Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

[Tinkerer]

When I compare what I and my mates did in the early '60's when we were pre or young teens with what my son does, or at least what I know about what he does, it's amazing my generation survived.<br /><br />Probably the stupidest thing we used to do was have fights with those old Daisy lever action BB guns. Only rule was no aiming at the head. Given the lousy accuracy they had it didn't make much difference. My kid doesn't even know how to make a shanghai, but we all had one most of the time.<br /><br />At night we occasionally went along the outside of the old passenger trains that had runnning boards along them. Pull up beside a window and tap on it and make a fierce face and frighten some aged citizen half to death. We were doing our own form of train surfing before the term was invented.<br /><br />Made an alley (marble) gun once out of a metal bike pump. Got a bit of thin wire and pulled the wick of a penny bunger (cracker - firework) or thereabouts back up the tube with the wick sticking out the hole where the valve tube went. Put an alley in it. Tamped it down with plasticine or something. Lit the wick and fired the alley. The target cat was never at risk. Lucky I didn't tamp it in with something too hard or I'd have made a pipe bomb and hurt myself, but I didn't know that then. <br /><br />What did you do?

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

tinkere<br /> everyday. however I was 13 years old before we got a telly.<br /> we found many ways to amuse ourselves out in the country. I grew up 18 miles from the nearest red light,27 miles from the closest hospital and 19 miles to the nearest movie theater.<br /> we did find that if you bury a 1 pound can of blackpowder and ignite it, two things happen. a very large hole appears and the sherriff shows up. we knew nothing .<br />we made our share of "cannons" if you spend some time blowing the powder out of fire crackers you can get a nice pile of black powder . after the hole incedent my frends uncle kept the black powder shooting supplies locked up so we had to resort to other methods of extraction .<br /> my kids would never have the imagination nor the time away from the telly.phone and games to actually do anything.

 

[Link]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

Made our own Black Powder from scratch for rockets and awesome fire crackers / bombes. <br />Played Tarzan swinging from the tops of trees and the person who was the best could fall through the tree limbs breaking the fall from the highest won.. 75ft <br />A couple years ago I went to look at a tree (with part of the old rope left) that we used to swing over a cliff then drop off to see who could go farther on the other side of the tree. 100 ft straight down with nothing to break the fall! <br />I'm sure this is mild compared to others but it does make you wonder how you lived through child hood?? <br />BTW any kids reading this.. Dont listen to the old Logger in the cafe that tells you how much fun it was (when he was a kid) to sit in a Apple tree and drop down onto the back of a buck deer and hang on to his Antlers! <br />Not FUN Trust me!

 

[Tinkerer]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

Originally posted by rodbolt:<br /> my kids would never have the imagination nor the time away from the telly.phone and games to actually do anything.

I'm both pleased and disturbed to say that my 14 y.o. son, who is a TV, computer and X-box addict, loves making bombs. He also plays a couple of sports; has a junior boat licence; and will shortly sit his gun licence test. These are encouraging signs for a more active future.<br /><br />The only fireworks we can get now are sparklers. Don't know what you call them in US. About 6" to 8" of thin wire with powder packed around it that you light with a match and it just fires off sparkly stuff like a grinding wheel. <br /><br />I better not describe what he does with it, but we've (alright, I'm involved too) found some ways to make very satisfactory small explosions etc.<br /><br />Yeah, I know that the childless morons at child welfare will accuse me of being irresponsible for being involved but I figure it's better that he still asks me every time he does it (that I know about) and that I can supervise him and educate him on risks. I'd rather do that than have him secretly make a pipe or petrol bomb and kill or seriously injure himself like I could have at his age. <br /><br />Plus it's also great fun blowing things up.<br /><br />Anyway, I had tons more firepower available at his age before the killjoys banned fireworks. Wasn't a letterbox in my area that couldn't be blown with enough threepenny bungers.

 

[crab bait]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

who says i made it there yet..?? some people take alittle longer..<br /><br />what's a shang-do-dad..!!

 

[Tinkerer]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

Originally posted by crab bait:<br /> who says i made it there yet..?? some people take alittle longer..<br /><br />what's a shang-do-dad..!!

I'm an adult, but maturity still eludes me. <br /><br />Shanghai is maybe a slingshot in US? Y shaped wood or wire with rubber bands or elastic and a leather bit at the back to hold the projectile. One of two things every boy should have. The other is a dog.

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

Well most here know how I like to bomb things. 'nuff said on that subject.<br /><br />Now there were 6 of us lads that all grew up together and we too lived way out in the sticks, had to pump sunshine into us, and we played the ol Army game where 3 of us would be the US Army and the other 3 would be Germans, Japs, or whoever it was we were fighting that day.<br /><br />We had our foxholes, we made snare bobbietraps out of old barbwire. We had major stockpiles of nice boulders to throw at each other as grenades.<br /><br />Cut us some saplings down and sharpen them for spears.<br /><br />The only thing that ever happened that was real bad, was we would climb up into trees and wait for the enemy to come by and then jump out on them.<br /><br />That hurt like hell!!!<br />Jumped out one day and missed and hit a rock with ankle, needless to say it broke.<br /><br />That's about it.

 

[aspeck]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

Who is grown up? I am still doing stupid things that should probably kill me?!?! Done the BB gun thing. Done the black powder thing (only made it ourselves). Loved Sliding down the huge pine tree in the woods behind the house - till it ripped the seat out of the neighbors pants and almost ripped off his jewels. Done the crazy car and motorcycle things, done the crazy boat things, the "Belly Skiing", etc. Still doing most of it, though - shoulder surgery etc have cause me to slow down, along with age and weight, but I ain't gonna grow up! Nope, never!

 

[PW2]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

Yep, that's the truth.<br /><br />Back in the good ol days, you could buy everything needed for black powder in 5lb bags at the local pharmacy. We had a cannon we where we used a 2 inch firecracker as a primer, poured in a bunch of homemade black powder, wadded it with tinfoil, and used a 1/2" ball bearing as a projectile. That thing would go thru 11 inches of solid wood. Might well have hurt somone if they ever got hit by it.<br /><br />And since we often went by the theory that if "some were good, more was better" I recall at one point, having maybe 100 lbs of black powder in the basement of my parents house. Had there been a fire, it probably would have taken out a good share of the block we lived in.<br />Ah, those were the days!!!

 

[kenimpzoom]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

My dad has told stories of buying dynamite at the feed store and blowing up huge craters.<br /><br />I did all kinds of crazy stuff too, mostly on my bike. Jumping into ditches, walking accross narrow pipelines, exploring storm drains, rock fights (and the scars to prove it).<br /><br />The neighbor blew up a BBQ pit, but we had nothing to do with it. <br /><br />Ken

 

[lakelivin]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

Yep.<br /><br />BB gun wars, Crossman BB gun where the more you pumped it the more velocity. Pumped it three times cause the kid I was aiming at was maybe 30-40 yards away. He was running full speed, I hit him in the neck, and it was just like in the movies. He went down like a bag of wet sand, with his hands going to his neck and his gun flying through the air as he fell. Thank god the shot wasn't any higher. Welt on his neck and nothing more.<br /><br />'Hopping cars' in the wintertime. You hid behind bushes hear a stop sign, ran out when the car stopped, grabbed the bumper, and 'skied' behind the car until they stopped or you came to a dry patch of road. Bummer if your glove or mitten stuck to the bumper when you dropped or fell off, lol. <br /><br />Threw firecrackers at one another. My cousin threw one that went down the collar of my shirt in the back. I was lucky; it blew out the back of the shirt but didn't even burn me. <br /><br />Going down the playground slide standing up while it was raining wasn't the smartest thing I ever did. Cleanly snapped both bones in my forearm; the arm went straight, then raised about 3/4" then continued straight again. My brother & cousins wouldn't go get my parents so I had to walk home about 1/2 block propping it up with my other hand. <br /><br />Other even more stupid dangerous stuff in college and shortly thereafter, but there was usually large amounts of alcohol involved with those...<br /><br />One thing we didn't mess with much, fortunately, was gasoline. After my neighbor's teenager got badly burned while messing with gas with some friends a couple of years ago, I try to point out to all the kids I know how dangerous this is. Even I didn't realize how flammible gas VAPORS are and that you can get into trouble even if you're careful with the liquid. <br /><br />(Standing on soapbox): I'd strongly suggest that EVERYONE inform kids they know about gasoline properties and how dangerous it can be while they're young and BEFORE they mess with it.

 

[gonfishn]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

How about when ya took the rollers off your sisters roller Skates and nailedem to a board. Attach some rope to your bike and and tow a friend around on it...I think they call it skate boards nowadays..

 

[deputydawg]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

This brings back memories that have been long supressed by marriage. <br />BB gun warsm still carry a bb in my hand. We topped the bb gun wars with roman candles, they shoot nicely at each other. They do cause grass fires though.<br />Bumper skiing was always a fun sport too, until you hit dry pavement. <br />We would blow up baloons, wrap them in newspaper strips soaked in wallpaper paste. When the paste dried we popped the balloon and filled the paper ball with gun powder. A friend of mine could get cannon fuse from the civil war re-enactment buffs. These will blow a culvert out of a county road if placed in the right place.<br />One of our high school science teachers showed uis how to make nitro glycerin. What a fool he was! He called then touch explosives, and would only make a few drops at a time. We liberated some of the chemicals from the science lab one day and had a great time.<br />We used to swim up under the dam and power house during flood waters to hand fish. Some of those holes went 12 feet under the cement dam face. If we pulled out any catfish under 25 pounds, we threw them back to grow some more. That was probably not too bright.<br />We used to get on top of the parking garage and throw 22 shells off to hear them pop when they landed.<br />Another trick we tried once, we tied a small braided cable across an alley between 2 power poles just above roof height of a caprice classic which was the local patrol car of choice. We dressed in black including ski masks, ran out and egged the patrol car. Then we ran into the alley. I am glad they never caught us on that one. <br />We used to jump our bikes into the sandpit lakes. Off of a bank that was at least 100 feet above the water, and land in the water. The water was deep enough none of us could swim to the bottom, they had been pumping out of it for years. That was fun until you didn't grab your bike in time and it sank. <br />There were a few cars we went joy riding in that should have landed us in jail, but we won't talk about that now. <br />After we all got our cars, we messed around and made hot rods out of all of them. Besides the racing and cat and mouse games we played, that was a whole new danger we didn't see. We used to play bumper tag a lot. When your IT, you have to bump another players car to TAG them. Then they were IT. Came out with some minor damage but it was sure fun. We all bought our cars from the junk yard for little or nothing, so nothing lost.<br />I better stop now before I give myself away too much.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

And your a cop huh? Looks like I might have to find me a preachers duaghter for some "strange" if you catch my drift. I did most all of what everyone else is saying except the sliding behind cars, no snow here. We used to hop the trains and ride them. Try to bust the litle red light off the back of them with rocks too. When we couldn't do it I broke out the 22. I was unsucessful still. My friend decided the 12 gauge ought to do it. It sure did, and the cops were at the house in a very quick manner. His littlebrother thought it would be a good idea to paint the train. The train would never slow down so he just stood next to it and sprayed. There happened to be an engine at the rear of this train. He got scarred and threw the can at the engineer. Would you believe it hit him in the head and knocked him out? When he fell over it triggered a deadman of some sort and the train started stopping. More cops again. I guess I became a cop because I had so much experiance with them when I was young.

 

[Tinkerer]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

Originally posted by deputydawg:<br /> We used to get on top of the parking garage and throw 22 shells off to hear them pop when they landed.<br />

Reminds me I shot myself in the face with .22 ratshot (salt petre or something I think) when I was about 10. Used to throw them on a concrete path. One finally went off pointing at me. Just had to wear it because I couldn't tell the old man what I'd been doing.<br /><br />Also used to do target practice in the back yard of our suburban house aiming at a tree stump. If you put .22 longs in a .22 magnum rifle there's enough empty chamber space that you don't get a real bang and nobody hears much.

 

[LubeDude]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

Humorous but not dangerous.<br /><br />Well, after hearing about most of the other things I did as well, Did anyone ever make hay forts in the barn?<br /><br />A couple of friends of mine helped me make the mother of all hay forts one time in the nieghbors barn. We would get the nieghbor girls to come in , and we had little side holes along the main tunnels. We would reach out and grab some*** as they went by. Funny thing is that they kept coming back again and again. At that time we wouldnt have known what to do with it if we caught it??? The guy that owned the barn thought that he had a whole lot more hay left than he did, he didnt know it was hollow inside.

 

[NYMINUTE]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

Not sure thatt I have yet, still have those days.

 

[deputydawg]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

We also used to play coal ball. When partying at the river, we would get a good fire going. Someone would reach in and grab a hot chunk of embers or burning wood, and we would play catch. Real game of hot potato. It always ended in a dodgeball game with burning coals. Didn't hurt bad if you let it hit you on a flat place. Also never wear polyester when doing this, it melts.<br /><br />When I got hired on the chief said it was either hire me or hire two to watch me, and it was cheaper to hire me.

 

[lakelivin]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

dd,<br /><br />Sounds to me like you had little choice but to get into law enforcement. Only chance to offset some of that negative karma you built up as a kid, lol.

 

[cmyers_uk]

Re: Do you ever wonder how you made it to adulthood?

Used to put meths on my hands and set fire to them, it burns with a cool flame for a limited amount of time then ahhhhh. <br /><br />Got a big canister of butane in a very small yard put a small burning rag next to it and shot it with a rifle, it went up in a small mushroom cloud, I then learnt the lesson that its a liquid and where it spread it stayed burning.<br /><br />Most of mine seemed to include fire, but luckly I did grow out of it!