How did we survive childhood???

[murphjd25]

I am not sure how I survived. Apparently every thing in the world can kill my son now, according to his pediatrician :rolleyes:

[The Mastiff]

Joe, we grew up in the same street? :cool:

I could have written the above myself with the exception that none of us got shot in the face (we were big on the crotch shot) but I'd put that down to good luck rather than good judgement and my first job in a hardware store when I was 11yrs paid $1.50

I figure I was pretty average with half having it better and half worse than me. All kids are prone to doing stupid stuff and I did my share. I never aimed for somebodies face though. WE always corrected each other one way or another. If one of us came home beat up our parents if they noticed would assume we did something stupid and punish us along with whatever skin we lost. :) Most times we did deserve it. Nobody called the police. I feared the phone call to my parents more than I did the police at that age. They knew how to get us where it mattered.

I worked about 3 years and was making $2.00 an hour when I left to move to another state. There was no jobs for me there especially as I lived 12 miles from the nearest town with a store down dirt roads little traveled. It was a great place to live if you had a car but no way I was going to walk back and forth to work those distances on a school night and there were no cars to hitchhike a ride with on those roads. I liked the place but got out as soon as possible. Life can be especially tough with no money.

Joe

[benben]

And snakes and lizards and scorpions and spiders and anything else we could catch.

Funny, when I used to walk in the house with both hands behind my back, my mom would take off running......and screaming!

[Doc Dan]

HaHaha! And for good reason! When I was a kid, I was the champion bee catcher. I had a quart jar literally jammed full of bumble bees, honeybees, and maybe a wasp or two. There were so many that the lid would hardly fit on the jar. I ran into the house yelling, "Mom, Dad! Look what I cau..." and at that moment, tripped over the stoop and the jar went flying and smashed against the floor. All of those, by now, very angry bees were loose in the house! hahaha!

[RickC27]

Geeeez, and I thought I was bad *** catching fireflies or grasshoppers hahaha.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

On the planet where I hail from, "childhood recklesness" is apparently attempting to recharge your internal power-cells directly from a starship's recharging panel.

Just Kidding :)

[Bloke]

... attempting to recharge your internal power-cells directly from a starship's recharging panel.

[SpyderNut]

I’ve asked myself that very question many times, ha ha! I’m not sure how I survived my childhood, but it’s probably a miracle that I have both of my eyes still intact, as well as all of my fingers and toes. I grew up in the late ‘80’s and ‘90’s, so my siblings and I didn’t have all the internet technology/social media stuff that we do today. We drank from a garden hose, went barefoot when the weather was nice, and played “cops and robbers” with our cap guns. We made awesome forts in the woods, played with our favorite toys (G.I. Joes and LEGO), and always had fun just using our imaginations.

When I was seven, my younger brother and I created a makeshift “grenade launcher” by flipping my brother’s tricycle upside down and peddling the real wheel as fast as we could. We discovered that if you drop a dirt clod on the spinning real wheel, the tire would easily launch a fist-sized dirt clod twenty to thirty yards, which was awesome. However, we didn’t realize that we were launching the dirt bombs right onto the roof of my neighbor’s house. My neighbor was less than enthused when he realized we were pelting his house with dirt bombs. My brother and I got spanked and the bike was confiscated by my parents.

Then there was the time my brother and I attempted to run away from home, carrying our tackle boxes, a few bananas, and a change of clothes. But we didn’t get too far, because our first mistake was to inform my neighbor about our plan. He ratted us out to my parents and we got spanked and grounded.

My sister and I once accidently flooded the basement of our neighbor’s house. (The neighbor had asked us to water her flowers while she was running errands in town). Unfortunately, since we were pretty young, we did not know how to turn off the water supply, so we just dropped the hose in the lady’s flower bed and went home. The neighbor lady was livid and demanded that my parents punish us for our evil deeds. I think we got spanked and grounded for that event too.

I broke my right wrist when I was eight after attempting to do a back flip off of a tire swing. I was trying to recreate a stunt I’d seen on America’s Funniest Home Videos. Let’s just say I wasn’t very unsuccessful in my attempt to do a back flip. I did not immediately realize that I’d broken my wrist until I tried to turn a faucet to get a drink of water. I ended up in a plaster cast up to my elbow for most of that summer, which was NOT fun.

I received my set of first stiches on my left index finger at the age of ten while trying to sharpen my rusty-bladed pocket knife. (My father was upset with me because we were literally heading out the door to attend church). I had to get a tetanus shot too.

My brother and I “inherited” a potato gun when I was about 15. That thing was surprisingly powerful. We could literally splatter a raw potato on a cement wall from about 20 yards. We ended up getting in trouble and having it confiscated by my dad after we accidently shot my neighbor’s truck. Twice.

I’ve been hit by lightning once while riding in a car with my mom (that was a wild experience). I’ve also taken shrapnel in the arm and head from a .223 ricochet. (Moral of the story: Never shoot a rusted fence post at point-blank range with a .223). They ER doctor was able to remove the shrapnel from my arm, but the piece in my scalp was too deep, so it still there to this day.

When I was 21, I was hit by a drunk driver while walking through a pedestrian crosswalk. The car was only going about 25 mph when it hit me and I was fortunately able to see it coming before it hit me. I softened the blow somewhat by using my arms to push off the hood of the car. I had a bruise in the shape of a Chevy bowtie on my right knee for several days afterward. No joke. The driver’s insurance company was mortified and asked me if I’d pursue legal action against the driver. I told them “No,” but I requested they pay for my ER bill, which they did.

When I was in college, some of my friends and I would have semi-friendly paintball wars—using frozen paint balls. Boy did those hurt! We ended up getting into some trouble after somebody shot a car (by accident?) with the frozen paint balls.

I have six pins and a titanium plate in my right hand, thanks to a boxer's fracture that I obtained in 2003. That's a story for another time.

I could go on, but these are a few highlights from my youth. :p 

[ChrisinHove]

My old man saw his friend drown in a flooded quarry when he was small, so it was stupid-o-clock weekend swimming lessons for my brothers and I when we were young.

We could swim, and hated swimming until we were older and wiser... clever man!

Although we messed about with air guns, small-bore shotguns, field motorcycles and farm cars, I’m glad we had those rather than the drugs and social media pressures kids do now.

[Flanker_27]

Hey, am I older I , or just a hillbilly? I'm younger than 30 and have done most things I've read in that thread.

Among the most memorable things, I remember shooting (under my father's supervision though) a .22lr in my backyard at age 6, "inventing" the depth charge with firecrackers coated in dirt (it works only with the ones with green fuses though, the greyish ones are put out by the water), hunting magpies and other chicken pen threats with an airgun (for real ; the magpies sometimes carry chicks away), going on adventures in the woods by following the dog when it left the house by digging under the fence, doing mortars with steel tubes, firecrackers and corks, making supersonic planes by duct taping fireworks to paper planes (observation : you have to put the fireworks rocket in a "pull" position instead of a "push" one), playing knights with dust bin covers, old military helmets from our grandfathers and broom handles, or assaulting wasp hives with super soakers filled with piss. The latest one was actually later on noticed, improved and encouraged by the parents, who noticed we knew how to avoid getting stung, mostly by doing our terror attacks at dusk, and gave us water with dissolved bug poison in it to conduct chemical warfare on wasps.

And this was in the 90s, not that long ago!

[tvenuto]

I think this applies: you start with an empty bag of experience and a full bag of luck. Your job is to fill the bag of experience before the bag of luck runs empty.

[ChrisinHove]

I think this applies: you start with an empty bag of experience and a full bag of luck. Your job is to fill the bag of experience before the bag of luck runs empty.

That should be the new motorcycle riders mantra!

[tvenuto]

I think this applies: you start with an empty bag of experience and a full bag of luck. Your job is to fill the bag of experience before the bag of luck runs empty.

That should be the new motorcycle riders mantra!

I heard that saying on a motorcycle forum actually