What did you survive as a kid

[YankeyMCC]

Inspired by the 'banning tag at recess' story.

Certainly there've been many positive improvements in child safety and a generally admirable rise in safety awareness still sometimes we need a little perspective.

What do you remember doing or being allowed to do as a child that would be unacceptable today (and perhaps rightly so like my example, heck my parents probably would've been put in the clink for this I think).

We had a 1970 Dodge Dart (the template for the generic car) which had a large rear shelf from the back of the seat to the rear window. I would often climb up there during long drives and lie down watching the sky wizz by at 50, 60 or 70 mph.

Sometimes we'd go to the drive in and to make it comfortable for me and my sister to lie down during the show my father would put in a modified table in the back seat to make a flat platform to put some cushions on. And we'd drive to the drive in that way.

[Avalux]

1. Sled riding in a cemetery.

At night, on the icy roads with a runner sled. Problem with the ice - sled doesn't steer very well and it goes very, very fast. I skidded off the road right into a giant tree - was lying on my stomach and slammed into the tree with such force it knocked the wind out of me. I thought I was going to die cause I couldn't breathe. Laid there for a very long time before I could get up and make my way home. Never told my parents what happened cause I didn't want them to yell at me for being stupid. :hi:

[YankeyMCC]

2. I had a couple of those incidents

but the funniest one actually was with my Dad. Again on one of those runner sleds with me in front and my Dad in back, straight down a step icy hill...unable to stop...whipped through a thorn bush (i was short enough and bundled enough not to get more than maybe one scratch)...straight across a paved road where my Dad essentially ripped the skin off his hands trying to get us under control again.

At the end I jumped up to bring the sled to the top again until I saw my Dad's face and hands.

I think that was the last time he rode on the sled with me. :)

[Avalux]

5. lol - those sleds are dangerous!

Your post has me sitting here thinking of all the many things I did and lived through - falling out of trees comes to mind too. And a similar story to yours - we had a Bronco (73) and the seat came out; my brother and I would put our sleeping bags back there and we'd drive to my uncle's in North Carolina, leaving at night so we could sleep.

[cwydro]

7. we did the same

sleeping bags in the back of my dad's Mercury station wagon on the way to Myrtle Beach.

[cwydro]

8. we would go sledding on

this wooded hill, that had a paved step in the middle. Unbelievable. I did hit a tree once. Ouch.

[Avalux]

10. Did you use the step as a jump?

A couple more - same cemetery, we used snow piles as jumps, I went first and my brother came too close behind me, landed on top and one of the runners gave me a bruise all the way from my knee to my hip. I also fell off a toboggan that was teetering out of control -scraped all the skin off the left side of my face; had to go to school with scabs all over it. yuk! :hi:

[cwydro]

15. we did the same as you

and used snow piles...I can't remember about the step (head injury?)but think it was used as an obstacle to avoid. IF you hit it, you were the object of great derision...and pain, no doubt:silly:

[MrCoffee]

3. the window shelf was prized...

my sister and i used to fight each other in the back seat for dibs on the window perch.

[cwydro]

4. my first bike

had no brakes...and we lived on top of a hill...I had a blast. About 6 at the time, barefoot ALL the time; don't even THINK about helmets:rofl:

[Sugar Smack]

6. Rock climbing at Hanging Rock,

Tubing down the Little River
Swinging from vines
Climbing Trees
Horseback riding at camp
and violin lessons

:o

[ohiosmith]

9. Sleeping on the porch overhang during the summer, gladiator battles

with trash can lid shields and wooden swords, snow/ice ball wars, swinging over the top, rafter tag to name just a few.

[Deep13]

11. Dodge Dart? Cool.

My first car was a '71 model with the triangular vent windows. What great cars they were.

Anyhoo, I survived:
Concrete playground
flying off bicycle, landing on face
playing on railroad tracks
cycling with no helmet, padding
poverty, alcoholism (not mine)
sleeping in unheated room (in MA)
other stuff

[YankeyMCC]

49. Fly windows is what my Dad said they were called

Was that just the '71 model? Maybe that's what we had then (I'm not much of a car expert) because we had those.

[Deep13]

58. All the Darts had them.

[Xithras]

12. Swimming in the local canals

BB gun wars. Squishing .22 shells with a hammer and laughing hysterically at the bang. Using local construction sites as warzones. Riding in the storage cubby behind the seat of my dads Karmann Ghia. Shooting the local rivers using homemade rafts without lifevests. Skateboarding without helmets. Geez, I don't understand how I'm alive today!

All told, there was a general inattention to what we were doing as kids. We'd run out the front door and yell "Mom, I'm going to play with my friends", and vanish for the next six hours. Interestingly, NOBODY QUESTIONED IT. We walked across town, we rode our bikes to the next town a few times, without our parents freaking out about it.

Parents have become a lot more paranoid over the past 30 years. If my parents were raising me today the way they did back then, they'd be jailed. I don't think that's a good thing.

[Deja Q]

13. Hmmm

* getting beaten up
* taunted
* tricked into doing nasty things
* sexually assaulted
* molested


(nobody did anything at the time, so those must have been okay...)

[BarenakedLady]

17. ...

:hug:

[Deja Q]

52. Thank you

:hug:

[cwydro]

28. that is terrible!

I can relate to the taunting though...no fun.:hug:

[Deja Q]

51. Well, most children get taunted...

But mine did get down a few extra levels that most would not get to experience.

(And, while many people have had rumors spread, I doubt many were wrongfully set up just so a rumor could be made against them...)

[supernova]

14. Riding in the open truck bed

down the highway on the way to the beach... sitting in a chaise lounge no less. :yoiks:

Playing with those <|glass clackers>

Running around with lighted Sparklers in my hand when I was four.

[cwydro]

23. omg

That makes me remember...my dad would let us ride in the truck bed going down a dirt road and we would JUMP OUT, pretending to be paratroopers....

[filer]

16. Chasing the DDT fogger through the neighborhood.

Great fun on a hot summer evening.

[LostinVA]

21. My grandmother wouldn't let my Mom do that

My Mom said the other kids would call her and her siblings "sissies."

[filer]

24. Our parents didn't know any better at the time.

So all us kids did it. Of course that might explain why I have lymphoma today. :P

[cwydro]

25. now THAT is FUNNY

:rofl:

[cobalt1999]

93. Hey, we did that too.

Chase the mosquito truck around on our bikes. God knows what we were inhaling.

[Tess49]

108. You too? I figured you west siders didn't have mosquitoes.

[filer]

116. Heck yes, Tess.

We had em, lots of them. We lived near a creek and had an endless supply all summer. Did you ever fly June-bugs? You know, tie a string to the bug's back leg and "fly" them around? We did that too.

Lounging this evening, I see. :smoke:

[Drum]

18. Disco

[Ptah]

19. Fireworks. Tractors. Horses. Brothers. Cousins.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

29. Ha! I almost flipped a tractor towing a trailer this summer.

Can you get a DUI on a tractor if it's on your family's property?

[Ptah]

33. The important point is you can get dead from TUI.

Please be careful.

:hug:

[cwydro]

35. I sure hope not

because I would be guilty as charged. My sister and I even rigged up a beer holder on the John Deere....:toast:

[mikeytherat]

20. Grew up in the heyday of BMX (mid '70s through early '80s)

Jumped more bikes over more things than I would like to admit. But the best was when I made a go-cart out of plywood, an abandoned lawn mower, and a Radio Flyer. On it's maiden voyage the throttle stuck wide open, and my buddy Dennis and I took an unexpected ride down a nasty, rocky ravine. He bailed out halfway down - I had a deathgrip on the "steering wheel" (wagon handle) and stayed with the vehicle until the bottom. We got lots of cuts and bruises, and thought the whole thing was hilarious.

mikey_the_rat

[YankeyMCC]

46. Same here...but we Built Bikes

out of the broken messes we made of the bikes some of our parents made and junk parts from the local junk yard.

They didn't hold together to well when jumping over the 6 foot deep, 6 foot wide ditches.

[mikeytherat]

70. If we had video cameras back then, I'd be a millionaire.

The go-cart incident was prize-worthy in it's hilarity, but my pond-jumping BMX stunt was easily worth a cool mil.

Basically, the idea was, "Let's use my one of my old BMX bikes to jump off our dock and into the pond." Nice big ramp at end of dock, good length of rope tied to the bike (for easier pond retrieval), and away I go. I hit the ramp at full speed and it became apparent, quickly, that I just might clear the pond. Screaming multiple obscenities, 20 feet in the air, I get ready for a nasty shore landing, not even thinking about the rope (which is long, but not that long). Suddenly, the rope ends and yanks hard on the bike, rips the saddle off, and the bike and I are now cartwheeling, separately, toward the pond. I hit about six feet from shore, and the bike crashed through the surface right next to me. Good thing I wasn't hurt, 'cuz my buddies back on the dock were hyperventilating with laughter.

mikey_the_rat

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

22. Apparently, I should be dead by the standards of today's wimps.

Ran around with a group of boys fishing, swimming and hiking from the age of 10 on.
Rode my bike to the next town routinely
Fell out of a tree. Landed on a rock. Was perfectly fine.
Knives were something we carried.
Sleeping in the back of my parents minivan on long trips (back seat removed)
Played tag, tackle football, soccer
Got in fights
Concrete playground with giant scorching hot slides

Overall, my parents never, ever knew where I was or what I was doing. They were more comfortable with me hanging out with boys because they figured the boys would protect me (and they realized I didn't need much protection). They weren't worrying that my friends would molest me (which they never did).

And last but not least...

We had a crazy ass German Shepherd. My dad would tell me and my sister to take off running across the field. Once we got about half-way across, he'd let her go. You didn't need to look back. You knew when she was getting close. Once she was a few feet away, she'd just leap up and knock us to the ground. She might try to chew on our shirts a bit, but she wouldn't bite us, only lick.

[cwydro]

31. i love that dog story

especially the part "you didn't need to look back, you knew when she was getting close" :rofl:

[dysfunctional press]

26. verbally/ physically/ emotionally abusive parents.

i survived- but my self-esteem didn't make it.

[cwydro]

32. that is sad

do what I do and believe fervently that it is never too late to have a happy childhood.:hug:

[kwassa]

27. on snowy streets, we would run out and grab car bumpers, and slide

we would be towed by the car. Remember chrome car bumpers? If the drivers saw this, they would get very upset.

Rode all over the US without seatbelts or child seats; the latter had not been invented.

Every kid has fireworks, some pretty powerful. We used to love to blow things up, usually old plastic models we had made.

We lived on bicycles, had races, went everywhere, even the nearby zoo on our own.

Climbed trees, built treehouses. We would live up in those branches.

[filer]

34. Did all those things you list.

Being a kid sure was fun in those days, and somehow I did survive to adulthood. By the way, I wouldn't have been caught dead wearing a helmet while riding my bicycle.

[kwassa]

42. Bicycle safety helmets didn't exist, nor knee pads, elbow pads,

we all wore Redball Jet sneakers, our only safety equipment.

Played cowboys and Indians and other war games, and grew up essentially a pacifist.

[filer]

48. We'd go barefoot all summer.

We would toughen up our feet by walking on gravel and standing on hot tar strips. By July, we could walk through a sticker patch. Goatheads were another matter. They'd flatten our bike tires.

[kwassa]

57. Wouldn't wear a shirt all summer, no air-conditioning, just ignored

bug bites. Lived in cut-off shorts.

Built dams in creeks, walked on logs, swung on grapevines, which actually don't work at like Tarzan's.

[filer]

62. What a walk down memory lane!

We'd catch snakes, snapping turtles and horny toads. Then kept em for pets. We'd knock down yellow-jacket nests and try to outrun them. Stuck bananas up the tailpipes of cars (not too dangerous unless we got caught). Had many "blood brothers". One friend used a broken coke bottle and cut himself so bad he had to get stitches. And yes, grapevines...when we got a little older, we smoked them.

[YankeyMCC]

45. Ah yes Skidhopping we called it!

[djeseru]

30. Standing up in a VW bug...

...in the front seat while my mom drove. Falling asleep with coins in my mouth. My cousins. My mom and I being the only whites in a non-white neighborhood. Poverty.

[bikebloke]

36. Crab apple fights

Climbing trees
Climbing younger trees, then kicking out and riding them down (the closest we could get to Tarzan vines)
Skateboards made of an old roller skate nailed on a board. Then riding down the hill on them.
Jumping out of swings to see how high and far we could go.
Playing in the woods and the creek.
Exploring up dark storm drains.
Monkey bar stunts

Bumps, bruises and scraped knees are a part of childhood.

[sakabatou]

44. Temporarily paralized

Got my back kick when I was young. Couldn't stand or move for about 3 hours.

[begin_within]

37. My birth

Also divorce of my parents when I was 12

[Ravenseye]

38. Waterskied into a dock at summer camp

I was...maybe 11...at a two week summer camp. We were water skiing and the guy turned too fast pulling up to the dock, and I was yanked literally out of the water centrifugally and whipped into the dock. I lost consiousness (just for a few seconds) and fell into the water. They ambulanced me to the nearest hospital after keeping me imobilized and pulling me out of the water. The doctors said that the only reason I was alive was because I hit a tire on the dock instead of the dock itself. That and the padding of my life vest saved me. I didn't break anything, but I had black and blue marks on my chest where I hit for weeks, and I couldn't sit up by myself for days. They notified my parents, but I said I'd rather stay at the camp and finish it out, even though I could barely do anything for a few days.

No lawsuits. Nothin. Imagine if that happened today with some of these parents out there?

[donsu]

39. sliding down the banister of a house that had 14 foot ceilings.

my great aunt and uncle's 3 story brick house on East Capital St. in Wash. D.C.

if I had fallen off I'd be dead or broken necked or bones.

and surviving growing up with a republican father.

[kwassa]

43. slid down the bannister and hit this post thing on the end right in the

crotch! later learned to slide down the bannister on a spiral staircase in another house we had.

[donsu]

53. this banister had a large decoration at the end, I learned to slow down

before hitting it and causing pain.

sliding down a spiral must be great fun!

[kwassa]

56. have to be careful on the dismount

we would face forward and slide side-saddle. The stairs were mounted on a concrete platform, though, so if the timing was off, a very hard landing would take place.

This was in high school years. My school was all on one floor, so the only stairs I climbed for four years was our spiral at home. Learned to run and twist at the same time.

[Phillycat]

40. Having my back flayed open being whipped with a belt.

I think I would have made it through tag. :eyes:

[Cygnusx2112]

64. That's the sadding thing I've read today.

:cry:


Happy to see your smile.

[Phillycat]

68. Aww, it was a long time ago.

Here's a smile for you. :)

[Cygnusx2112]

71. OMG...

*cyber-crush'd*

:loveya:

[Gormy Cuss]

41. I was a reserved and cautious child

Here are a few things I did routinely as a kid:

- in the summer hung out in the hobo jungle
- loved to sit on the bow of the small Chris Craft cabin cruiser when the boat was traveling at full speed in the ocean. I was required to wear a life jacket but was untethered.
- nearly drove same boat into pier pilings at full speed
- sledded down steep streets with blind outlets
- ice skated down a wooded hill
- climbed a two level billboard
- went along when friends broke into boarded up apartment buildings. (once we had to flee because my nitwit buddy started a fire...)
- got into fist fights with other kids

I'm also from the pre-childseat/mandatory seatbelt era.

Then there are the things my fearless siblings did.... Not one of us broke any bones or lost teeth, but we did have trips to the ER to get gashes stitched up.

[Dangerously Amused]

47. Trick-or-Treating all night. Alone.

Allowed to play alone and unattended for hours at a time in a nearby public park, beginning at age four.


Disappearing for the entire day beginning at age seven or eight.


Leaving at night and walking off into the darkness as a young teen, being gone for hours with no questions as to where I was going or what I was doing.

[cwydro]

82. YES!

We'd be out for HOURS in the dark at Halloween!:hi:

[Dangerously Amused]

90. Right, and back then we *started* when it got dark

...and it didn't end at a certain time. You just didn't go to the houses where people turned their lights off. Eventually the treks between houses that still had their lights on became too much of a PITA to be worth the candy, so you just went home and hid the good candy from your Dad.

[ScreamingMeemie]

50. My mother.

:hi:

[KurtNYC]

54. A prop-jet that burst into flames during take-off

Turned around, landed, they made us go down the slides then they foamed it.

[hedgehog]

55. Walking down the railroad tracks to the swimming pool alone

when I was about 8 or 9. Playing in the woods alone. Of course, there were adults all over the place keeping a general eye on kids back then.

[Downtown Hound]

59. Riding in the back of a station wagon with no restraints

before seat belt laws, playing with toy guns that looked absolutely real and made noise, climbing trees, playing soccer, tag, and football, also was into skateboarding for a long time. Riding a bike with no helmet. None of it seemed extreme to me at the time and still doesn't, but today my parents would probably be arrested for child abuse.

[NewWaveChick1981]

60. Carbon monoxide poisoning when I was 9, and a lot of other things.

My family had gone to my grandmother's house over Father's Day Weekend 1972. Unbeknownst to us, my dad's car had a hole in the muffler, which caused carbon monoxide to leak in through the back seat. We'd had the windows down on the way up to see her (about a three-hour drive), but on the way back, it was really hot, so Dad turned the a/c on with the windows rolled up. When we stopped for a bathroom break about an hour into the trip, I nearly passed out as I stood up. My sister and I had been lying down in the back seat, and my brother was up front with my mom and dad. My sister felt weird too, and we sat at one of the picnic tables at the rest stop drinking water and trying to feel better. We got back in the car and started back on our trip. I kept complaining to my mom that I felt horrible and just wanted to go to sleep. My sister and I tried to take naps but could never fall asleep. About 30 minutes from home, Mom and my brother started feeling ill, and then Dad started feeling strange. When we got home, I could hardly walk. I made it to the front yard and just sat down. Pretty soon everyone in the family joined me. Our neighbor, who had been taking care of our dog, came running outside when she saw what was going on, and she was a nurse. She said, "I think you've all got carbon monoxide poisoning---look at you!" She insisted we get to the emergency room right away (it was a Sunday afternoon), and it's a good thing she did. The doctors had to give me oxygen, and a nice nurse walked me around the hallways to keep my blood flowing and to prevent me from falling asleep. My sister just walked around with another nurse, and my parents and my brother were put under observation. Turns out, if sis and I had taken naps, we never would have woken up. :scared: That's the closest I've come to death, and I don't ever want it to happen again. She and I had it the worst because we were right there close to the muffler. Apparently, I got the full effects, and she got almost the full effects. :( But we're all here with no lasting effects, so I'm grateful. :)

I also broke my arm when I was 11. There had been an ice storm in our city about two months before, and people were STILL cleaning up debris from it. I went outside to ride my bike on the first really nice day of spring at about 7 PM, and when a car came up behind me, I moved to the side of the street to get out of its way. I rode by a pile of limbs and twigs, and then when I got to the bottom of the hill, I tried to put the foot brakes on (yes, it was a cool bike with a banana seat and foot brakes). Well, when I tried to stop, there was a limb that had gotten stuck in the back wheel, and putting the brakes threw me over the handle bars. I landed face first on the pavement, and my left arm was in front of my chest. My left forearm hit the bike and broke both bones. :yoiks: My sister and brother were out in the front yeard playing, and I stood up and started screaming. My siblings just looked stunned and stopped. A very nice older lady passing by saw the whole thing and immediately stopped to help me. My lip was torn open and my forearm was misshapen, and as she tried to put me in her car to drive me up the hill, I passed out. I remember hearing my head hit the ground, but I didn't feel it. My sis and bro had run inside to get my dad, and all of them came rushing out of the house. Everyone was thanking the nice woman, who even offered to drive me to the hospital. Dad thanked her and said he'd take me right away. He put me in his car right then, ran over to the neighbors and asked them to watch my siblings while he took me to the hospital. He rushed me there, and I had to wait about two hours in the emergency room---there were two bad car accidents and a guy who had wiped out on his motorcycle, and they were much worse off than I was. When we were finally finished there, it was 11 PM. Mom had been at a seminar all day, and when she got home, she found out what had happened. She got my siblings from the neighbor's house, and she greeted me with big hugs and kisses and a few tears. Since it was a Saturday, I didn't have school the next day, but I didn't go back to school until the following Wednesday. It took the usual 6 weeks to get the cast off, and to this day, I have a tiny little scar on my lip. Nobody can see it since it's on the inside, and nobody would know it was even there---but I do.

I've also been in four car accidents, none of them my fault. Three were fender-benders, but one was a lot more serious. I just had soft-tissue injuries, but my boyfriend (now my husband) had injuries that led to radial tunnel syndrome and carpal tunnel syndrome (both requiring surgery) and a rotator cuff tear (also requiring surgery).

[Lydia Leftcoast]

61. I feel sorry for kids today, because they seem overprotected to me

During my childhood I

sold Girl Scout cookies door to door alone

played all over the neighborhood without supervision

climbed trees

slid down the polished wooden stairs of our house on my butt

jumped off the top of the school jungle gym into a pile of gravel

fell against a concrete step and cutting my forehead open

had measles and chicken pox in quick succession, with only 2 weeks in between

drank Kool-Aid out of doll dishes, with kids passing the cups around to one another, thus sharing germs

rode in cars without a seatbelt. In fact, when we were on long trips, my dad would put the back seat down and spread quilts over it, so we could sleep. We were never allowed to sleep on the back shelf, although we wanted to.

The older of my two brothers basically taught himself to swim and in a short time, he was showing how he could swim under boats and come up the other side

[filer]

69. They are overprotected.

Perhaps it's necessary? I don't know. I think we had more fun when we were kids. Much less technology in those days. We used our imagination and thought up all kinds of ways to have fun. And guess what...most of us survived childhood.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

92. I'm not sure it's necessary, because there were

certainly pedophiles and murderers around in those days. In fact, we were warned not to take a shortcut through the cemetery on our way to school because "bad people" hung out there. (As a slightly older girll explained to me, "This girl went into the cemetery and a man grabbed her and took almost all her clothes off before she got away.") This was in the 1950s, and still we were allowed to run around the neighborhood.

[Odin2005]

114. I've read it's a cyclical thing.

I recently read a book called The Fourth Turning which is about cyclical patterns in American history and one of the cyclical patterns is overprotection vs. underprotection of children. In the time period between 1906 and 1945 there was a trend towards overprotection, in between 1946-1983 there was a trend towards underprotection, and from 1984 onward the trend towards over-protection returned and is expected to go on untill 2025 at which time we will switch to under-protection again.

[filer]

117. Really? Interesting.

At the rate this "overprotection" cycle is going, by 2025 the kids will be wearing body armor every time they leave the house.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

72. That reminds me of one of the funnest games my sister & I played.

Well, naturally we liked sleigh-riding, but when there was no snow, we had to improvise. So I had this folding foam mattress (it literally just folded in half). We used to sit on that and "sled" down the full flight of stairs. There wasn't a long hallway at the bottom either. Just about three feet of space before the wall, so we smashed directly into the wall upon hitting the bottom.

It was soooo much fun!

[Patiod]

78. Asphalt underneath playground equipment

Okay, I think kids today are OBSCENELY overprotected - they took the balance beam (which was maybe 3' off the ground) out of the local playground - too dangerous!

But what were our parents thinking, putting ASPHALT under playground equipment? Why not wood shavings, or even gravel or dirt?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

80. I have no clue.

I do recall being briefly traumatized against the playground from jumping off the swing and scraping off half my skin on the landing. Of course, I had emotionally recovered within a week and it's not like my parents banned me from the playground. Basically, they bandaged me up and called me stupid for jumping off the swing when it was that high.

[cwydro]

85. OUCH!

:bounce: :rofl:

[momophile]

63. hide and seek with axes

my sister and I used to carry axes while playing hide and seek. how we didn't kill each other is beyond me.

[texanwitch]

65. I had many near misses.

I was almost killed by a cow with very large horns on my grandparents farm, and fell off a hay wagon which almost ran over me.

I should have died many times.

[Cygnusx2112]

66. I drank a bottle of cheap perfume when I was 5.

Hey - I thought it was cognac.

[XNASA]

67. Catholicism

[VelmaD]

73. Eating raw cookie dough...

and raw leftover cake batter.

Getting on the skateboard. putting the leash on the dog, and letting her pull me wherever she wanted to go.

Riding my mini-bike into a tree...repeatedly.

[cwydro]

88. oh yes on the cookie dough

what's worse, I used to eat raw HAMBURGER meat. Makes me sick to think about now...I don't even eat it cooked anymore...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

91. Reminds me of homemade eggnog

made with unpasteurized eggs straight from the refrigerator. :7

[cwydro]

95. but if it had whiskey

in it, that would kill the germs and be even yummier!:P

[Lydia Leftcoast]

98. Ours didn't

:-(

The closest thing we had to alcohol was real vanilla.

[mark414]

74. playing war with bb guns, "who can jump from the farthest height" contests

climbing to the top of the 60 foot tree in my back yard, medieval dueling on our bicycles, riding a minibike with no brakes down city streets at 50 mph, making bombs, the list goes on and on and on...oh, and playing tag

and i'm only 21

i feel bad for kids today

[cwydro]

75. another thing we did

my sister and I would have contests to see whose feet were tougher (since we were always barefoot)...so in August we would stand on the black asphalt (in NC) until one of us gave in. My mother just ignored us.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

77. My sister and I would see who could run the farthest back & forth

across the yard in the snow barefoot. My mother just ignored us. I also just posted above about our "indoor sledding."

[cwydro]

83. In the snow barefoot?

oh no, not this Southern girl! You MUST be from the north..

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

86. Yep.

Meanwhile, I would never stand still on hot asphalt.

[cwydro]

87. crazy damn yankees

[idgiehkt]

76. nothing

that I wanna discuss on this thread, and I'm sure I'm not in the minority, so here's for everyone reading this and not posting.

[Dangerously Amused]

89. ...

:hug:

[Missy Vixen]

109. Here's a hug from me, too

:hug:

My life is much better now.
Julie

[Haole Girl]

79. My grandmother used to drive me around when she was drunk..

...I remembered, years later, when I was only 4 years old and my mother asking me if my grandmother had driven me anywhere while I had been in her care. I wondered, when I was young, why I was keeping something so seemingly harmless a big secret. She did it frequently, too. It's a small miracle I am here today.

[SoyCat]

81. My family and the horrible town I lived in for the first 14 years.

[Withywindle]

84. Hoo boy.

Long trips (like a 6 hour drive) in the open back of a pickup truck.

Falling off lots of horses. Getting kicked once. (I deserved it.)

Exploring abandoned houses. Soft floors, sagging ceilings and rusty-nail-o-rama! Good times.

Poking half-skinned carcasses with a stick at slaughtering time.

The endlessly entertaining game of annoying the neighbor's testy bull or grouchy guard dog, then running like hell.

Eating random berries in the woods.

Swimming in snake-infested waters.

Driving a tractor (unsupervised) at 12 with a bunch of kids piled on it anywhere they could hang on.

Secret drinking in the smoking section outside (yes, my high school had one) with the boys who were allowed to bring their guns to school when deer season started as long as they left 'em locked in their trunks in the parking lot.

Trying chewing tobacco at age 9. Ew.

Trying cigarettes at 13 (alas, that one stuck)


Heh, and I'm a girl. What the boys got up to was far worse.

[cobalt1999]

94. Night time water skiing with my friends.

Great fun, water was like glass, but when you fell...you knew 3 things...the boat was coming back for you fast...the driver couldn't see you and was probably drinking...there were alligators in the water (in fact that bump you hit that made you fall may have been one).

We'd also take the boat out during small-craft advisories and go "wave jumping".

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

96. Besides 8th grade (shudder)?

Well, there's riding a bicycle without a helmet, roller skating without kneepads, playing unsupervised in the woods, a treehouse, firecrackers, sailing solo, concrete-paved playgrounds, sharp-edged steel playground equipment, teeter-totters that the kid on the bottom would suddenly get off while I was on the high end, hanging upside down by my knees from the monkey bars, putting pennies on train tracks and watching the trains squish them, playing dodge-ball, going downtown alone on the bus, cutting golf balls open with a pocket knife, walking around barefoot everywhere, sliding down the stairs head-first, crabapple fights, an archery set, a chemistry set, unsupervised Trick-or-Treating on Halloween, the neighbor's mean cocker spaniel, catching snakes, eating egg salad at picnics, and the rear door on a 1948 Plymouth that suddenly swung open while the car was moving (they were hinged to swing open toward the rear) and I nearly fell out since there were no seat belts.

Yet here I am.

[Zavulon]

97. Lawn darts.

They're actually against the law now, but I played a lot as a kid.

[YankeyMCC]

99. It's amazing that those things were Ever sold as toys n/t

[Zavulon]

101. Apparently, they really weren't.

I said the same thing as you to my father just a year ago or less, and he said that they were sold in sporting goods stores, not toy stores. If you wanted a hula hoop you could go to Wynken, Blynken and Nod, but if you wanted Jarts it was off to the sporting goods department at Sears.

[ikojo]

100. I survived the following horrors....

Riding a bike SANS helmet
Riding in the FRONT seat with NO air bag or SEAT BELT
Riding in the BACK of a pickup truck while STANDING!
Playing TAG and actually being IT: I didn't think being IT was a bad thing..
Playing on monkey bars painted with LEAD based paint
RUNNING down the sidewalk, falling and getting SCRATCHED
My mom worked so we were left home ALONE after school! THE HORRORS!

[Control-Z]

102. Where does one begin?

Hitchhiking for one. That was a common thing. Need a ride? Stick out your thumb. Swimming at the beach without an adult (age 9-10), no sunscreen. And just about everything everyone else mentioned above - things I would never let my children do.

[bluedogyellowdog]

103. Falling out of a tree from 30 feet, lawnmower near-miss...

...impromptu "river running" trip with cheap plastic rafts, plugging the TV antenna leads directly into an outlet after seeing one of those comic book ads for a "little wonder" antenna and thinking why do I need to buy one I can just plug it in myself, making and lighting homemade fireworks, playing "capture the flag" using wildfire backpack pumps as water pistols in the public park after curfew while the cops swept the area with spotlights, "spelunking" in the town's underground water drainage pipes, and a keg party where the deck collapsed.

Nothing spectacular, really. I'm still in one piece :) :bounce:

edit: Oh, and my high school had a smoking area. Not for the teachers, but for the students.

[Skittles]

104. My dad moonlighted at extra jobs so we didn't see much of him

so my brothers and I sometimes would take bike trips to see him at the garage he worked at - I remember we used to cross a highway to get there. :o

[eyesroll]

105. Smacked in the head with a waterski, thrown from a horse,

coasting on a skateboard down a steep bike path into the street -- did I manage I was lying face down on the skateboard?

Hmm...

[MichiganVote]

106. 2 concussions, 1 skull fracture, broken finger, childhood abuse

Its been a hell of a ride....

[femmocrat]

107. I sledded head-first into a brick wall!

No one even took me to a doctor! I remember waking up in the snow and then going home and falling asleep. I probably had a concussion. I still have a "dent" in my skull.

Also: cracked my knee open on a rock; thrown from various horses; playing in the woods and at the dump; taking public transportation alone while in elementary school; almost kidnapped in Washington, D.C. when I was nine; almost drowned about 3 or 4 times; playing outside during lightning and thunder; hitch-hiking; several car accidents without seat belts; .... I could go on and on.

Oh, and I played tag AND dodgeball on an asphalt playground and lived to write about it today.

[alittlelark]

110. At 9 years old, my mother became convinced I was possessed by demons.

when my 16 year old cousin moved back home (she lived w/us for a year because she did not want to move w/ her family and start at a new school - she left us a month before the end of her junior year).

I got to go to 4square Gospelists, misc 'tongues' churches, and a memorable event on the Navajo reservation. The demon refused to leave. I went to 3 child psychiatrists - all of whom wanted my mother to seek help.


She now edits the 'Creation Newsletter' in Alb, NM.

[gr8dane_daddy]

111. I drank kerosene when I was a young tot..

it was in a 7Up bottle.

[Broken_Hero]

112. Rock wars, but the main one...

falling out of a car going 55mph....I survived that, I was 4yrs old at the time....no broken bones either...just rolled on my head, and got stitches...some minor brain damage is all...:)

Just kidding about the brain damage part, I think! :hi:

[Arugula Latte]

113. Riding my unpredictable horse alone into hilly trails without a helmet.

That horse spooked a lot. I was thrown a handful of times, but the worse injury was a cracked elbow. He could have easily flung me into a rock or tree and I would've be left alone there for hours with no one knowing where I was ...

[Odin2005]

115. Falling off a BIG see-saw

Getting a screw stuck in my ear canal

Getting bullied for being the class nerd (I have Asperger's Syndrome and ADHD)

Special Ed people treating me like a moron

Riding in the back of my step-dad's pick-up

Getting lost in the woods near the little town I grew up in.

Growing up in a working class family living from paycheck to paycheck.


(I was born in 1986, BTW}.

[u4ic]

118. Never wore a helmet

cycling or horse back riding...or no protective gear while ice or roller skating

I was at an unsupervised pool party (I don't even think I was 10)I almost drowned that day...adults were nearby, just not supervising...

Driving as a family from Toronto to Alberta and back while none of us wore seat belts (until they became mandantory - but we had I think 3 or 4 trips already by then) **then again, I would think many parents would think it would be unacceptable to spend three 16 hour days with kids cooped up in a car, just getting there - and then do it all again to get home? :silly:

My crazy alcoholic neighbour who used to try and run us neighbourhood kids down on_the_sidewalk in his mini. :grr:

Child abuse...

Swimming in and eating fish from Lake Ontario :scared: :scared: :scared:

Getting the dog to pull us on our mini skiis

Toboganning with those metal saucer things that spun you around, rather than a proper toboggan (a friend did end up in a stream, with a broken leg once)

Starting at age 11, for 4 years, did a 32 km bike-a-thon across my city for charity with two others my same age...and no adults