Kid things: How dangerous were you?

[Ivan Seeking]

Did you ever try to fly, say, from the garage roof, using cardboard wings? Did you ever try to make a catapult and use your little brother as the mass? Or did you ever hide your sister and then forget about her. Did you ever think it would be cool to stick a bobby pin in an electrical outlet? Perhaps you enjoyed the mystery of mixing every chemcal that you could find to see what happens; or emptied fire crackers and collected the gun powder in order to make one really big boomer?

 

[zoobyshoe]

At about age three I figured out finally how to open the cuppboard under the sink. There was a spray can under there. I recognized it as such, having seen them used before by experts such as my parents and older sisters. There was nothing too it: you pick it up and push the button.

So I did, and got hit square in the face with a blast of red paint. There was that one last matter of aiming the nozzle I hadn't paid attention to in observing the procedure. It stung my eyes something fierce, so I started crying. My mother rushed in and, mistaking the red paint for blood, screamed.

------

Another time I thought I'd make myself some oatmeal. I was about the same age. I put the rolled oats in a plastic bowl, added some water, put the bowl on the electric stove, and turned the burner on. No point in getting a pot messy: make it right in the bowl, I figured.

 

[Mk]

One time, when I was seven, I killed myself. Pretty dumb...

 

[Astronuc]

Did you ever try to fly, say, from the garage roof, using cardboard wings? Did you ever try to make a catapult and use your little brother as the mass? Or did you ever hide your sister and then forget about her. Did you ever think it would be cool to stick a bobby pin in an electrical outlet? Perhaps you enjoyed the mystery of mixing every chemcal that you could find to see what happens; or emptied fire crackers and collected the gun powder in order to make one really big boomer?

Something along those lines in each category.

I simply jumped off houses - 12 or 15 feet. I can still do that if the ground is soft. It better to land on one's feet than sideways though.

At about 4 years, I electrocuted myself in an outlet after I used a screwdriver to remove the face plate.

I locked my brother in a suitcase, and then couldn't open it, so I had to get my mom to help. She was a bit upset.

Did the chemical thing.

Made bombs and had few go off in my face and one overhead. The overhead one was a rocket with a 'warhead' that lost a fin and came spiraling back at us.

Probably a few other things I did,

but I survived.

 

[hypatia]

I must of thought the milk man led a great life. When I was 5, I sought the adventure of the dairy life, by climbing on the back of the truck where they keep the empty bottles. When he left, me and the bottles came crashing down to the ground.
The next year I climbed to the top of a tall pine tree, which was very cool, until the wind picked up..and my mom discovered me hanging on for dear life swaying back and forth. The Fire Dept was called for that one.

 

[Pengwuino]

Perhaps you enjoyed the mystery of mixing every chemcal that you could find to see what happens; or emptied fire crackers and collected the gun powder in order to make one really big boomer?

Of course i do that kind of stuff.

Oh, you mean as a kid?

 

[Chi Meson]

Me: boom. Pyro.

I took a whole box of strike anywhere matches (a big box, not small box) cut the heads of and lit them at once.

Whoosh!

I put a firecracker in a can of "International foods" fancy coffee mix. Whoosh!

 

[Averagesupernova]

I could have my own complete thread about the adventures and misadventures of my youth. Give me some time and I'll post a few more. One that comes to mind is poking stiff iron wire through firecrackers and hooking them up to a battery charger. Not real dangerous, but a pop on demand. Just wait for an unsuspecting cat to get within a couple of feet of it. I just realized that I was on my way to being an explosives expert. Somehow I just never continued to develop that skill.

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

I was known by name in my local A&E department(translation ER) I also could write a book on the amount of adventures and misadventures I got up to as a kid.

 

[arildno]

My brother and his friend hanged a German neighbour boy in our parent's apple tree. When he (the German, that is) got sort of blue in the face, they cut him down.

As for myself:
I was a jumper mostly.

 

[scorpa]

Umm when I was about 4 I thought it would be fun to ride down the stairs backswards in my kiddie car (one of those cars with the bottom cut out so you could pedal with your feet) I had black eye for awhile after taht lol. Um, I like to take the power from those cap guns and smash them all at once with a hammer...I did so many at once I actually lost my hearing for about 10 minutes. I always tried to go fast than my ability would let me on bicycles and dirtbikes...usually ended up with me skidding across the grass. Jumping from hay bale to hay bale...the big round ones...usually ended up missing and knocking the wind out of myself. When I was about 5 I was sitting in the grain truck while my dad was loading some grain and somehow I ended up knocking the brake off or something cause the next thing I know the truck was rolling down the hill with me in it and my dad chasing behind. When I was really little I thought it would be neat to sniff a pussywillow and ended up sucking it up my nose...I totally freaked out! I'm sure there are others but I forget. The only thing I've ever done that actually could have turned out badly was more recently when I hit a trench riding my dirtbike at about 80km/h.

 

[JamesU]

My friend soaked a tennis ball in lighter fluid, filled it with liquid nails and then lit it. I told him not to, but that was a pretty fun day.

 

[chroot]

Let's recap:

- I spent lazy summer afternoons with a friend on top of a third story slanted, shingled roof. We fired rockets from the apex of the roof. I consider it a miracle that I never fell off.

- I drove a riding lawnmower directly into a tree while pulling a friend who was "lawn skiing" on a garbage-can lid.

- I used up cans and cans and cans of hairspray in my pursuit of the perfect fireball.

- I broke several sets of french doors, a table, and a lamp while wrestling with my friends.

- I attached marshmallows on a string to a ceiling fan, and coaxed my dog to chase them, jumping on all the furniture. When the dog finally caught the marshmallows, it burned out the motor of the ceiling fan. My parents never knew what happened to it until I told them, 20 years later.

- I taught the dog how to climb on the kitchen table by using the chairs -- a difficult task, since the chairs had wheels. In the middle of the night, the dog decided to try it again unsupervised, and pushed all the chairs into the walls around the table, creating several nice dents.

There's probably more, but I've repressed it.

- Warren

 

[zoobyshoe]

Let's recap:- I drove a riding lawnmower directly into a tree while pulling a friend who was "lawn skiing" on a garbage-can lid.

Man, this sounds like fun!

 

[chroot]

Man, this sounds like fun!

It was insanely fun. As a side note, lawnmowers can move much more quickly when the blade is not engaged!

- Warren

 

[zoobyshoe]

It was insanely fun. As a side note, lawnmowers can move much more quickly when the blade is not engaged!

I was going to ask about that wondering if you left it turning to add a certain russian roulette quality to the sport.

 

[Moonbear]

Aww...gee, I was such a good kid. I only drove the family car through the neighbor's garage door (the driveways were directly across from each other) when I was 3 (don't leave kids in a running car alone, even if it's only to run back inside for a moment; they can find the gear shift and operate it ), and my only riding lawnmower accident involved not stopping it quickly enough to prevent mowing a nice strip out of mom's ivy bed...it was my first time driving anything other than the car through the garage door.

The step-brothers were the dangerous ones who dove from the roof into the not-very-deep above-ground swimming pool. None of them killed themselves doing it, but it's enough reason for me to never want to have to deal with raising a son.

 

[JasonRox]

I simply jumped off houses - 12 or 15 feet.

I used to do the samething!

This one time we had this competition of who can jump off the highest structure. I doubt it'd much higher than 15 feet (at most 17 feet).

 

[Loren Booda]

There was a guy in high school nicknamed "Bucky." The legend goes that when dared, he rode a bicycle off of a one-story roof. Another time, the challenge was to cross a four lane boulevard with his eyes closed. He spent the next few months in a body cast.

I drove a bunch of us to a grocery store to get munchies. Suddenly Bucky bolted from the door with a twelve-pack and the store manager chasing after him. By that time he was well mended and on the high school cross-country team. He may still be alive today.

 

[JasonRox]

There was a guy in high school nicknamed "Bucky." The legend goes that when dared, he rode a bicycle off of a one-story roof. Another time, the challenge was to cross a four lane boulevard with his eyes closed. He spent the next few months in a body cast.

I drove a bunch of us to a grocery store to get munchies. Suddenly Bucky bolted from the door with a twelve-pack and the store manager chasing after him. By that time he was well mended and on the high school cross-country team. He may still be alive today.

Have you heard of Joshua Bender?

He's a mountain biker who jumped off a 60 foot cliff!

 

[Moonbear]

Have you heard of Joshua Bender?

He's a mountain biker who jumped off a 60 foot cliff!

Was he still able to have children after that?

 

[scorpa]

Lol I did the lawnmower thing with the garbage can thing to except I did it with a quad and an old tobaggan...wasn't very clever because we did it in the old pasture that had just been cultivated, it was so bumpy we ended up falling off the toboggan and getting dragged behind. That hurt lol. Good times.

 

[turbo]

My parents had to drag me to the doctor routinely to get patched up. I went to school with his kids and they had a running joke about how often I came in for stitches, tetanus shots, etc.

I was a small kid, and one of the fun things was when two or three bigger kids would scale a sapling and use their weight to bend it down to the ground I (or another light kid) would grab the sapling and the big kids would let go -what a ride! Another thing we did - the wood cutters used the local river to float 4' sticks of pulp wood to the paper mills. You might think having the river full of pulp wood would spoil it for recreation, but you would be underestimating us little rascals. We would run out on the bridge, climb over the railing and hang on until there was an open spot in the stream of wood, then let go, timing the release to hit the open spot and swim under the wood, coming up for air occasionally, until we reached shore - sometimes quite a ways downstream. This would go on until some passing busybody ratted us out to our mothers, who would raise holy hell. Every kid claimed that some of "the other kids" were jumping off the bridge, "but I was just swimming" - yeah, right. The drop was only about 15 ft, but the river wasn't too deep, so we had to arch and "starfish" as soon as we hit the water to avoid hitting the rocky bottom.

Less-dangerous pursuits were minor explosives, home-made rockets with various propellants, and a home-made crossbow that buried an arrow so deeply into the neighbor's barn that I couldn't get it out and had to break it off to avoid detection.

 

[jimmy p]

Hmm. When I was about 3 I used to pick bees off of flowers. Got stung a fair few times.

When I was about 5 me and my brother used to ride our bikes into walls. That got painful.

When I was about 8 me and my brother used to skateboard down a hill into a wall. That was also painful. Broke quite a few skateboards.

I used to be a jumper but not off of buildings I used to jump from trees. Then I got scared of heights.

When I was in my early teens we used to go down to the woods and start fires.

Also in my early teens, in the army cadets we used to crucify people. Stick a broom handle through some little kid's coat, find some high points to hang him between and then leave him. MUHAHAHA!

Im college I used to spend most my time doing dangerous things. Like long jump over chairs. The most I cleared with the same limited run up was seven.

 

[JasonRox]

Was he still able to have children after that?

He seems ok.

The scary part is that after almost dying the first time he attempted the jump 3 more times. He didn't get injured during the last 3 attempts though.

Freeriders regularly jump 30-40 foot cliffs.

 

[AngelShare]

I never waited 30 minutes after eating to go swimming...




...yeah, I bore myself.

 

[tribdog]

dangerous things? me? never

 

[Moonbear]

Another thing we did - the wood cutters used the local river to float 4' sticks of pulp wood to the paper mills. You might think having the river full of pulp wood would spoil it for recreation, but you would be underestimating us little rascals. We would run out on the bridge, climb over the railing and hang on until there was an open spot in the stream of wood, then let go, timing the release to hit the open spot and swim under the wood, coming up for air occasionally, until we reached shore - sometimes quite a ways downstream. This would go on until some passing busybody ratted us out to our mothers, who would raise holy hell. Every kid claimed that some of "the other kids" were jumping off the bridge, "but I was just swimming" - yeah, right. The drop was only about 15 ft, but the river wasn't too deep, so we had to arch and "starfish" as soon as we hit the water to avoid hitting the rocky bottom.

I guess we know how you answered the question, "If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?"

 

[tribdog]

I jumped off a bridge into shallow water and it hurt bad. I jumped feet first and hit hard, the water only came up to my nipples. My feet stuck in the mud and it knocked the wind out of me.

 

[tribdog]

one time we used boards to dam a river at a bridge. we left a gap in the middle. a 30 foot wide river was forced through a 4 or 5 foot gap maybe 6. I thought it would be cool to ride an inner tube through the gap. I lost my tube and the water slammed me on to the bottom and tossed me around til I thought I was going to die. I couldn't get out of the stream, then suddenly it popped me out.

 

[tribdog]

For pure fun value, nothing is better than a big box stuffed with pillows and a long flight of stairs.

 

[Moonbear]

one time we used boards to dam a river at a bridge. we left a gap in the middle. a 30 foot wide river was forced through a 4 or 5 foot gap maybe 6. I thought it would be cool to ride an inner tube through the gap. I lost my tube and the water slammed me on to the bottom and tossed me around til I thought I was going to die. I couldn't get out of the stream, then suddenly it popped me out.

That reminds me of a story my grandfather used to tell! He and his friends used to go swimming in a rather turbulent river, complete with whirlpools. They'd dive into a whirlpool (holding their breath of course) and get sucked down, and just wait until it spit them back out! I think the story was ended with, "And don't you ever try that yourself!" My grandfather always had good stories when my grandmother wasn't around to catch him telling them.

 

[Astronuc]

dangerous things? me? never

Trib - you are a dangerous thing!

Anyway, besides the things I did my self, accidents happened to me because of other people.

The worst was when I was about 6 and cement truck broadsided the family car. That resulted in me getting slammed around the back seat of the car and picking up a lot of glass in my chest, face, neck, scalp and mouth. I seem to remember coughing up glass peices for a couple of days afterward. My face was severely lacerated and I still have a few scars. The skin and soft tissue on my nose was torn away, and was reattached with many sutures - looked like a fence.

When I was about 22, some old guy drove his car into my parents house. I was sitting on a couch reading a textbook on a coffee table when I heard a car's engine revving and the horn blaring. Next the front wall explodes and the standup piano flies at me until it hits the coffee table and tips over. The car stopped about 3 feet from where I was sitting. And all I could say was - 'whoah'. The old guy was taking driving lessons from his 16 yr old nephew who had not license. Our house was the second from the corner, so we did not expect a car to drive into our living room. My father had a difficult time with the insurance company, who did not want to cover it. But in the end, they got new windows for the living room.

I had a few bicycle accidents which sent me head first into the pavement. Fortunately, I have a think skull.

 

[tribdog]

lol, the guy honked his horn? so the house would get out of his way?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I have spent many hours driving at high speeds on remote, dirt mountain roads. While living in N Cal this was my favorite activity. And I was [am] a very good dirt driver, but one day I very nearly bit the big one. It happened while in an area that was unfamiliar to me [first mistake] and when I went around some blind, graveled turn [second mistake] doing probably 60-70 mph. At first I was negotiating the slide very nicely but the turn kept getting tighter and continued much longer than I had expected. At one point, one rear wheel fell over the edge which nearly flipped me over. Luckily I had enough speed and traction to power through and regain control. But when I stopped and went back and looked, I was standing atop a 1000+ foot cliff that was nearly vertical all the way to the canyon floor - the Feather River. It was one of those moments that was over before one could even comprehend what was happening, but I probably only survived by a few inches.

Ah, to be sixteen again - smart enough to know better but too much testosterone to care.