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Stoopid things done in youth


Beck

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Thoughts on another thread brought back memories of childhood mishaps and perils faced undaunted by the innocence of youth. Who else out here crossed paths with danger fraught with fear by blindly stumbling into a dangerous arena?

Thinking about these risky idylls of youth is still refreshing my mind of long past adventures with brothers and friends, running around a rural landscape with plenty of time on our hands, and not much parental supervision.

Some youthful dangers I've been in-

Multiple falls thru ice, some with skates and skis

More dangerous ice travel, both with and without boat drags

falling asleep in snowbanks

wandering home in obvious hypothermia

going whitewater canoeing with "found " canoes

drifting about in "found" boats with 2x4' for paddles

climbing granite with clothesline and body belays

rapping dulfsitz on same

watching friend deck on same

getting lost in woods more than a couple times

lots of solo xc skiing in strenous bc terrain, breaking skis, running into trees

luger

plenty of body surfing on biggest lake around

long distance swimming in same

generally falling out of trees, off small cliffs, and barreling into terrain features at high rates of speed on various impedementia

 

and I was wondering if anyone else has fond memories of those mishaps of youth?

 

[ 10-25-2002, 09:35 PM: Message edited by: Beck ]

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Mr. Beck,

 

Most of my misadventures happened on or near the water. Many, very similar to those you’ve mentioned. One event that really stands out for me was when a bunch of us kids were picking and eating blackberries, and I secretly pissed on the biggest, juiciest berry you’ve ever seen. I remember Richie Myers, the neighborhood spaz scoring that berry and bragging about how fucking good it was. Bwahahaha

 

trask [big Drink]

 

[ 10-25-2002, 07:02 PM: Message edited by: trask ]

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All these thing being done before the age of drinking or smoking ciggs, there's when some really stupid stuff started. By the time we were highschoolers, though, we had found out about things like wetsuits, hypothermia, proper (maybe, just, not as messed up) climbing techniques, bike helments, etc, but the preadolescent/early adolescent adventures just seemed to come to the surface of my subconsious, just Remembering all these mishaps really made me smile and I just had to share-

I thought this might spur fond memories of childhood epics for the rest of the posters out here, maybe not.

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From a time and money standpoint taking up climbing would have to be the stupidest thing I have ever done, but it's to late now.

The week and one of my friends got his license we decide to go hiking. It happen to be in the middle of April. Are goal was Melewka lakes i believe or somewhere off 90. Anyways we ended up getting lost, traveling up snow that was steep and hard requiring at least ice axe we used sticks. Then "glissading" by sliding down the steep hard snow luckly it was soft at the bottom.

I'm not of legal drinking age so I'll keep you posted as to if I do anything stupid in the future.

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when I was 6 my mom went to work. For that first year or two my baby sitter lived on a farm. Me and her kids used to wonder arround for hours in to woods climb trees try to ride cows jump out of the hay loft.... those were good time, GOOD TIMES MAN (sniff) thanks for the memories [smile]

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Mishaps of youth? In my case more like stupidity of youth -

 

My cousin and myself going down into the basement of my uncles unfinished house to look around and I step on a board with a big nail - the nail is sticking through the top of my shoe - I walk home with board and nail clip clopping along while my cousin laughs at me.

 

Playing darts with my brother - only we are each the target.

 

Fooling around with my Dad's 38 Police Special - knowing he never left it laying around loaded - I pull the trigger while aiming at the wall. I missed my brother who was in the next room by a few inches.

 

Rappel racing to see who can get to the bottom first - after three heats - I HAVE to win - so as I bound out - I let go of the rope and crater 50 feet into a stone bottom creek. Somehow I remain conscious.

 

Bicycle racing with a friend - pull out into traffic without looking - get hit by a vehicle - lucky for me it was an ambulance!! (Really [laf] )

 

Trying to scare the crap out of the girls that lived above us in the high school dorm by putting an old shriveled glove on the end of a broom stick on a dark and dreary - and snowing night. The plan was to tap on their window glass and scare them. As we push the window open (the German kind that open side to side) and run the broomstick out the window the wind blows the window shut - breaking the glass. The counselor makes us sleep in our room. We think we are going to freeze to death.

 

Walking into the girls locker room on a dare.

 

Playing dodge 'em with a Volkswagen Beetle in an open field. We threw chirt rocks at the driver - the driver tried to hit us with the VW (this was a game we played on a regular basis - fortunately the worst thing that happened was a concussion and a broken leg)

 

Me and my friend (and next door neighbor) go in on an old Model A Ford - it has no doors and the throttle is a rope sticking through the dash. We had a ball driving it in between the two houses (we had big yards) but every time we took a left turn (since the passenger had to operate the throttle rope) sometimes only the rope was all you had to hang on to!!! Things got just a tad more than dicey more than a few times!!!

 

Getting caught naked with my friend's sister (she was a year older than me) by my friend.

 

That's about all the stupid shit I can think of right now....

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This is a great thread.

My stoopid things included these games:

 

The Rock War Game: two teams dredged gravel from the road we lived on, then lined up on opposite sides of two woodpiles about 100ft apart. When the signal was given we just threw rocks at each other. If you ran out of rocks you chucked a couple hunks of alder across and ran like hell to get more ammo. There were no winners or losers, just a lot of bruises and post game fights.

 

Touch the Top of that Tree: we'd walk around in the forest and pick a tall tree, then claim we could touch the very top. You would have to justify your claim by getting as high as possible on it. Few people actually touched the tips, especially in the brittle maples and hardwoods we had, but we never took bad falls either.

 

K9 Manhunt: this game was only played once, but it was very memorable. A neighbor had a german shepherd that was very well trained, possibly ex-K9. We would all hide in a Christmas tree farm and one person would come with the dog on a leash. When he saw you he released the dog and the dog would jump on you, bite your arm and drag you down without any commands (that's why it was probably K9). We played in winter so our coats protected us from the bite (which was not full strength anyway), but it was too scary to try a second time.

 

There was also a lot of wrestling and vicious broomstick sword fighting.

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-Rockfights.

-A couple of years later, bottlerocket fights using golfclub shafts as guidance systems.

-My older bro 'marooning' me on a sandbar at age 7, for about an hour.

-Same year, I indoctrinate all my sister's girlfriends into my 'club' (ceremony involving nude parade on dock).

-Riding a VW bug hood down a rocky hillside w/ my buddy, eventually cutting the shit out of ourselves in the process.

-Ocean night swims.

-Skating on thin ice.

-Tubing on ski slopes in the dark.

 

Ah, the good ol days... [big Grin]

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when i was 14, my friend and i ran outside after watching a kung-fu movie on afternoon tv (pre-vcr days), ran across the porch and tried to replicate a stunt from the movie by doing a flip over the porch railing. we didn't plan this, or talk about it, we just started running and did it. except that we forgot that the ground was about 3 feet lower on that side of the porch, we both broke a leg.

 

dragged the mattresses down from my friend's parent's bed to make a trampoline in the basement. only we couldn't get them back onto the bed in time to not get caught because my buddy bounced so high that he knocked himself unconscious on the low ceiling rafters. same basement, a few years later, same kid throws an m-60 down the toilet thinking it would cause a cool geyser of water. which it did, along with several thousand dollars of damage.

 

once we were wisiting some cousins who lived out in the far suburbs. i was tagging along with cousins & friends, they were all about 5 years older than me. they decided to play redneck roulette with a bow and arrow. the wind caught the arrow and it hit the neighbor lady 3 houses down in the leg. i was young enough that my parents considered me more victim than perp., so i didn't get busted, but boy was that stooopid.

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Playing army with bb guns. We had a rule that you had to shoot below the waist, but it wasn't followed too strictly.

 

Shooting out xmas lights with bb guns.

 

Setting the sagebrush fields on fire and using motorcycle trails as fire breaks. Didn't always work too well.

 

Sliding across a cable stretched across a deep ravine on a pair of bent rebar handlebars.

 

Falling off said cable and hyper extending both wrists when falling on the dirt talus at the bottom of the ravine.

 

Tossing cut up oranges out of the end of an alley to land on cars passing on the street That game ended when Stevey Kranyak thunked a CA Highway Patrol car.

 

Riding a 5th gear wheely on my dirt bike and looping it right as a CA Highway Patrolman turns onto the street.

 

Riding my dirt bike over the crest of a hill and into the side of a free range bull. He was pissed, but chose to back away when I waved my arms and screamed in terror.

 

Taping marbles to the cap end of shotgun shells and throwing them up in the air, then diving into a culvert before they hit the ground. They went off every time.

 

Numerous incidents of making incendiary devices with gasoline, pistol powder, matchheads and any other flammable we could get our hands on. We used sticks of incense as the fuse so we'd be long gone when they went off.

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using waaaaaaaaaaay too much gasoline to start bonfires.

 

bb gun war with an opponent who had an "adult" type gun

 

trying to kick the neighbor kid off of a tractor via a ropeswing (only 4 stitches)

 

shooting fireworks at cars traveling on HWY 2, the last one belonging to a State patroler who fortunatly didnt have the lungs to catch us

 

TPing a friends girlfriends house for the 4th night in a row, (fortunatly we shaving creamed the windshield of her dads van and he couldn't see where he was going)

 

at about age 12 walking with a friend who thought it was funny to flip off high schoolers driving by. (Learned how to take a punch though)

 

jumping off of the roof

 

deciding to grease the bearings on my bicycle and getting grease all over the coaster brake (no hand brake) then hoping on said bike, riding up a big hill to see how grease helps lower resistance and promptly turning around and riding down said hill into the garage door.

 

taking unauthorized rides in various boats, white water rafting in a flat bottom aluminum boat with shovels for oars.

 

Top roping with 5/8" rope taken off of dad's boat (static), ouch!

 

4 wheeling with drunk guys in the back of the truck who jump out when they think they are gonna die and they always seem to jump off of a big steep embankment or into the side of a stump or onto a sharp stick or a dry creekbed.

 

shooting arrows at each other as "ninja training" and the arrow roulette. That might be the single stupidest thing right there. "yeah, wait until it's dark, 6 or 7 guys laying in the yard, one fires an arrow straight into the sky...."

 

first knife experiences.(nuff said)

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first stupid thing: watching a tv show about skydiving, promptly going out to the deck (2 stories high) tying a chair to my ass and jumping over the railing.

 

second stupid thing: waking up thinking that was pretty cool and doing it again, only instead of knocking self out, end up with loose front teeth when face smashes into concrete block used as deck support and VERY bloody nose.

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quote:

Originally posted by sketchfest:

first stupid thing: watching a tv show about skydiving, promptly going out to the deck (2 stories high) tying a chair to my ass and jumping over the railing.

 

second stupid thing: waking up thinking that was pretty cool and doing it again, only instead of knocking self out, end up with loose front teeth when face smashes into concrete block used as deck support and VERY bloody nose.

so was it like a lazy-boy chair or what?

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quote:

Originally posted by sketchfest:

first stupid thing: watching a tv show about skydiving, promptly going out to the deck (2 stories high) tying a chair to my ass and jumping over the railing.

 


i think we have a winner. so how did you get from "parachute" to "chair"? i can see jumping off the balcony with a big sheet, but why a chair?

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