Posted on 08/04/2026 7:49:37 AM PDT by BusterDog
Whenever I think back to my childhood, everything seems fairly joyful and innocent. And then, one day, my mother told me that I once got locked in a bathroom with a bucket full of water as a kid. That was scary, but thankfully, nothing happened.
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Inspiring no doubt
You would have good memories and no doubt some great times but the ones that weren’t good had to be troubling to a child. Hard times certainly...we had good friends once who told about the man’s dysfunctional family MOVING AWAY in the middle of the night and leaving him alone - he was 9 years old. Neighbors found him and took care of him. I don’t remember everything he said but hard to imagine...he was shuttled from coast to coast and even country to country to relatives to care for him..and did he have problems? Yes, indeed...no wonder!
Not so great memory...
One year I was sent to a summer camp (the parents got a vacation from having the kids around), and the facilities were outhouses. I already knew about such things as my grandfather had one at his summer home.
Once a week, we were required to take actual showers with running water. Each kid in turn was taken into the shower, and “adults” scrubbed us down with heavy brushes. It didn’t occur to me what was actually going on at the time.
We also had weekly evening trips to go swimming at the lake, in the nude. They called it “skinny dipping”. I never knew who or what was was lurking in the woods, just watching or filming us.
Nothing bad ever happened to any of us, as far as I know.
when I was about 3 or 4 I used dads fine needle nose pliers, clamped them around my finger, and inserted the jaws slowly into the slots on the receptacle. just enough to get that buzz up my finger Its a wonder I wasnt electrocuted. and I did it multiple times until I got caught with the pliers and no good reason to have them.
Yes. My old man was finally arrested for child neglect. He cut a deal and the four of us were put on a Greyhound bus bound for Vineland,N.J. to stay with my mother’s side of the family. They were real Pineys and I have some not so pleasant memories there too. I was in four different schools by the time I was 10 years old. I was shipped all around like a piece of furniture. I suppose they all did the best they could with me.
We didn’t have a bathroom until 1948 when my father built one off the kitchen...Before that, everyone took Saturday night baths - large tub with a screen around it, placed in the kitchen by the stove with water heated on the stove..one after another - no changing of the water. I was youngest of 6 in the family including parents and MAYBE first but also possibly LAST...even the hired man got a bath...Maybe we were allowed to skip these in the summer as we all (at least we kids) went swimming in the creek every chance we got! So long ago, who can remember?
We had bottle rocket wars (used a piece of pvc pipe as an aimable launcher) and BB gun fights we wore motorcycle helmets (two-pump limit).
This is what Scientology teaches, especially the baby in womb thing.
Nothing says fun like playing with that plastic bag they put over clothes from the drycleaner! We would actually light it on fire with matches to watch in go goop, goop as it melted.
I pulled the tag off of a mattress once.
Good one.
The account of your childhood, Sir, is the most heartbreaking thing I have read in a long time.
I am so unspeakably sorry what you and your brothers had to live through š
I guess she is saying that the bucket was full of water and it was hoped that she would fall in it and drown.
As far as dangerous, back in the days of steel soda cans, we would take tops and bottoms out and tape them together and make a tennis ball cannon. The normal fuel was lighter fluid but it was rather hard to get to work properly. I said āhold my Hi-C and watch thisā and got lacquer thinner. Then we started making the combustion chamber larger. Surprisingly never got chamber pressure high enough to deflagrate the cans.
Rant?
As for BB guns, cars, swimming pools, bicycles, motorcycles, slides, monkey-bars, and swings, they all have had changes to design and regulations in order to protect people, especially children.
BB guns - are restricted in some areas, and today's pellet rifles are far more powerful than the spring loaded guns of the past
Cars - No children in front seat, car seats, seatbelts, safety glass, airbags, etc.
Swimming pools - zoning codes requiring fences to keep unsupervised children out
Bicycles - helmets, street restrictions, high-visibility clothes, etc.
Slides, monkey-bars, and swings - mulch or rubberized surfaces underneath them, lower height slides, plastic slides instead of rusted metal, etc.
I drank sugar-laden Kool Ade made with garden hose water while sitting too close to the TV screen.
I remember children riding along a sloping sidewalk that had three steps built into it. Big wheels were great fun for kids then.
See I would have told them I was holding a cat at the time and since cats always land on their feet I knew I would too as long as I kept hold of the cat.
I really miss my junkyard refrigerator playhouse.
I ran with scissors once. Well, OK, it was those round-nosed kiddy scissors, but it was still thrilling. I have lived a life of adventure.
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