Kid things: How dangerous were you?

[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.

 

[tribdog]

When I was sixteen I wanted to see how well my new Firebird cornered. There was a turn labled "25 mph" I took it at 60 no problem, 70 no problem, 80 problem.
I completely understand how the moon orbits the Earth and what would happen to it if the Earth disappeared and what it's trajectory would be without Earth's gravity. I was curving along the road then suddenly my car stopped curving and traveled in a straight line off the road and into the desert sideways.

 

[zoobyshoe]

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'.

This is the most surreal kind of accident I can imagine. Who would believe that an old guy is ever going to end up accepting driving lessons from a 16 year old without a license?

 

[Francis M]

Well when I was little (pre-grade schooler) I did the usual let's stick things in the electrical outlet...right up to the point where I got my first taste of electricity .

Rode my pedal fire truck (the good ones made out of metal) and later on my bike off of various hills, jumps etc (should've never watched The DUkes of Hazzard or Bullett )

Me and my friends used to ride around on trikes, quads, snow mobiles and dirk bikes parallell to each other with the guys on the back of each bike using baseball bats as swords and metal garbage can lids for shields trying to knock the other guy off. We were safety conscious though always had helmets, only did this in open fields, and the drivers were strictly off limits as targets.

Usual firecracker stuff liek at a picnic I temp lost the hearing in my left ear (about 2 hours) an my frind almost lost the tip of his finger and thumb from a fire cracker with a surprisingly quick fuse. Numerous times my friends and I have almost burnt our hair off with home made rockets that didn't light off until we were up on top of them to see what went wrong (there's a range safety message in there somewhere, I'm sure).

One time a friend and I got this old beat up 1/48 scale model of an F-111 and put it on a ramp with 2 Estes C sized rocket engines in the back (1 for each engine of course) and lit them off. It would've flown too except only one engine lit and the off axial thrust started to point it back in our direction Thankfully the uneven thrust swung it past us and eventually just had it spinning on the ground (after it crashed back down the 2 feet it achived in height) and spun around with parts flying off of it in all directions...then it kind of melted/blew itself apart when the parachute charge went off...

"Damn crazy kids" I believe was the comment from the neighbors

 

[turbo]

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.

Kindred souls! A friend of mine had an old MG that we used to tweak and tune up, and we'd take it across the river and 'rod it on the gravel roads winding alongside Wyman Lake. There's nothing like an English sports car with a light rear end on gravel roads! Cut the wheels going into a turn, hit the accelerator to break the rear end away, and back off as soon as you're pointed right, and hope you calculated the drift right.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Kindred souls!

I've noticed!

A friend of mine had an old MG that we used to tweak and tune up, and we'd take it across the river and 'rod it on the gravel roads winding alongside Wyman Lake. There's nothing like an English sports car with a light rear end on gravel roads! Cut the wheels going into a turn, hit the accelerator to break the rear end away, and back off as soon as you're pointed right, and hope you calculated the drift right.

I had an MG but that was in LA so I never took it on dirt. It was a very fun car though!

I started on dirt and sand with dune buggies and sand rails, and later, small and large trucks. I was just as comfortable going sideways as forward at 60+. I LOVE that!

I took the old man for a ride one day - took a well known dirt turn that I had long ago mastered. I hit that sucker so hard that I think I literally went into a full 90 degree slide; at least it was really close. My dad's eye's looked like pie pans; esp since I gave him absolutely no warning. I just cranked the wheel while doing about 50-60mph, and fired off the main road onto a dirt curve. He nearly made doo doo I think

 

[turbo]

I took the old man for a ride one day - took a well known dirt turn that I had long ago mastered. I hit that sucker so hard that I think I literally went into a full 90 degree slide; at least it was really close. My dad's eye's looked like pie pans; esp since I gave him absolutely no warning.

I scared the crap out of my father more than a few times, but that was just payback, since I inherited it from him. We darned near bought it one day coming back from fly-fishing (late and on a very rough woods-road) at too high a rate of speed when he hit a rock that he KNEW was there and broke the frame on his International 1100 pickup. That was a wild ride, but we made it out and limped home. Maybe he was paying me back, though...he brought home an old army jeep when I was about 10 and I used to start it in low-low using the only the starter (no clutch) and then speed-shift it up through the gears because the throw-out bearing on the clutch was bad. (I had his permission to do that after demonstrating that I knew what I was doing and wouldn't ruin the gears in the transmission or transfer case). Then he brought home some mounted tires he had gotten real cheap, and told me to change the tires. While he was at work the next day, I broke off 3 out of 5 studs on each of the right-hand wheels using a cross-wrench and a 4' cheater pipe. He didn't give me too much crap, because he didn't know either that the wheels on the right side of an army jeep had left-hand thread lug studs and the left side had normal right-hand threads. At the age of 10, he could trust me to loosen the lug nuts, jack up a vehicle and change a tire, but who ever hear of left-hand threads on a wheel? That's the army for you.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I scared the crap out of my father more than a few times, but that was just payback, since I inherited it from him.

It's a family tradition, after all!

Did you see in the gun thread where, while hunting, for a moment I thought he had shot my face off with the 12 gauge? He really enjoyed that one!

We were trading punches on the shoulder, on Christmas day, and he slipped and hit me right across the jaw - knocked me out cold for a moment. Mom wasn't impressed!

 

[tribdog]

It's a family tradition, after all!

Did you see in the gun thread where, while hunting, for a moment I thought he had shot my face off with the 12 gauge? He really enjoyed that one!

We were trading punches on the shoulder, on Christmas day, and he slipped and hit me right across the jaw - knocked me out cold for a moment. Mom wasn't impressed!

lol, yeah he slipped. twice

Usual firecracker stuff liek at a picnic I temp lost the hearing in my left ear (about 2 hours) an my frind almost lost the tip of his finger and thumb from a fire cracker with a surprisingly quick fuse.

quick fuses suck. One year I bought a brick of cheap firecrackers. about 1 out of 5 had a fast fuse. The rest took a couple of seconds to burn but that one exploded in about a tenth of a second. I don't know how many exploded in my hand. I don't think you lose fingers unless you actually wrap them around the firecracker. but it does hurt.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

lol, yeah he slipped. twice

It did sound a bit fishy eh? No, I was the one who wanted to do this. This was a buddy/tough guy thing that we did. And I kept waiting for the day that he winced when I hit him. Once he did I showed no mercy.

Beside, I first beat him at chess at age ten. I had to give the old guy a little.

 

[Astronuc]

In the first town we lived, we used to have to drive the "Great Ocean Road" which wound around the coast hills - landside was the hillside, ocean side was usually a drop to the rocks below cliffs that varied a few decades of feet to may 200-300 feet.

One night my father was driving and when he got to a particularly curvy part, I (being about 2 yrs) reached to the dashboard and turned off the headlights. He hit the breaks and managed not to drive over the edge of the cliff.

In the same area, we were driving home one night from a visit up in the hills. We were stopped at a T-intersection getting ready to turn onto the road. Some guy rear-ended us and knocked our car to the edge of the cliff. Needless to say, we didn't go over the edge that time either.

 

[turbo]

When I was about 10, there was a huge fireworks show in our tiny town, to celebrate the 150 years since incorporation (they are probably preparing for the bicentennial now!), and I went to the field and watched the pyrotechnicians setting up. One of the ways that they sequenced the displays was to lay out a fat paper tube full of gun-cotton and pierce the paper skin with the fuses of things that go "boom" and "swoosh". The day after the display, I went to the field looking for anything they might have missed. All I found was about a foot-long piece of that fat fuse, but it had a hard section in it. Figuring it was a firecracker, I took it home, went to the second of our connected garages, embedded a ladyfinger in one end of the fuse and lit the ladyfinger fuse. I backed off a little way and stood in the doorway joining the garages. Suddenly, it was like I got slammed with a very heavy hot mattress, and I was laying on my back in the other garage. My ears rung for days. If I had lit the fat gun-cotton fuse instead of triggering it with a lady-finger, I'd probably be typing this one-handed, and perhaps blind to boot.

 

[Gale]

we mostly jumped out our second story window a lot at my house. and we'd climb on to the garage and jump off that too. We experimented a lot with parachutes, surprisingly, nothing ever worked... heh.

we also loved to sled down the stairs in boxes, trashcans, blankets and on each other. in the summer when we were bored, we'd go over to the DPW (dept of public works) where they keep the big sandpiles for winter. we'd slide down those too. they were HUGE. in the winter we'd go over there too, and there was this big hill we'd sled down. We'd try to build the biggest ramps we could and see who could slide down without breaking a limb. You almost always ended up flying into the bushes.

now that we're older we do other things. one of our favorites is to attach a sled to the four wheeler when its raining or if there's snow. then we whip around the yard with someone on the sled. you get insanely cold and dirty, but its fun. when the boys are on the sled, we like to see how many trees and lawn chairs they can hit before falling off. oh, and another four wheeler game is when we attach the trailer, then everyone stands in the trailer and jumps up as we drive under the apple trees and tries to pick as many apples as they can. winner drives next. then we do blueberries, (but the bushes are prickly, so its wicked funny) Then we take the fruits and play baseball or just whip them at each other.