Slinging.org Forum - Stupidest Thing You Did as a Kid

Rat Man

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Stupidest Thing You Did as a Kid
Nov 14^th, 2022 at 3:06pm

I grew up in much less regulated times. In the 50s and 60s we climbed the forbidden Monkey Bars, didn't wear seatbelts, rode in the back of open pickup trucks, breathed Mom and Dad's secondhand smoke, etc., etc.
In the early 60s almost all townships would have spray trucks loaded with DDT come around to gas the neighborhoods in the early evenings to keep the mosquito population down. The trucks would leave a heavy poison smog behind them. This was before "Silent Spring" and the dangers of DDT were known.
Us kids loved the trucks. It was so much fun to ride our bicycles in the thick DDT cloud. We would trail the trucks the whole time they were on our street to be totally immersed in the deadly fog. What fun! Our parents knew we were doing this and said nothing. DDT only killed bugs and was harmless to everything else, right?
There were other dangerous things we did due to ignorance. We breathed asbestos and fiberglass dust, deliberately got a sunburn at the beginning of the Summer because the layer of skin that was under the burned one that would peel off tanned better, had radium painted clocks and watches, etc., etc. But riding our bikes in the DDT cloud while all sweaty from the Summer heat might have been the worst.

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Curious Aardvark

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Re: Stupidest Thing You Did as a Kid
Reply #1 - Nov 15^th, 2022 at 7:50am

I guess there must be a buncha stuff.
But at he time it was just waht you did

So nothing immediately springs to mind,

I mean here was all the stuff with the pyro and homemade fireworks.

But as I've still got all my fingers and a I had a mate to do the really stupid stuff for me - that was just good clean fun

I did carry some chemical ignition incendiaries around in my pockets.
But still got both legs.

I was once grinding a mixture and heard a faint 'click', just after I stepped back there was a gout of fire that would have taken most of my face off.

I never messed with actual explosives, that would have been stupid

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« Last Edit: Nov 15^th, 2022 at 9:03am by Curious Aardvark »

Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One - works for me

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Rat Man

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Re: Stupidest Thing You Did as a Kid
Reply #2 - Jul 14^th, 2024 at 12:19pm

Though we did many other stupid things one more stands out. Back in the day we had the Ajax White Knight commercials. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrqf8mODVzQ
These commercials intrigued my friends and I. We thought the White Knight was the coolest thing ever. So of course we emulated him. We would get long wooden poles from the woods and joust on our bicycles while chanting "stronger than dirt, stronger than dirt." By some miracle no one was seriously injured. Eventually a concerned neighbor lady called the cops on us and put an end to our fun.

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Klydd

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Re: Stupidest Thing You Did as a Kid
Reply #3 - Jul 14^th, 2024 at 12:45pm

Must've been a large friend group using thick straws (that licorice powder came in here) as blowguns and shooting peas at eachother. Could've easily blinded someone especially when filling our mouths up and spraying them. We managed not to blind anyone but they stung bad. Probably the dumbest so not THAT bad/life-threatening.

And before my parents were willing to buy a net for me to catch bugs I (with friends watching; THEY weren't dumb enough to try) would ever so slightly step on bees/wasps/bumblebees, to stun them, and then grab them by the wings and put them in a jar to look at. Never got stung that way actually but not smart. Got stung BADLY when ridding my house of a wasps nest though. My father paid me 1 SEK per wasp that I would catch and drown in a bucket of water and soap. One got into the armpit of my T-shirt and "went to town" or however you put it in English.

Destroyed my e-bike back tire this morning thanks to my own stupidity. Only SLIGHTLY less stupid tbh. Without going into details it was enTIREly (höhö!) preventable and 100% my own fault and there were MANY opportunities to NOT have it happen, that's what annoys the most. Don't think I qualify as a kid anymore but hey being an idiot I'm now likely out a few hundred and can't bike to the beach to practice the sling for a day or two. 🙄

Rat Man wrote on Jul 14^th, 2024 at 12:19pm:

"stronger than dirt, stronger than dirt."

That's going to be an earworm for some time. That little melody right after "stronger than dirt" sounds JUST like the instrumental of an old disco song (can't recall the name atm which is annoying; thought it was Boney M but no).

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Rat Man

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Re: Stupidest Thing You Did as a Kid
Reply #4 - Jul 15^th, 2024 at 10:35am

Klydd wrote on Jul 14^th, 2024 at 12:45pm:

And before my parents were willing to buy a net for me to catch bugs I (with friends watching; THEY weren't dumb enough to try) would ever so slightly step on bees/wasps/bumblebees, to stun them, and then grab them by the wings and put them in a jar to look at. Never got stung that way actually but not smart. ).

When I was a kid I'd also kidnap bumblebees just to look at them. I'd sneak up behind them while they were in a flower and grab them by the wings. Occasionally I'd get stung but not that often. I was about seven then. I couldn't do that now.

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Rat Man

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Re: Stupidest Thing You Did as a Kid
Reply #5 - Jul 21^st, 2024 at 12:13pm

Here's another one. Somehow we got hold of a big, thick industrial cardboard barrel. We would get inside of it and roll down the bank in my back yard. It was a great ride. We would get completely disoriented, not knowing which way was up or down. There was a big Oak Tree at the bottom of the bank. Running into that is what stopped us. It didn't hurt too badly. The barrel absorbed most of the shock.
The ride was well worth the stop. We did this for a while until during one stop I hit at the wrong angle. I was just coming off of the apex of my rotation when I slammed into the tree. Big Oak Trees are hard. They don't give at all. I absorbed all of the shock this time. This collision knocked the stuffings out of me. I wasn't right for a while. In retrospect I had a concussion, but we didn't worry about such things back then. That was the last time anyone rode the barrel down the hill.

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Caspian

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Re: Stupidest Thing You Did as a Kid
Reply #6 - Jul 21^st, 2024 at 3:15pm

Rat Man wrote on Jul 21^st, 2024 at 12:13pm:

Here's another one. Somehow we got hold of a big, thick industrial cardboard barrel. We would get inside of it and roll down the bank in my back yard. It was a great ride. We would get completely disoriented, not knowing which way was up or down. There was a big Oak Tree at the bottom of the bank. Running into that is what stopped us. It didn't hurt too badly. The barrel absorbed most of the shock.
The ride was well worth the stop. We did this for a while until during one stop I hit at the wrong angle. I was just coming off of the apex of my rotation when I slammed into the tree. Big Oak Trees are hard. They don't give at all. I absorbed all of the shock this time. This collision knocked the stuffings out of me. I wasn't right for a while. In retrospect I had a concussion, but we didn't worry about such things back then. That was the last time anyone rode the barrel down the hill.

That reminds me - when I was six or seven we had an old and rusty fifty gallon barrel, and I would set it at the top of a slope in our pasture, let go of it, and run downhill with it chasing me for well over sixty yards. I think I also got my dad to hold it at times so that I didn't need to let go, turn around, and then make a run for it. He had no objections to the idea.

Looking back, it was really stupid because the barrel was twice my size and could've easily steamrolled me if I had tripped, but it was fun. I never got ran over by it thankfully, but considering how it macerated plants it rolled over, I don't doubt it could've done me serious harm Cheesy

Another thing, although not quite as a kid: I learned how to make black powder at the age of fifteen or so. I only burnt myself once, when I poured an amount into a gopher hole and lit the end of a twig to ignite the powder with. I didn't anticipate a rocket thruster sort of effect from the gopher hole and so my hand was engulfed in flame for a very brief moment and was covered in white from the ash and sulphur smoke, almost like a fine limescale buildup in appearance.

Problem is, once you know how to make black powder and how it works, you can't go back. It's so cheap to make, and gives ok results with just a mortar and pestle, though time consuming.

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For thus says the LORD: “Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and I will bring distress on them, that they may feel it.”

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Jabames

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Re: Stupidest Thing You Did as a Kid
Reply #7 - Jul 22^nd, 2024 at 11:19pm

Climbed a steep hill with a 4 wheeler with my cousin, I was a teen then, I was in the back, we fell backwards and my cousin jumped off I was still seated and the whole thing crshed my back, thankfully I wasn't injured perminently(sp.?) or mortally. Don't know how I wasn't paralyzed, it was a full size heavy atv not a lightweight one.

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