Posted on 08/14/2010 12:35:16 PM PDT by JoeProBono
"Today, while driving during a snowstorm, I thought about a dangerous thing we used to do as kids. We called it "skitching". When it was very snowy out, we would wait for a car to drive by and grab the bumper and let the car pull us through the snow. This was without a sled or anything, just our bodies. You might start out on your feet but would usually end up laying down, holding onto the bumper for dear life. The one who held on longest "won".
I don't think this is possible today, because cars don't have the same types of bumpers and it would be harder to grab one. Also, they seem to plow every two minutes, so there is very little snow on the road, compared to my childhood.
Other things we did: One of us would tie a rope to the back of his/her bike and the other one would hold the end of the rope and be towed along on either a skateboard or roller skates.
I would climb to the very top of the tallest tree I could find and sit at the top while it swayed in the wind.
I would skateboard down the steepest hill I could find and stop by crashing into a bush or something.
Helmets? Knee and elbow-pads? Those didn't exist in the 1970s. It would never have crossed our minds to wear those.
When I was a teenager, my dangerous ways continued:
I would ride on the backs of motorcyles driven by older/drunk/stoned guys and we didn't wear helmets.
We'd stuff about 30 kids in the back of a pick-up truck and ride out into the woods for a party.
I'd stay out all night partying with older guys.
I tried pretty much every drug that was available in those days.
Amazingly, I never broke a bone, OD'd, or got raped.
Those were the days."
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I grew up in the 50s and 60s, so my “fun” times are similar to most posts on the thread. Some of my more memorable exploits:
Skipping school and exploring a limestone cave alone.
Finding my way out of said cave after dropping my candle in water.
Trying to reach a WWII pillbox embedded 200 feet up a cliffside in Okinawa with five other kids, and having to rescue one kid who slid 30 feet down from the 12” ledge we were on.
Climbing to the top of the electrical tower behind my house and sitting on top - rocking back and forth to make it sway.
Tobogganing down huge grass-covered hills on cardboard sleds and running straight into the concrete ditch at the bottom.
Facing a gang of fifteen teenagers who were about to jump me, and offering to fight each of them, one at a time. That actually diffused the situation, believe it or not.
Opening tombs with my brothers and exploring the contents.
Leaving the base housing on my bike and exploring Japanese villages all alone at 11 and 12.
Finding an unexploded WWII shell and hiding it under my parent’s house.
Placing my first vote, at 18, for George McGovern.
We would tie an old tire to the bumper and go for a ride in the snow. I still remember my brother narrowly missing a mailbox....
Cardboard! Never thought of that one-For us, it was the dirty laundry.
“Sledding down a hill that had a bump in the lower section. Sled would go into the air and you could do a barrel roll if you were quick.
Landed a lot of the rolls on the ice, on my back.”
I remember visiting some of my mother’s friends on the north side of Toledo, OH who their own children. I happened to have one of those roll-up, plastic toboggans meant for only two people. The children, with whom I became fast friends, took me on a long hike to a golf course just across the state line in Michigan where we went sledding. On one particular steep hill there was a big, flattish rock sticking out of it. All five of us piled on to my toboggan and down the hill we went!
The sled happened to slide a little to the right and into the place where this rock was. Nobody bailed off and when we hit that rock we launched into the air. I still remember seeing arms and leggings flying every which way. No one wanted to try it again except me.
“Finding an unexploded WWII shell and hiding it under my parents house.”
Did it ever explode?
Wow, that brings back memories. I can still remember the smell of the DDT as we ran behind the sprayer trucks.
Another one I just remembered...
One time in a typhoon, we had a side screen door that came ajar and was banging like crazy. My mom just could not stand the noise, so decided that she and I would close it. We grasped arms and I leaned out into the wind to grab it.
When I got the screen door to the halfway point, the force of the wind overcame my grip on my mom's arm, and I was thrown 30 feet or more into the back yard. Crawling on my belly, headfirst into that wind was one of the toughest things I ever did.
Didn’t Christie get her head stuck between the door and the seat? And then years later when we were all home and she was all grown up didn’t she get her head stuck in the couch? What is it with her getting her head stuck everywhere?! :-) Oh, yeah, she woke up one time (as an adult) and claimed her bed was trying to kill her, as the sheet had wrapped itself around her neck...LOL!!!
I would race down the sidewalk (downhill) on my little brother’s plastic scooter and purposely have dramatic wipe-outs, rolling in the dirt and sidewalk cement causing he and his friends to have laughing fits.
I still have a chuckle thinking about it.
Well, about a week after I'd found it, I got off the school bus and saw a large crowd gathered up the street near my house. As I got closer, I could see the bomb disposal unit's trucks, and realized that they must have found my prize.
Dad was so mad that he sent me to my room instead of talking to me. I realized later that he was trying to keep himself from (literally) wringing my neck.
Actually Southern California, but kids or kids everywhere.
Mattel Thing Maker
Chemistry Sets
Never wore a seat belt or a bike helmet.
And for folks from Chicago, that huge metal slide at Indian Boundary Park play ground (the pussies later took it out, to “dangerous”.).
At 18 really had fun, skydiving and mountain climbing.
Let’s see...
I made a gun out of two pieces of wood and a nail.
Firebreathing with a Zippo and mouthfuls of flammable liquid.
Sitting very close to rail road tracks while a freight train went by at high speed.
Had a girl friend with a member of the Hell’s Angels for a stepfather.
Punched a stray pit bull.
Too true, kids are kids (well, they were).
We also had a rope swing on a steep edge of Riverside Park that swung out over the tracks where the Pennsy trains were heading up the Hudson. Needless to say, they were about 70-100 feet below us...
Thanks for the memories...blurry screen, etc. The most dangerous things I can remember...,drugs and time you know, were riding my bicycle off of the garage, and walking a large tree limb, ala Tarzan, which was at least 8 feet long and at least 30 feet from the ground.
Flipping a snowmobile over a 3 foot gully. Still have the scars today.
Flooding the engine of my mustang in the crow reservation in Wyoming.
Climbing up on the roof to see the stars all night.
Used to go adventuring in the bush all the time by myself. Never thought anything of it.
WOW! It’s amazing that any of us are still alive. I rode what we called the “Horse” the armrests in Grandpa’s Caddy for long distances without seatbelts. I would spend entire afternoons playing in the woods jumping out of tree’s. We had fireworks “Battles” in the woods shooting bottle rockets at each other. I would take walks down the train tracks.....
If I start telling about everything I did homeland security would be upset.
As far as I’m concerned, the adoption of bike helmets has nothing to do with wimpiness or helicopter parenting. Most kids who were killed while riding a bike in years past were struck by a car traveling at low speed and struck their head two to three times minimum on the car and pavement on the way down. If they’re wearing a helmet that accident changes from kid-in-a-coffin to kid-in-a-cast-who-will-have-a-cool-story-for-the-grandkids.
But yeah, great list.
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