very narrow and dangerously unstable at high speed. Well, being the dumb ass that I was I took it up USF hill which was a long, gradually sloping hill by the university. As I lay on it and got up to speed I realized (too late) that I didn't know where the brakes were and as my speed increased the thing finally flipped over and I went sliding down the middle of the street getting a bad case of road rash on my hand, arm, side and face. As I lay there a priest happened to be walking by and saw me laying there and asked if I was ok. I feebly said 'yes' and got up to carry the damned thing home where my Mother then patched me up. I gave it back to my friend and never went near it again.

I think that's the one the girl is sitting on.

I've got some other stories but let's hear from you.

We had a sled with wheels on it that I think was made by Wham-O. There were no brakes but you steered using your feet just like a snow sled. They were made out of very durable hard plastic. Anyone remember such a thing? This would have been made in the late 60s-early 70s (and possibly beyond). I've tried hunting for photos of them online but to no avail since I can't remember the name of them.

[Walesdad]

There was no such thing as "second hand smoke" back then. We just called it air. There was more nicotine in the carpet and drapes than in a whole truck load of this sissy filtered "light" things kids smoke today.

Your original list was great Brad,so much of it rang a distant memory bell for me,but your comments above brought back the memory of my Mother deciding to decorate the living room.I should add that I was brought up by my divorced Mother and my Grandfather,both of whom smoked like chimneys.Not just any old chimneys either,the nastiest,smokiest chimneys that it is possible to be.Anyway,the room was so nicotine stained (and of course as it was a gradual process,nobody noticed) that when she moved all the pictures and mirrors off the walls to paint,we had a perfect outline of them on the walls exactly where they hung.Christ,today I'd have been taken into care.

[Walesdad]

Here are just a few of the crazy things we used to do as kids:

We rode bicycles without helmets

In the summer shoes were optional

When riding in the family car sometimes we would stand up; sometimes we would build a "fort" in the back seat.

We didn't know what gluten was but if we ate it we probably ate it with bacon and chocolate milk

We used to play baseball in the street

Flaming bags of pooh

If we wanted to talk to a friend we went to their house and yelled at them from the sidewalk to come out

We walked to school... even when it rained.

We made our own fireworks

The only way to keep from getting a sunburn was to get a tan

We ate warm bologna sandwiches on white bread with mayonaise from paper bags that we carried to school without being refridgerated for hours.

We were allowed to play with BB guns.

We drank water out of garden hoses and we liked it.

But we never sat within five feet of the TV set or went swimming right after eating lunch.... that shit was dangerous!

I cannot top this list, but in the spirit in which it was composed I'd like to add the following :

We climbed trees.

We talked to strangers (they invariably talked back).

We rode our bikes and skateboards on the road.

We made swings with length's of rope dangling from trees over streams.

We got filthy dirty.

We played out all day until the street lights came on in the evening.

On October 28th ,if your street had a patch of grass on it somewhere,you built a bonfire on it.

On November 5th you set fire to it.No adults need be present.

We swore and thought it was great.

We heard an adult swear and thought it was awful.

We all thought wrestling was a real sport.

[redrum]

We had a sled with wheels on it that I think was made by Wham-O. There were no brakes but you steered using your feet just like a snow sled. They were made out of very durable hard plastic. Anyone remember such a thing? This would have been made in the late 60s-early 70s (and possibly beyond). I've tried hunting for photos of them online but to no avail since I can't remember the name of them.

We used to make roller coasters with 2x4's for axles and the ends were whittled down so we could fit a ball bearing on the ends. When about 10 or 20 of us were going down an SF hill it made lots of racket but sounded so damned cool. Also, the playing card or balloon in our bike spokes. We were just too cool.

[ledzepfvr]

We had a sled with wheels on it that I think was made by Wham-O. There were no brakes but you steered using your feet just like a snow sled. They were made out of very durable hard plastic. Anyone remember such a thing? This would have been made in the late 60s-early 70s (and possibly beyond). I've tried hunting for photos of them online but to no avail since I can't remember the name of them.

Would it be the roller racer?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOt0M-lXbwg

[Jahfin]

Would it be the roller racer?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOt0M-lXbwg

That's not the one but thanks for the effort. If I can ever find a photo of one I'll post it.

[Deborah J]

So many of you have stated a lot of how I grew up. Living in New Orleans for the first 29 years of my life things I remember:

Drinking a beer with my Dad at 5 and thinking it was cool even though I hated the taste

Got home from school, did homework and my Mom would say go out and play and don't come home until dark

Climbing trees and falling out of them, still don't know what we were thinking and how we did not do some serious damage

Dad taking me to the quarter and I would sit outside the pubs while he drank, this began when I was about 4.

Seatbelts were never worn. I would stand in the front seat of the car with my arm around my dad and he would hold his arm accross me for a sudden stop

Going to concerts almost every weekend since the age of 10 or 11- if you went with neighbors or friends it was considered safe no matter what your age- great times!

Getting together with friends on the Pearl River, completely wasted and trying to water ski, again, what were we thinking!

I will never forget my Dad telling the principle in elementary school if I got out of line to beat me! (can you imagine a parent saying that today!!) Then when I did get paddled at school I got it again when I got home.

Taking milk cartons and boards and building a stage where we could sing, using hair brushes as microphones....and I cannot sing!

Riding my bike all day on Saturdays with my dog right beside me, and we would go all day for miles sometimes. To bad in most places kids can't do this anymore.

Sneaking out of the bedroom window, after the 2nd or 3rd time, crawling back in and there on your bed sits your Mom waiting with a switch..I deserved it!

Learning how to swim at the age of 2- Dad threw me in a creek and said swim!

Just a few good memories^^

[Bong-Man]

Did anyone ever make a tennis ball cannon? We used to make these cannons by duct taping tin cans (the old soda or beer cans) into a tube with all the tops and bottoms cut out of the cans except for the one on the bottom where we made a small hole in the side (the ignition point). Then we would squirt lighter fluid down the tube, swirl the tube around until the fluid turned into a gas inside, stick a tennis ball in the top of the tube and point it toward the sky and then ignite the gas inside the tube at the small hole in the bottom can.

It made an interesting sort of "whooomphh" sound like a mortor round launching, and that tennis ball would soar so far into the air that you couldn't even see it at it's highest point.

Then of course someone would get the idea to fire the tennis ball at someone eles's butt. And that was always good for a laugh.

Yes, but we used to saturate the tennis ball with lighter fluid for night launches.

[Walesdad]

Did anyone ever make a tennis ball cannon? We used to make these cannons by duct taping tin cans (the old soda or beer cans) into a tube with all the tops and bottoms cut out of the cans except for the one on the bottom where we made a small hole in the side (the ignition point). Then we would squirt lighter fluid down the tube, swirl the tube around until the fluid turned into a gas inside, stick a tennis ball in the top of the tube and point it toward the sky and then ignite the gas inside the tube at the small hole in the bottom can.

It made an interesting sort of "whooomphh" sound like a mortor round launching, and that tennis ball would soar so far into the air that you couldn't even see it at it's highest point.

Then of course someone would get the idea to fire the tennis ball at someone eles's butt. And that was always good for a laugh.

I never made a tennis ball canon,but a few of us did once roll a very large snowball,and I mean large,into the lift of the ten storey block of flats where I lived and threw it off the balcony on floor ten.Upon landing it literally sounded like I would imagine a bomb going off would sound like.Any car underneath would have been crushed,anyone in the car would have been pulverised.Oh happy days.