Ride cardboard down the stairs
Ride on the front handlebars while someone else pedaled the bike
Lay in the street at the curb playing hide-n-seek (BEST hiding spot there was until a rent-a-cop stopped to see if I was alive)
Physically carried to my car - driver’s side - to go home....amazing I made it home unharmed and unnoticed
Thanks for the memories!
Rode in the back of the rear window well of my Grandpa’s big chevy Belair.
I could watch the stars as we drove down the country roads of Kentucky.
I also roamed the toy department of “Penney’s” while my Grandma was across the store looking at clothing. She never gave a thought to my safey at the time.
/wry laugh
“surfed” my four wheel cart made up of lawnmower wheels, a 2x6 and two 2x4 for the axles with a rope for for steering down a hill in the middle of the woods.Slid down the roof of the barn. Snuck in the pig pen and jumped on the back of an old sow for a joy ride.Jumped off the highest rafters in the barn into a bin of wheat.Put 22 shells in a vice and hit them with a hammer.Blowed on our thumbs till we passed out.Walked accross the Mississippi on an Ice jam.
The most dangerous thing?
Lie to my father.
As Dad came to a stop sign or traffic light, he'd say "Slide, Baby, Slide!" and brake so that my sister and I would come sliding forward, shrieking with laughter.
He would never have allowed us to get hurt, but he'd probably be arrested if he did that today.
We used to ride our bikes barefooted all the time in the summer. If anyone had worn a bike helmet or kneepads back then, they'd have been laughed off the block.
I grew up in the 50s and 60s.
EVERYTHING we did would be considered dangerous by today’s standards. Yet, most of us survived.
Skateboards did not exist when I was a kid.
Just sayin’. The author is on the young side, lol.
Skiing, towed by a snowmobile, driven by a speed-crazy kid.
I climbed from the 5th story balcony to the 4th floor balcony.
Stupidest thing I ever did.
At the tender age of 15, my only mode of transportation was to hitch hike. I was given a ride on two separate occasions by old homosexual males that wanted sex.
Fortunately, when I demanded to be let out of the car they complied.
The most dangerous and stupid thing I ever did was vote for a democrat...
We ‘hopped cars’ using sleds... Snowy evening in Kentucky - a long time ago... we gathered at intersections - roads were covered - not much snow equipment - so the snow was packed on the roads. We build fires - waited for cars ... we ran behind - threw the sled under ourselves - grabbed the bumper and rode the the next drop off spot where others waited by a fire... and hop a car back after warming up. GREAT FUN! Sometimes another kid would hop on your back for a double decker ride or someone would grab your feet and legs to daisy chain down the road... Those amazing days -—
Chopping off ice from the river bank to ride on as it melted/broke, then running from side to side like in a cartoon until you ended up in the icy water. The “safety” was to wade/run to shore, then run back to the house to keep from hypothermia until you made it safely inside to the 80 degree wood fired heat.
Riding a toboggan downhill like a surfboard.
Standing as a barrier to help my sister train a horse... that one nearly got me killed. Horses are dangerous!
Everything I did as a child was dangerous. But somehow my mother lived through it.
I remember when the Rock Island railroad company was in the process of being liquidated under Chapter 13 and they had a bunch of rail cars sitting off to the side of the main rail line close to where I lived. I was only 10/ll y.o. at the time and my buddies and I would climb on top of the box cars and run along the top jumping from one to another. We’d sit up there and watch the train go by on the main line or talk until the Sun went down. We’d also try to open up box cars that had doors which were closed. My mother never knew I was up there doing that and I’m glad she didn’t otherwise I she probably would have had a heart attack or something. When I look at 10/11 year old boys today I just can’t imagine them doing the same thing.
The stuff I did with fireworks every Fourth of July ...I’m lucky not to be blind or maimed.
I climbed around on the back side of a damn, smallish damn, only about 2 or 3 stories between the top and the overflow pit. 2 or 3 really rough concrete stories into really dirty water and I couldn’t swim. Got a neat view of the lake the damn made though.
Also practiced crashing my bike, pedal towards a wall really fast, jump off the bike, roll and watch it crash into the wall. That one has always struck me as a marvel of kidness, large because I’m not even sure how to jump off a bike with coaster brakes now, but I figured it out when I was 10, figured it out often enough to completely thrash that bike.
THe guys in my class used to take those big old lawn darts and throw them up into a tree and then try to dodge them, getting out of the way at the last second.
Rode on or in appliance cardboard boxes down grassy hills.
Roller skated and biked without helmets.
Climbed trees as high as I could go.
Wandered a couple of miles or more from home without my parents knowing where I was. (Nowadays that would be too dangerous for a kid to do.)
Walked barefoot in creeks and caught turtles (can't do that anymore - diseases ya know), frogs and crawdads.
Rode down a snow covered in one of those new saucer shaped sleds and hit my head HARD against the pole of a playground swing set. Never told my parents and I survived whatever head injury I incurred.
Spoke back to both of my parents and I'm alive today to tell about it!