What fun thing did you survive...

[The_old_man]

Where I grew up there was an abandon roller coaster, abandon because all the wood was termite infested.

We, my friends and I, loved climbing all over it. Once, on a dare, I climed to the top of the first rise. When I started down I hit a patch of moss, started slipping, then RAN the rest of the way down. About a third of the way up the next rise I went through the boards, fell about 15 feet into a pound. Nothing broken, or dislocated, but many scrapes and bruses.

 

[SlickTony]

I and a girl I hung out with once stole a golf cart, but we hadn't taken it out very far when we got it stuck in a mud puddle. We ended up abandoning it.

When I was a kid I rode my bike all over the place, and didn't know from helmets. But then, nobody else did either.

On summer evenings, the fog truck would come out, and all the kids in the neighborhood liked to dash out into the street and run behind it, getting lost in the fog.

 

[minsue]

I and a girl I hung out with once stole a golf cart, but we hadn't taken it out very far when we got it stuck in a mud puddle. We ended up abandoning it.

When I was a kid I rode my bike all over the place, and didn't know from helmets. But then, nobody else did either.

On summer evenings, the fog truck would come out, and all the kids in the neighborhood liked to dash out into the street and run behind it, getting lost in the fog.

WTF is a fog truck???

- Mindy, confused as hell in the desert

 

[lucky-E-leven]

WTF is a fog truck???

- Mindy, confused as hell in the desert

Thank God, for you Min. I read that and wanted to ask so badly, but held back for some reason. I'll ride on your coat tails and we'll look like idiots together.

~lucky

 

[Boxlicker101]

Originally posted by minsue
WTF is a fog truck???

- Mindy, confused as hell in the desert
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Thank God, for you Min. I read that and wanted to ask so badly, but held back for some reason. I'll ride on your coat tails and we'll look like idiots together.

~lucky

I have to wonder also. All I can think of is a truck that runs down the street, emitting artificial fog, and I had to wonder: "Whatever on Earth for?"

 

[minsue]

Originally posted by minsue
WTF is a fog truck???

- Mindy, confused as hell in the desert
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Thank God, for you Min. I read that and wanted to ask so badly, but held back for some reason. I'll ride on your coat tails and we'll look like idiots together.

~lucky

I have to wonder also. All I can think of is a truck that runs down the street, emitting artificial fog, and I had to wonder: "Whatever on Earth for?"

Thanks, guys! I definitely don't feel so stupid for asking now!

 

[Boxlicker101]

I think Tony might be the only one here who knows what a fog truck is.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

I think Tony might be the only one here who knows what a fog truck is.

LOL. Yes, but she'll kindly cure us of our ignorance when she's on next. (I hope)

~lucky

 

[Weird Harold]

I think Tony might be the only one here who knows what a fog truck is.

Not quite. It took me a second to figure it out, but it's a truck spraying for mosquitos or other insects. They are, or were, fairly common in regions where there are seasonal infestations of bugs like mosquitos or "love bugs."

 

[Belegon]

Trigger Happy and Swimming Pools

BB Gun Wars!!!!

Living in SoCal we also used to do the Wide World of Sports mexican cliif diving imitation by jumping off the roof into the Cunningham's swimming pool.

Of course, in the seventies none of us wore helmets when doing our skatebording/BMX stuff either...

 

[Liar]

Speaking of fog trucks, me and my firends' dare games of hiding in wheat fields when the crop duster made a sweep by was probably a pretty stupid idea.

 

[oggbashan]

Not quite. It took me a second to figure it out, but it's a truck spraying for mosquitos or other insects. They are, or were, fairly common in regions where there are seasonal infestations of bugs like mosquitos or "love bugs."

They used to spray DDT which is now considered carcinogenic and residues are NEVER cleared away.

Og

 

[sweetnpetite]

I can't really think of anything dangerous- but we did run around in our underroose -outside- playing super hero's with the neighbor kids! We could not be convinced that they were *underwear* and not costumes. Not particularly dangerous, but we were about 8, a little old to be running around half naked out doors with kids of the opposite sex, no less. These days, protective services shows up for less

The main thing that worries me, is the normal experimental things that kids do- especially the sex stuff that we all block out as we get older. I don't worry so much about them getting hurt as some government agency over reacting to normal childhood play.

We used to play 'kissing tag' (probably the mildest form of exploratorive play ever invented). Nowdays, you'd be expelled for the rest of the year for sexual harrasment, and it would go on your perminent record that you're a pervert!!!

 

[SlickTony]

Thanks, Weird Harold, for explaining about the fog truck. That's what we called it where I came up. I didn't know what else to call it.

 

[Wildcard Ky]

BB gun fights is the thing I wouldn't let my kids do.

Though the funnest thing I did and survived was my 20's. LOL. Don't think I can keep my kids from doing that!!!.

 

[Weird Harold]

I can't really think of anything dangerous- but we did run around in our underroose -outside- playing super hero's with the neighbor kids! We could not be convinced that they were *underwear* and not costumes. Not particularly dangerous, but we were about 8, a little old to be running around half naked out doors with kids of the opposite sex, no less. These days, protective services shows up for less

I'm not entirely convinced that kids running around without constant supervision wasn't as dangerous as it is today -- or that today is all that much more dangerous for unsupervised children than it was in the fifties and sixties.

I started this thread with Physical Dangers in mind, but children running around outdoors in their underwear is another kind of dangerous activity -- the danger just wasn't as publiized as much in the fifties as it is now.

I grew up in a small town, and routinely wandered the whole town on my own from the time I started school -- I was supposed to let my parents know where I was going and how long I would be gone, but seldom did.

I don't know that I would have had as much freedom as I did if I grew up in a big city, but I'm sure I would have had more freedom to wander than is common for most children today.

Compared to my riskier activities and the lack of safetly standards for playgrond equipment, wandering around alone was a minor danger, but not really any less serious a danger in the bigger picture.

(I may make sound like I was a "wild child" who regularly ran excessively adventurous risks, but I wasn't -- my friends and schoolmates considered me a bookworm and a somewhat over-cautious fraidy-cat! I at least usually considered the risks before I did something stupid or dangerous, which most of my friends and acquaintances seldom did.)

 

[Boxlicker101]

I'm not entirely convinced that kids running around without constant supervision wasn't as dangerous as it is today -- or that today is all that much more dangerous for unsupervised children than it was in the fifties and sixties.

I started this thread with Physical Dangers in mind, but children running around outdoors in their underwear is another kind of dangerous activity -- the danger just wasn't as publiized as much in the fifties as it is now.

I grew up in a small town, and routinely wandered the whole town on my own from the time I started school -- I was supposed to let my parents know where I was going and how long I would be gone, but seldom did.

I don't know that I would have had as much freedom as I did if I grew up in a big city, but I'm sure I would have had more freedom to wander than is common for most children today.

Compared to my riskier activities and the lack of safetly standards for playgrond equipment, wandering around alone was a minor danger, but not really any less serious a danger in the bigger picture.

(I may make sound like I was a "wild child" who regularly ran excessively adventurous risks, but I wasn't -- my friends and schoolmates considered me a bookworm and a somewhat over-cautious fraidy-cat! I at least usually considered the risks before I did something stupid or dangerous, which most of my friends and acquaintances seldom did.)

This is strange because I could say EXACTLY the same things about myself as you said about yourself in the last four paragraphs.

I think it is more dangerous for kids now than when I was a child because there are more sex perverts around now. They were around then also but they were less likely to act out because if they got caught, they would probably have been lynched or locked up for life. When I say "lynched" I don't mean hanged from a tree; I mean beaten to death by an angry mob and the death reported as accidental or justifiable homocide. Now, they will be locked up for a few years and then pronounced as "cured" and released or, they would serve their time, get paroled and walk out of prison.

I thhink there are also more vicious dogs around now and more reckless drivers and fewer sidewalks. However, I don't think there is very much difference between now and then.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

When I was a kid we had this really great sledge slope in the winter. We used to sneak off to it when our parents looked the other way. Long, fun, lots of soft snow, cool jumps, no trees in the way, and a smooth route down.

The catch? It ended on the freeway.

Same here.

I was a very calm and quite kid, myself, and the only thing I can think of that was really dangerous was that I walked to and from school every day, about 1 kilometer each way, while reading a book and not paying attention to the traffic.

Seeing kids walking down that rather peaceful village road today, sans books plastered over their faces, makes me bite my lip and wonder how their parents can let such small kids out on their own.

I've become such a scaredy-cat.

 

[wishfulthinking]

Ok, you are probably going to be sitting there going WTF is with these aussies.

At soccer training on monday nights there would be this warm-up soccer field without lights that was slightly off to the side and just far enough away from parents. There was this big magpie nest with lots of babies (magpies are notorious for poking peoples eyes out, and extremely territorial) about halfway down the field, and we would play a cross between chicken and red rover. You had to run to the other side of the field in the dark without getting bitten or attacked by these swooping birds. Then when everyone was safe, you had to do it again. We probably ranged from 5 - 9 years old at the time, and it seemed the cool thing at the time. I tell you what, the screams from these angry birds were enough to send shivers through me. Mind you, the birds were probably just as freaked out by our screams as they dived and swooped - boy did we all scream, and not just the girls!

And the hitchcock movie - have to watch it through my fingers.

 

[SlickTony]

And the hitchcock movie - have to watch it through my fingers.

Considering what you put up with from the magpies, I'm surprised you can watch it at all.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I just remembered: we used to skitch. Skitching was done when there was snow in the streets, you'd hide between parked cars, and when a car drove by you'd run out and grab ahold of the rear bumper, hunker down, and ski on your shoes, letting the car drag you along. This only worked because the cars were going slow, the streets being so slick, but sometimes a guy would start dragging you along at 20-25 mph; too fast to let go, and it would get pretty dicey. If he stopped short you could slide under his car, and if you hit a bare patch you'd be on your face. No one got hurt. Not seriously. Not that I remember.

We were big on bombs. I learned how to make gunpowder and used to load it into rockets I made out of balsa wood. Of course, as soon as the fuel went off the rocket would burst into flames, buit that never bothered me. They never got off the pad, but they burned real nice.

In college there was the Bab-O Bomb. You'd put an M-80 into a can of kitchen cleanser and set it off in the middle of someone's dorm room. It covered absolutely everything with kitchen cleanser.

---dr.M.

 

[Seattle Zack]

We had those mosquito foggers growing up in Florida, on warm summer nights used to ride on our Schwinns directly behind the trucks, WWII fighter pilots zooming through the clouds ... probably inhaled more carcinogens in an hour than are allowed in a chemical waste site these days.

Boy Scout campouts were fun for hazardous play. The county we lived in had more poisonous snakes per square mile than anywhere else in the continental U.S. So, of course, we hunted rattlers and water moccasins with sticks, then skinned them and ate the meat.

Another favorite was to swipe a half dozen of dad's shotgun shells and toss them in the campfire late at night, then run and hide behind trees until they'd all gone off (was it five? or six?). The explosions in the fire had the added attraction of blasting flaming embers everywhere, so often we were putting out the tent that had caught on fire while the last of the shells were still going off.....

Ah, childhood ... still remember the time my brother rode his bike off the roof, and the human catapult we built in the vacant lot next to our house. Marvelous feat of engineering, that was.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Thanks for the hearty laugh, Zach. Probably shouldn't have come here and checked this out as it's going to be hell recapturing my train of thought in the story I was working on. But well worth it and the story will be there tomorrow, right?

~lucky

 

[whispering_surrender]

I know what you mean about swiped fruit, etc. being best but he was probably shooting rock salt at you. It was possible to buy shotgun shells filled with rock salt and it you hit someone, it would be painful but not fatal, although it could probably put out an eye.

Trust me. Getting it out involves liquifying salt already imbedded in a wound. An experience you will never forget. Ever. Maybe not fatal, but at times, you might wish it had been.

Whisp

 

[Guest]

There are so many things that we did as kids and teens that not only endangered our own lives but also many others.

You know driving drunk at over 100mph at night with the lights off and stuff like that. I won't even go into the more dangerous things.

I am grateful that I survived that period, doing no harm to myself or anyone else. I believe if you make it through High School in on piece you have a pretty good shot at making it the rest of the way.


Jmt