How the Hell did YOU Survive Childhood?

[Xipe Totec]

That's a question I often ask myself.

Do you have a childhood story where you survived unbelievable stupidity?

How about sharing it with the rest of us?

Here is mine:

I grew up on the border, exposed to American TV from a young age.

As a boy, Popeye was my hero. I wanted to be just like him. Of course, spinach is a cold weather crop and does not grow anywhere near the semi tropical desert where I grew up. One fine day, I notice that the green leafy plants my mother put by the front entry way kind of look like the cartoon spinach that Popeye eats. Say! If it looks like spinach, it's gotta be spinach, right?

So I grabbed some handfuls of the stuff, took them to the kitchen, washed them, dropped them on a skillet with some butter and sauteed them. What can I say, I was seven, maybe eight years old. what the hell do I know? I ate the stuff and, have to admit, it did not taste half bad...

Hours later my mother comes home and sees her torn plants and yells at the gardner. What happened to my chrysanthemums!

I quietly slinked to the neighbor's house and didn't tell a soul what I had done.

It wasn't until I turned 30 that I discovered that chrysanthemums are actually edible and used in some fancy restaurants.

I was unbelievably lucky that day. I could have eaten any of dozens of poisonous plants but for some reason, dumb luck I'm sure, I picked the one plant that would not kill me on the spot.

So,

How did YOU survive childhood?





:scared:

[MiniMandaRuth]

1. Survive? Pfft.

I'm still living through it.



How I got up to this point, I honestly don't know.

[Xipe Totec]

60. Pssst!...

The secret is this:

If you're not enjoying what your doing, do something else.


You get one shot at life. ONE; There are no do overs.

The fact that you made it this far is an achievement and you should pat yourself on the back for it.

:bounce:

Seriously.

The big question is this:

Now that you've made it this far into the game of life, what do you want to do with the play time you have left.

Carpe Diem!

[Radio_Lady]

67. I survived sticking a fork in a toaster when I was eight years old.

Electricity threw me across the room and I can't even remember getting there.

Taught me a good lesson. Don't mess with wires of any kind. I married an electrical engineer and he knows how to operate them.

[Radio_Lady]

71. I was a co-host on a children's Popeye TV show in Miami, Florida --

We talked about eating spinach all the time. But in all those years, we never heard of a kid eating something else rather than spinach and actually getting sick on it! There are a lot of ornamentals in Florida that are poisonous --like oleander leaves, for example.

I guess people grew spinach in Miami (I really don't know if it's too hot or wet for that crop in south Florida) -- we bought it in Birds Eye frozen cubes -- still love it that way today, although I know it's great fresh in spinach salads. Frozen spinach tasted better than the spinach that came in cans. My parents were in the legal profession and never grew anything, as I recall.

You might enjoy this website:

http://www.tvparty.com/lostrecords.html

Anyway, here's a touch of "Skipper" Chuck and "First Mate" Ellen on the "Popeye Playhouse" from the 1950s.

[Xipe Totec]

73. My heroine!

Thank you for sharing that wonderful picture! It was awesome!

Popeye was really, really, my hero. I am so glad I was exposed to American culture at an early age.

Not many had that privilege where I was raised.

:thumbsup:

[LeftyMom]

2. Sheer dumb luck

really, there's no other explanation for surviving a childhood dominated by my father who did not believe in seatbelts, bans on dangerous fireworks, motorcycle helmets, food expiration dates or leaving small girls with overnight adult supervison or at least functional door locks.

[Xipe Totec]

28. Sounds like great training to be a wonderful mom

I'm serious.

You survived some pretty stupid parenting. You know the dangers now, and your children will be the beneficiaries of that hard won experience.

:hi:

[LeftyMom]

30. It's a good thing I learned all the really good mistakes from my folks

I have a boy and they work much harder at hurting themselves and others than girls, from what I've seen. Either that or my kid has a deathwish. :P

[Xipe Totec]

33. Just remember,

when a boy is quiet, he's up to something....

death wish? you bet!

If it wasn't for women, men would never make it...

[LeftyMom]

36. Oh yeah.

When he gets quiet, he's either making a mess, breaking something or he's snuck out of the house again.

Well there's the one in a million chance he's fallen asleep, but I won't count on that when lives and furniture are at stake.

[HopeFor2006]

92. I have two girls,

and I can tell you the same rule applies.

[Xipe Totec]

94. Welcome to DU!

:dem:

You got that right about the same rules applying.

You reminded me of a time we had a snake in our back yard. It was pretty big and hiding in the fern beds so I could not tell whether it was venomous or harmless. This was in South Texas, so it could have been a water moccasin or rattler, or just a king snake. My kids were 4 and 8 years old at the time and had a bunch of neighborhood friends at the house. Not knowing what it might be, I had no choice but to pull out the machete and whack the creature...

Turned out it was a king snake; no harm to anybody. I felt bad and wanted to give some purpose to this poor animal's death. I decided to get an exacto knife and do a dissection so the kids would at least learn something from it...

Most of the kids were totally grossed out, boys and girls alike, mine included. But there was this one girl, about 6 years old, who was absolutely fascinated. I cut the belly, exposed the one lung, the heart which was still beating, and then opened the stomach to reveal a couple of mice the snake had eaten. She just sat there totally absorbed by the experience, asking me - what's this? what's that? - absolutely un fazed by the sight of blood and gore...

This happened a good 18-20 years ago. The girl is now doing her internship as a medical student.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

40. My younger sister had a deathwish.

I was cautious. Now it's reversed. I don't have a deathwish, just a lack of "healthy fear." Except for spiders. I can't deal with spiders.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

39. I still like fireworks.

Haven't blown myself up yet.

The helmet thing reminds me of my ATV. So basically, I have an ATV but I don't actually have a helmet or pads or anything. The ATV was free but helmets are pricy. Anyway, my stepdad (who could afford to buy me a helmet) just said to me, "yeah, that thing's illegal to ride on the street and it's really illegal to ride it without a helmet. So if you're taking it down the road to the trails, make sure you don't pass any cops."

[LeftyMom]

41. That sounds like something my Dad would say. nt

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

45. My actual father would have made me wear a helmet.

It'd be balanced out though with a random story about the time he bit off a man's finger.

[johnnie]

70. Seatbelts?

I don't think anyone wore those things when I was a kid. And fireworks were a blast. I was never a small girl though.

[havocmom]

3. Pretty much by staying outta the way

and watching siblings do dumb ass things.

Learn from observing others. You don't really have to experience everything first hand. Somebody has to be the one operating the first aid kit ;)

[Xipe Totec]

6. Experience is a dear teacher,

but fools learn from no other.

- Benjamin Franklin.

It's good to have siblings to try thing out while you watch from a safe distance....

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. I used to take Lysol, and...

fill up the Lysol can cap (yes, girls and boys...spray containers used to have actual caps...) by spraying Lysol into it.

Then I would light it on fire because it was AWESOME!

A big WHOOMPH!

Way cool!

[Xipe Totec]

12. Ever tried Aqua net?

The hair spray?

One time we took a full can of the stuff and, with a nail, punched a hole on the bottom to let the propellant out. What's left is the resin and pure alcohol. We dropped the full can on a little fire we started with wood sticks and other debris...

The bottom of the can is an almost perfect rocket engine bell...

When the alcohol started boiling it came out the back end, ignited, and the can took off like a real rocket. It skipped down the street for a couple of blocks before it ran out of juice. No guidance, no nav, no flight control, no range safety officer. Just a wild rocket going down a neighborhood street, and a bunch of kids ducking for cover...

[Whoa_Nelly]

17. You are so HERKING cool!

Used to take pressurized cans and throw them into the burning trash bin when living way out in the country.

Much better and more satisfying than an M-40 in a tin can, lit and throwing into the air :rofl:

ahhhhhh...Childhood memories!

[Jazz2006]

42. That brings back memories!

My four siblings and I used to take cans of spray paint into the garage and take turns spraying them while setting the plume of paint on fire.

It was an old wooden garage full of all manner of stuff.

Not so surprisingly, it did eventually burn down (and none of us said a word).

[ZombieNixon]

5. Hmm...meat slicer, cheese slicer, bread knives, shotguns, trucks...

No fucking idea...but, then, I'm really just emerging from it. :shrug:

[MiniMandaRuth]

7. You... and a vegetable peeler...

That scares me.

[ZombieNixon]

9. Never had an accident with one of those yet.

Only a matter of time, I guess...:scared:

It's not that I'm clumsy, I just don't pay attention. :D

[Xipe Totec]

31. No shotgun experience here,

but I did have a friend who got into a shotgun duel with a college prof over a girl...

That wouldn't be you, now would it?...

[ZombieNixon]

32. No. If I'm going to duel, it'll be with swords or my bare fucking hands!

:grr:

[Xipe Totec]

35. Hard to duel with swords while jousting on pickup trucks

Shotgun hanging out the driver's window...

But swords have a charm all their own. :evilgrin:

[ZombieNixon]

37. Oh, I'd so do that!

Pickup truck jousting! :D

Bring it on, Douchebag!! :grr:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

43. I didn't start in with the guns until I was 21.

I don't own one or want one, but they're fun to shoot. Actually, the first real gun I handled was a baretta when I was working for Shakespeare Co.

[Mutley]

8. Oh the usual.

Climbing to the top of really tall trees. Hanging onto car bumpers while on roller skates. Riding bikes down really long, steep hills. Swimming in rivers with all manners of poisonous snakes and the like (water moccasins!). Hitchhiking around town in the cars of strangers.

I surely almost died several times. :D

[Xipe Totec]

14. Beautiful!

You would have fit right into our gang of miscreants.

:thumbsup:

[Mutley]

16. Being a miscreant was fun, wasn't it?

[Xipe Totec]

20. It sure was,

I remember falling from tall trees, flat onto my back, gasping for breath and wheezing, while my brothers laughed their heads off...

... that is until I got my wind back and chased after them .... :mad:

[Mutley]

22. I only fell once.

I still swear to this day my sister pushed me. Wasn't hurt, though I probably should've been.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. My dear Xipe Totec......

I survived childhood due to my parents being EXTREMELY overprotective!

And I was a timid child, believe it or not.....

It is not a good thing to smother any child, and I was....

I sure as heck raised my girls differently, and they are much more competent young women than I was at their ages...

:hi:

[Xipe Totec]

21. See? No lesson is lost!

I've seen pics you posted of you and your girls. You sure raised them fine.


Congratulations!


:hug:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

11. It was all smooth sailing until about 13...

I wasn't prone to injuring myself as a child or anything and I got along with my parents.

At 13 things went into a steady decline until about the age of 19. It's been rocky ever since. I am so not my mother's child. Somehow I managed to seemingly inherit all of my genes from my dad. She just gave birth to me and then decided to practice being a manipulative bitch on me. At least the men she marries are pretty cool.

[Xipe Totec]

23. Hang in there; it can be a fun ride.

But the time we have on this earth is finite.

So ask yourself, what can I do with the time I've been granted on this earth, to enjoy myself?

It's your time, it's your turn...

Have a blast and don't regret a moment of it!


:hug:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

26. Oh I have my fun. She just manages to ruin it with her neurosis sometimes

which she then projects onto everybody around her.

[Roon]

13. An ample supply of blotter LSD

and my van. We would tell our parents that we were spending the night at each other's house and spend the night in my van. It was awesome.

[Xipe Totec]

29. Can't say I've traveled down that road,

but no experience is wasted.

Carry on, and whatever you do, savor the experience.

[Roon]

34. Just did the math

that was over 20 years ago!! :cry:

[Xipe Totec]

38. Happy 20th Anniversary!

:bounce:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

44. I need to visit my friend upstate with the purple VW bus....

Yeah, I should do that soon.

[GirlinContempt]

15. I used to jump off the footbridge by the ice cream drive in

into the river.

[Xipe Totec]

19. Cool!

Glad you made it!

You are truly a kindred spirit!

Where I grew up, houses had nearly flat roofs made of reinforced concrete (not the wood construction you see in the US). We used to climb onto our neighbor's roof, take a running start, and leap onto another neighbor's backyard. We were practicing to be paratroopers. :evilgrin:

We learned to curl and roll when we hit the ground (about a 12 foot drop). Every once in a while, my knees would get in the way and hit my chin, causing me to bite my tongue...

[GoddessOfGuinness]

18. What a great story!

:rofl:

I remember being fascinated with electrical sockets at a young age...maybe 2 or 3. This was before some brilliant person invented those plastic plugs that keep kids from sticking their fingers in them.

I remember finding a penny on the floor, and bringing the coin close to the outlet. Then came the odd tingling sensation, which was a little frightening, yet fascinating. I brought the coin close again. This time the sensation was a little scarier, so I didn't do it again.

So I guess you could say I survived my childhood with shock therapy.

[Xipe Totec]

27. Bzzt! Good one!

I remember being handed a live 110 volt wire during a High School project, so I know the feeling!

:thumbsup:

[Roon]

93. I did that with a paper clip and an outlet

that was in a cubicle in our school library. I would stick the paper clip in a little, get a little buzz, push it in a little more. Then eventually it got to the point where I stuck it in too far and the thing exploded with sparks! It scared the crap out of me. LOL

[texas1928]

24. Oh where to start.

I broke horses, rode bulls, would do just about anything you dared me too. I got stabbed when I was 16, and I was shot also at 16...



I don't know how I survived...


I guess by the grace of god.

:shrug:

[Xipe Totec]

25. You got some great stories there.

For Chrissake, write them down! Even if not on these boards, you should put them down on paper.

[Broken_Hero]

46. hmmm

When, i was in my younger years(around 4) I was(still am) a big superman fan. When I was 4yrs old or so, I took my blanket, wrapped it around my neck, and went outside on our front porch. Now, the duplex my parents shared, with another family, had two sets of stairs, one going up to the landing, then two sets of stairs leading to the front doors, of each apartment.

The stairs were 20 steps, in each set. I was ontop of the first set of stairs, I grabbed my blanket tight around my neck, and jumped, with my arm out, my fist clenched, just like superman...I tried to fly, and indeed, I did fly for abut half a second(maybe less), and then i fell, tumbled, went head/ass/over heels, and ended up on the landing, all twisted up...

My mother was fanatically crazy! She heard my crying, and came out, and helped me get up. I had quite a few bruises, a bit of lost blood, but NO broken bones, nothing that required the need of an ER doctor. Now, I have seen the same duplex/apartment in my older years, and I still have no idea, how anyone can run and jump, and tumble down all them stairs without breaking their neck....I survived this tumble, by sheer dumb luck, or maybe someone was watching over me.

Another Story, I was going out south of town(i was 5) and my biological father was driving, we were going 55mph(the speed limit in the area of the accident was 55, thats what i'm basing my number on), and I remember, I remember looking out the window, on the passenger side, and then, whammo, all of a sudden i'm rolling on the pavement. Apparently, I had my hand on the door handle, and i opened it, and fell out...My dad said all he saw, was me spining, over and over, on the top part of my head, and he honestly said, he thought i was dead...

He came back, picked me up, and brought me to a near by house...I remember crying, and I remember a fireman, telling me not to cry, its going to be okay...My mom was a paralegal at the time, and when she got to the hopsital, the first thing she saw was my SeaWorld Tshirt covered in blood, she about feinted, and thought i was dead....but, but...All i got, was bruises, 15 stitches on top of my head, near my hair line, bruises, and some lacerations...No broken bones, nothing life threatening, i left the hospital the same day, i arrived...I have no idea how I surivivd, again, sheer luck, or someone was watchign out for me. I'm inclined to believe someone was watching out for me...those are two of my stories, I hope you enjoyed them folks.

[Xipe Totec]

48. Awesome stories!

Sometimes it seems that life is a chess game between Darwin and Murphy...

... and we're the chess pieces! :scared:


Glad you survived to share these stories with us; I wish I had stayed up later to read them last night.

[Broken_Hero]

52. thanks....:) n/t

[Jazz2006]

47. In retrospect, I'm amazed that I survived it at all...

being adventurous and downright reckless at times.

Climbing tall trees; lighting up plumes from spray paint cans; setting fire to strips of kleenex just to giggle over how quickly it burns; playing a game where you'd throw a jackknife into the ground between the other kid's feet while the space grew smaller and smaller; diving into a quarry where you couldn't see what the hell was in the water and you had to make sure your dive took you far enough out that you didn't hit the rocky sides on the way down; cooking french fries in a pot full of grease on a gas stove and not paying attention until the pot boiled over and the fire went scorched the kitchen ceiling.

Then on to even more dangerous stuff like hitchhiking; drinking and driving; running up on the arches of a bridge while stoned; snowmobiling over a frozen lake that wasn't QUITE frozen enough.

It seems odd to think about and try to list all of the dangerous and reckless things we did as kids (I had four older siblings, all five of us born in a six year span, so most of these things included a sibling or two). It really is a wonder that I made it past 18 or 19.

On edit: but, you know, it really was a heck of a lot of fun in a twisted sort of way :)

[riona]

49. I survived

somewhat flawed

[Xipe Totec]

59. Any pilot will tell you,

a landing you walk away from, is a good landing.

Congratulations on your survival; welcome to the rest of your life.

Enjoy it, it will be the greatest adventure you can claim as your own!

:party:

[bridgit]

50. i was emancipated at 15, i remain unconvinced i survived any of it...

[Xipe Totec]

64. Lemme tell you about my cousins...

My uncle Ubaldo was rebellious. At age 16 he was fed up with my grandfather and split for Europe.

Uncle Ubaldo spent two years bumming around in Europe before returning to Mexico to marry and raise a family. With the experience he gained in Europe, he became a first rate poet. He started his own poetry publication in Mexico, which is still in circulation today, 40 years later.

Uncle Ubaldo's sons were rebellious too. They split and went to Europe in their teens. Could uncle Ubaldo stop them? Of course not; that would have been hypocritical. But they came back, started families of their own, some went into poetry, some into music. To this day, the sons (and daughters) of my uncle Ubaldo are the pride of my family. The bards and poets who inspire and illuminate the way for the rest of us. I have Cd's of their work. The one girl that did not go into the arts, became an airline pilot (she is, to tell the truth, my favorite).

You are are in excellent company. I admire your courage to emancipate at age 15, and I hope that your life will be long, interesting, and productive.

[bridgit]

76. Xipe Totec, i'd like to thank you very much for this post, the humanity...

of this post yours, i love the story of it the history it brings here, the textures the passing sorrows the story's aggregate-familial joys easily held in hand as they should be...and i do agree; there is no discounting; or should i say there is no point in discounting the human spirit, or it's creative product :hug:

:hi:

[Xipe Totec]

84. .

words fail me.

:hug: :blush:

[Deja Q]

51. I haven't. Nor have coworkers grown up either.

How did I survive childhood?

Became even more an introvert. Which also fueled my nemeses. "Go beat him up, he doesn't fight back!"

Looking back, a couple people did try to reach out to me...

But most were cruel.

and people still are.

I've been called "sweet" by my associates. But "sweet" doesn't get anyone anywhere in this society. Except maligned, misused, marauded, maimed... and m... even if it's done by one's own self.

I'll spare the maudlin drivel of more most "favorite" incidents of my childhood. But you might be able to read them in the future... But, as you can imagine, being framed, lied about, lied to, beaten up corporeally when not emotionally or mentally, taunted, sexually assaulted, sexually molested (by another), and some cruel jokes virtually none of you could fathom... it's taken its toll.

[LiberalEsto]

53. Books

I practically buried myself in them.

[Xipe Totec]

55. You are enlightened.

No joke. I admire those who seek knowledge in books. Thou art the keepers of the flame of knowledge.

Fiat Lux.

[LiberalEsto]

56. Thanks

Back in my youth it was the Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, a bit of my brother's Tom Swift series, the Narnia books, and a ton of Superman, Batman and Archie comics. And naturally, Mad Magazine. Now THAT was enlightenment!

:-)

[Missy Vixen]

86. I lived for books as well, still do

We had a very turbulent family situation, the details of which would not be appropriate to post on a public message board. As a result, I learned to read at age 4, and have been reading ever since. For instance, I read every book in our elementary school's library by the time I left 6th grade, and some of those books I read more than once.

My favorites? The classics, such as "Jane Eyre" and "Little Women". I also read Shakespeare.

My childhood was an instrumental reason why I did not have children of my own.

Julie

[Xipe Totec]

90. My favorite book.

The Adventures of Captain Hatteras by Jules Verne.

I read the Spanish translation. For some reason, is nearly impossible to obtain this book in English.

[Iniquitous Bunny]

54. I remember riding my bike MILES at 7!

I grew up in a city and I'd just ride around for hours by myself. My mom would drop me off at the movies alone before I was 10. I couldn't even fathom doing that now with my children. A different time.

I wasn't into blowing things up though. Mainly, just did a lot without supervision. Never skipped school. Never did anything that bad. Never had any major problems or injuries.

[Xipe Totec]

57. A different time indeed.

I grieve for the loss of innocence.

Through some accident in scheduling, I ended up in 1st grade at age 5 1/2. The youngest boy in Catholic school. One fine day, I missed the bus to take me home. No sweat - I thought to myself - I'll just walk home...

Naturally, the only way I knew to get home was to follow the bus route...

I went through every winding turn that bus made. I recognized every landmark, every house where a fellow student lived, I went through subdivisions, urban areas, across industrial parks, refineries and, finally, five hours later, I was within sight of my house....

There were cop cars everywhere, half the neighborhood was at my house, my mother was prostrate, my father was ready to shoot the bus driver...

I'm not kidding; I was my father's first born son, the apple of his eye, and he would have literally killed anyone who so much as looked at me the wrong way.

There was such a relief in everyones face, seeing me walk up to the house after being lost for five hours...

Just telling you this makes me realize how much I meant to my parents. How much they loved me, and how much I owe them and will never be able to repay....

...except, to care for my own children the same way the cared for me.

So here's to you Chief, and to you Mama. I love you always.

[smitty]

102. I grew up in the 50s in the suburbs of Long Island.

I lived in a neighborhood with lots of kids my age, we'd spend most of the summer outdoors---baseball, bicycling, swimming at the pool, whatever---my parents didn't worry, they knew I was safe. I was cursed with a happy childhood, I read other people's posts and I wonder was my childhood that unusual?

[Lady Effingbroke]

58. The usual, I guess...

Climbed tall trees (pine trees - sticky, sappy fun), rode bikes for miles all over town, shot at (and sometimes hit) each other with BB guns, jumped off the roofs of houses, etc.

It got wilder (of course) when I became a teen. I stayed pretty well shytefaced for most of high school - I would catch a buzz before school, then go out at lunch and drink some more. Cruisin' and boozin' was a given, and typical weekend fun included getting a belly full of beer and hood surfing.

By the time I was 19, I had graduated from high school and sobered up (on my own, I got tired of the hangovers). I remember walking around and saying "Wow, sobriety - what a trip!".

I don't drink much anymore - I guess I got it all out of my system as a teen and got on with my life, such as it is.

[Xipe Totec]

61. Do you realize how unusual the usual is?

This is THE hardest lesson to learn from life.

What you just described is unusual. Most people sleep walk through life and never get a full measure of what it means to live.

Making mistakes, experimenting, doing stoopid stuff is part of being alive.

Be grateful for the blessing of living to tell the tale. Show your scars as badges of honor; for that is what they truly are.

Tell your tale, laugh, and enjoy the time you have been granted on this earth.

Because, when it's over, it is over.

Carpe Diem!

[Lady Effingbroke]

62. Thank you for sharing your stories, as well!

I find it fascinating to read of others' adventures.

You're right - I am damn lucky never to have been hurt (or to have hurt anyone), and for every regret, there is a fun, wild, stupid story.

I certainly have learned my lessons (and how)!

[Dave Reynolds]

63. I spent a lot of time in emergency rooms.

I was an accident-prone and sickly kid.

[Rue]

65. Actually, that's a very good question.

When I was about a year old, I ate a spider. My mom found its legs when she reached into my mouth.

When I was about two years old, I dropped a hair dryer into the tub with me (I was born before they had those built-in safety plugs). It didn't shock me. It did scare my cousin who was watching me.

And when I was around four, I tried to eat a wasp! It stung me. Seriously, what was I thinking on that one!?

[Xipe Totec]

68. Brother!

For thou art truly my brother!

When I was two years old, I escaped from a play pen by gnawing one of the wooden bars off.

Wen I was three, I ate the wooden tunning buttons off a toy guitar. My mother didn't realize what had happened until the came out the other end....

It was great to hear your stories.

SHOCKING, actually, to realize that there are others out there in the world that survived the same stoopid stuff I did as a kid!

[Rue]

80. Sister, to be honest.

But that's beside the point.

Another thing I just remembered . . . I also knocked a dresser onto myself when I was a year old. I also nearly climbed off a ten-foot balcony that same year.

Childhood delusions of invulnerability are fun :D

[Xipe Totec]

83. Sister? Even better!

I am honored by your stories. I've often wondered whether reincarnation preserves gender. Happily, your story indicates that is not the case. Perhaps in a future life, if I am worthy, I will return as a woman and really kick ass!



:dem:

[graywarrior]

66. I drank with my parents.

[Xipe Totec]

69. My kids do too!

I just shared a bottle of Robert Mondavi 2005 Pinot Noir with my oldest.

(Hope he can still concentrate on his nursing texts).

[graywarrior]

72. Yabut, I started at age 11 with them, at age 8 without their knowing.

[Xipe Totec]

74. Let's keep it our little secret...

I won't say what age, but I do believe that early supervised exposure to alcohol is the key to responsible drinking as adults. I believe in the French method.

Of course, as a young'un, my parents were not as enlightened, and I was very, very curious...

I once got into the first-aid kit and snatched a few vials or mercuro-chrome which, according to the label, had 50% alcohol in them...

I shared this crap with my brothers and, of course, we got deathly ill...

We never told a soul about this close encounter of the stoopid kind; the doctors could not tell what the hell was wrong with us...

Don't cha think supervised drinking is a better option?

[graywarrior]

75. My parents supervised while we tried to drink eachother under the table

[Xipe Totec]

82. Well, you got me beat.

I didn't play that game with mine till the oldest was 16.

Of course, the oldest was adopted (international exchange student) and a full blooded Russian...

By the way, he introduced us to the proper Russian drinking ritual with salt, dense Russian bread, and Stolichnaya.

By the time he graduated from High School, he was familiar with the tell tale signs of alcohol abuse and the symptoms of inebriation. This is a good thing because...

.... When he went to his High School prom (a German girl as his prom date) he was the ONLY person there who had any experience with alcohol. The natural inclination of kids that age is to try alcohol for the very first time. Every one of the kids in his group (all international students from Europe and the Former Soviet Union), snuck into the Prom with some alcohol they stole from their host parent's liquor cabinets. They mixed this ungodly assortment of crap and proceeded to get absolutely blitzed....

On my wife's insistence the group had rented a hotel room in Galveston to make sure they had a safe place to retreat to, if things got really hairy. They surely did.

The exchange student from Spain got plastered to the point of alcohol poisoning. Sure enough, they had to go to the hotel room to regroup and figure out what to do. My son was the only one of the bunch who was sober. Why? because he knew what can happen when you mix a hodgepodge of incompatible liquors, so he did not drink that day, and did not feel any compulsion to do so. Let me repeat, the only kid there who had experience with alcohol, of his own volition did not drink.

The poor girl vomited over herself and was covered in it from head to toes. The other girls were grossed out and would not come anywhere near her. My son took this poor girl into the bathroom, undressed her, held her under the shower to clean her up, wrapped her in towels and then stayed with her while she dry heaved into the toilet while holding her hair out of the bowl. His sole objective was to keep this unconscious girl from drowning.

There was hell to pay the next morning, of course...

But all the other students vouched that my son did not drink that night and was instrumental in keeping this girl from harm at the absolute most vulnerable time in her life.

To this day, I remember that incident and swell with pride at my son's Chivalrous act. I am so glad he decided to join my family.

[AngryAmish]

77. I almost got hit by a train

My own fault. But it must have been a pretty rough ride for those on the train.

I ran in front of it with my bike on my shoulder. I didn't look and those things are surprisingly quiet. I was between the rails when I heard the whistle. I jumped backward and it ran past about three seconds later in full panic stop.

As i got older I feel bad for the driver because who wants to be responsible for killing a kid -- even how dumb I was.

I am sure that as I am typing there is a nice retired engineer sitting in a bar watching the Cubs game telling his buddies how a stupid kid almost got himself killed.

[njdemocrat106]

78. How I didn't seriously injure my brother one time (or worse) I don't know

We were kids, we were watching TV, and for some reason I picked up a dog bone off the floor (we watching TV on the floor for some reason) and threw it at his face. This was an actual heavy bone, not some rawhide, and of course the ends were jagged from our dog chewing on it. Well, it hit him right in the eye, and the results were pretty bloody. I remember him saying that teacher asked him what happened and he responded that he fell or tripped (for a 1st grader, he knew how to cover for me!) He still has a tiny scar by his right eye from that unprovoked act from violence by me (and to this day, I feel awful about it).

My closest brush with the Grim Reaper happened when I was getting off the school bus one time. As I was getting off, some guy decides he's not going to wait for the bus to turn off its flashers and start moving, and passes the bus on the right, as I was getting off. I jumped back onto somebody's front lawn, unhurt, as the guy speeded pass the bus on the right. It created quite an incident across the block, and the guy was eventually tracked down.

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot, in elementary school we had this game in the schoolyard called "Funnel Ball" which basically a big funnel you toss a ball into and it comes out of one of a number of shutes. A bunch of us didn't have a ball handy, so we decided to throw rocks into the funnel. I ended up standing beneath the wrong shute at the wrong time as a rock hit me right in the head. I went to the emergency room for that one (I guess it was reparations for the dog bone incident).

[swag]

79. Mike Douglas done got me through.

[HEyHEY]

81. I still can't believe what we used to do on bikes

We'd ride down steep hills STANDING on the crossbars... one slipped we coulda died.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

85. I slipped through second floor

stair railings and hung there 20 feet in the air when I was 3. I pulled a grandfather clock onto my head a few weeks later. I road my trike up to the forbidden "traffic circle" (to get a ten cent candy bar) with an older friend. She attempted to cross the street and was hit and killed. I rode my trike home and never let on to anyone I knew about it. During Hurricane Donna, which hit NJ very suddenly, we were sent home from school at noon. I walked home and climbed over the elm tree that had fallen in my yard. I didn't know (nor understand) that it had a live wire on it. I was passenger in a car (at 18) that drove over the Veranzano Bridge at 100 MPH and took down about 25 yellow cones while being chased by the police. They didn't follow us into NJ. Did I mention the driver was drunk? (and no, I never went out with him again!)

I won't go into the dumb stuff I've done as an adult.

[Xipe Totec]

87. Wow! just Wow!

I can understand your reluctance to delve into the adult events. After all, the statute of limitations may or may not have expired.

:evilgrin:

Thank you for some great stories.

Some other time I'll tell youze guys about the time we rolled a cop in Mexico and stole his cap...

:yoiks:

[hunter]

88. Late teen and young adulthood were my dangerous times.

As a child I always bounced back much quicker.

As a pre-teen a friend and I were obsessed with war comic books, and we had one about World War I, so we decided to make some chlorine gas. We did, too, a very large cloud of it. My friend was far away and wisely upwind. I was not. I caught a whiff and it felt like an elephant standing on my chest.

Another time we found a big high voltage transformer in the trash behind one of the local aerospace companies. Our intention was to make a jacob's ladder out of coat hangers. But then we discovered the thing would shoot some pretty good sparks into the ground, so we tied a long stick to the secondary, and we were blasting snails and stuff with electricity. (My dad actually had a bounty on garden snails...) Unfortunately the stick wasn't as good an insulator as I thought, and I got zapped pretty hard.

After that I felt bad about the snails.

[Xipe Totec]

89. Cool stuff

You reminded me of my adventures with calcium carbide.

Did you end up going into science?

[hunter]

98. Yes, I did go into science.

My favorite science is evolutionary biology, but teaching science, computers, and lab work have generated most of my science income. My wife is also a science person.

[Xipe Totec]

105. Well, the signs were there from the start.

I've often wondered whether the reason there are so few scientists is that so few of us survive childhood.

I was drawn to chemistry by my fascination with explosives. :scared:

[HopeFor2006]

91. By never giving up hope that things would get better

.....45 years later.....still waiting

[Southsideirish]

95. You had a gardener?

[Xipe Totec]

97. First one to notice.

Yes, I grew up in relative privilege. We had a gardner, a maid, and a cook. It does not take much money in Mexico to be able to afford hiring housekeeping staff. The maid and cook had separate living quarters. Food and lodging was part of their compensation. Sometimes this included food and lodging for their children as well.

Relations in Hispanic cultures are much more complex than just employer-employee. Often times there are distant blood relations involved, and sometimes these relationships span generations.

These are echoes of the Hidalgo class that date back to before the Conquest of Mexico.

[Redstone]

96. Sheer, dumb, blind luck.

Redstone

[xmas74]

99. I'm not sure.

I was raised a Pentecostal and I left the church.

Now that's a messed up childhood.

[livetohike]

100. Did you know you could make blue pop (soda) with Bull Dog

blueing? It is a concentrated bleach. Mix it with water and put it in an empty pop bottle. Pretty! You can guess the rest. My two other 6 year old friends and I drank a bottle each of this concoction. Blech!

[VelmaD]

101. I actually gave myself an infection with a potato masher

True story. I had pulled it out of the kitchen drawer while Mom was cooking and was running around the house with it. She told me to stop. I didn't listen. I jumped up on top of a footstool in the living room, and when I jumped down, I landed with my leg on top of the potato masher. It didn't break the skin...but a couple hours later my leg was swollen and red and I ended up with a case of cellulitis in my leg. Had to get shots at the hospital every day for what seemed like forever when I was little.

Yup...I almost killed myself with a potato masher. *snort*

Not nearly as funny as riding the skateboard with the dog pulling it, hitting a patch of gravel and going flying. That time I ended up in the emergency room having a rock dug out of my hand (not a good thing when you're a serious pianist). Of course I only went to the emergency room after my parents, who both worked AT THE HOSPITAL, spent over an hour trying to dig it out themselves. :eyes:

We won't even get into what happened with the mini-cycle and the tree. :)

[Xipe Totec]

104. Now that is unique!

Not one of the things you normally worry about.

Potato smasher. Go figure.

Or was it, perhaps, a potatoe smasher? :think:

[Joey Liberal]

103. I drank a lot of beer n.t

[tigereye]

106. it's funny how unsupervised we were as kids

my kid has very little freedom to wander as we did in the small town I am from. Of course we live near the city.

we used to:

set occasional small fires from the burncan
walk on the railroad tracks (put a nickel on em to see em get smushed)
climb under the bridges above the town creek
be gone all day, pretty much and come home for dinner
throw a lot of rocks
play with M-80s and caps
hide in the tunnels meant for storm overflow
sleep out on the front porch with our friends


as a teen, say I was going to the nearby mall and drive to see our boyfriends in the city 30 miles away...drive cars with bad brakes...cars full of teens....


those were different times! I think parents just figured everything would be ok. And usually, it was. ;)

[hunter]

107. Climbing up under railroad bridges, with a train racing past above you.

That was a good one.

I've got a picture of my little brother I took up under a railroad bridge. He's six years old.

[tigereye]

119. my husband used to do that as a kid

he was even more intrepid than we were... we actually walked with him on the same bridge recently as adults... it was kinda scary...


where we live my kid would be nowhere near a railroad bridge, I would never allow him to wamder around that way since we live very close to the city...

[Xipe Totec]

108. You're kidding yourself, let me tell ya.

I thought I kept a tight rein on my kids growing up. They're adults now and every once in a while they start reminiscing about the stoopid things they did as kids. As my eyes start bugging out, they realize they never told me these things before.... An awkward silence ensues, followed by snickers and finally full belly laughs.

Then I realize I went through the same thing with my parents.

No mater how hard you try, and it's good that you do, kids will always figure a way to get around parental supervision.

That's life.

When they're grown up they'll come and tell you these stories.

Enjoy the anticipation....

(edited to add...)

The last story was only yesterday, when my middle boy told be about the time he nearly got gored by a javalina after flushing it out of a sugar cane field by setting the field on fire with a burning car tire. Fortunately, his friends dropped the creature on the fourth shot....

[hunter]

117. My mom's eye's don't bug out anymore.

We've worn her out.

She had a lot of us, and we were all pretty much feral animals when no adults were around.

[tigereye]

ah

we don't have any javalinas (a variant of jaguar I assume?) around here! :D

Just the possibility of weirdos wandering through the neighborhood. I suppose that is a different form of predator. ;)

[tigereye]

118. ah

we don't have any javalinas (a variant of jaguar I assume?) around here! :D

Just the possibility of weirdos wandering through the neighborhood. I suppose that is a different form of predator. ;)

[Xipe Totec]

120. Wild Pigs. They're also called Razorbacks

Javelina is derived from the Spanish word for javelin or sword and is a reference to the peccary's sharp tusks.





http://www.ultimateungulate.com/Artiodactyla/Pecari_tajacu.html

But I hear you; human predators are much more dangerous. :hi:

[tigereye]

121. oh like the wild boars in Europe?

assuming there are any left....:hi:

[Xipe Totec]

124. Yes, like them

Pigs aren't native to the Americas, so they're all imports from the old world. Some of the wild ones went feral, others were feral to begin with.

The javelinas are a smaller variety, descendants of pigs introduced by the Spanish during the colonial period. Nonetheless, they are very dangerous creatures.

The wild boar proper was introduced, centuries later, specifically as wild game. I think there are some wild boar up in PA, but I don't know the area very well.

[skygazer]

109. I haven't the faintest idea

Pure shit dumb luck is my only guess.

Besides all the driving around far too fast in hot cars with no seatbelts drunk (and that was at a young age - we were so precocious!), I survived being struck by lightning at the age of 16. Didn't even get a burn - just knocked me about 8 feet across my pasture and left me unable to move for several seconds.

After that, everything seemed like a bonus. :shrug:

[Xipe Totec]

110. That is truly Fascinating!

I've read that being struck by lightning changes your personality sometimes. Something to do with neuron permeability.

Was this true in your case, or did the experience leave you unchanged?

What do your acquaintances think?

[skygazer]

111. I'm 45 years old

I barely remember who or what I was at 16 but I don't think it changed me except to give me some insight about life and death. I stopped fearing it and accepted that it's going to happen whether I want it to or not and not to obsess on it.

And I decided that getting struck by lightning is the ideal way to die. It was painless and seems like it would be quick. And everyone will remember you!

Though come to think of it, I've never been able to wear a watch since then. They all die. :shrug:

[Xipe Totec]

112. Very symbolic, I love it

The watch dies = it's not your time.

The poetic irony is delicious.

Congratulations on your 29th rebirthday. :party:

[Ava]

113. hmmm... i'm a teen

so i don't know if i've survived it yet! :yoiks:

[Xipe Totec]

114. Congratulations on making it this far!

It's not easy making it to teenhood, let me tell ya.

[Ava]

115. well it doesn't help when you're getting death threats!

:P

but hey, besides that i'm doing great! :hi:

[Xipe Totec]

116. Death threats in Alabama?!

You must be doing something right.

Hang in there!

:hide:

[wildhorses]

122. I kept my mind off my ass and kept my ass to myself.

;)

[Xipe Totec]

125. LOL!

What about this ass?

:kick:

[bikebloke]

123. With woods always nearby...

We were always climbing trees. Sometimes just to see how high we could get. Or with smaller trees, climb up, then kick out, riding them down like Tarzan. Sometimes they wouldn't bend and we'd have to go higher. Or they'd break, making a quick ride down.

On swing sets, we used to jump to see how high and far we could go. If you found yourself running in the air, then you knew you had a good jump. No one ever got hurt. Maybe a scrape, but that was normal for play.