Things we did as kids that you wouldn't get away with today?


Recommended Posts

I can relate to many of these. Riding my bike around the streets all day, with no protection. Back street games of football and cricket. Swimming in the not-so-clean local rivers and dams, swinging from ropes and jumping large rock outcrops into water.

Fireworks night, when it was still a thing here in Australia, was always a doozy. Building 15 foot pyres in a local field near home with the all the other kids from the neighbourhood over the week before, to set it off with a gallon of petrol - making the neighbourhood houses windows shake when it first went up in flames. The height of fireworks night stupidity was extracting the gunpowder from fireworks and building copper pipe bombs.

There are many more. I started being a mad scientist as a teenager. Amazed I survived my teenage years really. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 90
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

We used to ride our BMX bikes everywhere after school. Now, no one is outside after school!

Things we did as kids that you wouldn't get away with today? There were plenty but one of my favourites was playing "brandy"  (dodgeball I suspect) with the neighbourhood kids...except we used ro

When you got bullied, you came back the next day and fought again, (without weapons)!    

climbing trees

ice hockey with real sticks and puck

drinking water from the hose

firecrackers and M-80s   most of the neighborhood had some of these

water balloons

skateboards made from a 2x4 and a rollerskate… no helmets or pads, these would stop dead if you hit a rock.

soap box derby cars on the streets

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My ex boss,  (who is a gentrified idiot).  Once said during a tea break

Ex Boss = "Of course we holiday in the Loire Valley.....it's brilliant there....you can sit with a glass of wine and just watch the kids disappear into the horizon....it's not like here!"

My mate = "why don't they have paedophiles in the wine country?"

Ex Boss = " Errm, sorry??? I don't follow?

My mate = "you suggested you wouldn't be happy to let your kids out of your site in Manchester........ but then suggested you would be happy to drink , and let your kids adventure un-attended in the Loire valley!....... I guess I'm wondering???  do you think the Loire valley is free from Paedophiles??

Ex Boss =   Errrrrrr????   (turns crimson red)

What a grade A dummy she was/is

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We built a wooden half-pipe for skateboarding at the bottom of a little downhill road....on someone else’s property. It stayed there until we rode big holes in the thing. Much blood was shed. Good times.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, luckme10 said:

I was 6 and accidentally brought all of my knives to school. Imagine a utility belt with like 8 misc pocket and buck knives. Gave them to the teacher to hold for the day and picked them up at the end of the day. Today it would have simply gotten me expelled.

When I lived in Missouri for ~2 years, in middle school, you'd see all the trucks with shotguns hung up inside them. The middle and high schools were combined, and you could get a license at 14 or 15, under certain circumstances. This was 2006/2007, so not that long ago. 

I remember making pipe bombs when I lived in Nebraska prior to Missouri. I was between 10 yrs old and 12. PVC was easy to get, end caps, some kind of epoxy sealant, gun powder, and cannon fuse. Ok the cops may have been called a few times....this was technically a neighborhood. But hey, nobody ever got hurt or arrested lol i will admit it was pretty dumb though.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, CigarAsh said:

In grade school, we used to have "free-for-alls". The boys would be outside playing at recess, and someone would yell "free-for-all" and whatever we were doing would just stop and it would turn into a giant scrum, wrestling match, dog pile mess of boys. It was awesome. We were boys being boys. I still have the chipped front tooth from a head butt I took during a free-for-all. 

 

Yea, same kind of thing here. We called it Kill the Carrier. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Derboesekoenig said:

When I lived in Missouri for ~2 years, in middle school, you'd see all the trucks with shotguns hung up inside them. The middle and high schools were combined, and you could get a license at 14 or 15, under certain circumstances. This was 2006/2007, so not that long ago. 

I remember making pipe bombs when I lived in Nebraska prior to Missouri. I was between 10 yrs old and 12. PVC was easy to get, end caps, some kind of epoxy sealant, gun powder, and cannon fuse. Ok the cops may have been called a few times....this was technically a neighborhood. But hey, nobody ever got hurt or arrested lol i will admit it was pretty dumb though.

Im in my early 30s and I've lived in Missouri my whole life. Some parts are still like this. Where I live in Missouri now, we see one every once in a while but it was alot more common back in high school and college. I went to college in a smaller town and a lot of people, myself included, would go hunting in the morning before 8 am classes. I kept my shotgun out of site in my truck but it wasn't uncommon to see trucks parked on campus with a full gun rack. Didnt think twice about it really.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A couple of things come to mind… first are the high school beach parties and bonfires. We used to have some raging parties before the police had 4wd vehicles and they pretty much left us alone if we walked far enough away from the parking lots or access points.

The other was Halloween. In my community it was like a war zone, and you took your life in your hands if you stayed out too late. The older kids drove around in their cars throwing eggs and tomatoes, starting fights and worse.  A group of us used to buy cans of Zippo lighter fluid and put a couple squirts into the lighted pumpkins the folks put out on their porches. It's a miracle we never set a house on fire!

The best trick however was when we would steal a pumpkin, and hide at the top of one particular hill. When the little kids out trick and treating would be walking up the hill, we would flame the pumpkin and roll it down at them. 50 years later I can still hear the screams....?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TNT009 said:

When you got bullied, you came back the next day and fought again, (without weapons)!

 

 

I got bullied and the next weekend my old man  hung an army  duffle bag full of sand in the garage. He showed my how to punch and left it at that. Imagine seeing that today?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, ayepatz said:

Playing football in the street. Everyone used to do it. You just don’t see it anymore. 

Not just playing football in the street - but smoking at early age ... long gone.

My first cigar was smoked at age 14 - not that I enjoyed sitting in the bathroom for half an hour afterwards ...?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, nino said:

Not just playing football in the street - but smoking at early age ... long gone.

My first cigar was smoked at age 14 - not that I enjoyed sitting in the bathroom for half an hour afterwards ...?

I started on cigarettes at 13. In Glasgow, that was completely normal. Probably still is, to be fair. ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, ayepatz said:

I started on cigarettes at 13. In Glasgow, that was completely normal. Probably still is, to be fair. ?

I can testify to the fact that, as of last week, it seemed like the entire population of Glasgow was chain smoking.  All the best places do!!

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One a the best 'rights of passage' was stalking out you best point of sale for a "jazz mag" or "bluey". 

Hilariously my brother once, went (with me in tow) to buy a jokey works secret santa for a girl in the office, who was self confessedly into "all sorts of dirty shit" Her words! and "wanted a filthy pressie from santa"

Anyway my brother proudly strode up to the city central newsagent, and asked  (with a 5 deep que behind him "do you have any really nasty readers wives stuff?". The guy behind the till was new, and said (in his best Borat voice)......"you LIIIIkkkkeee!" whilst pointing at all sorts off vulgar mags.        It dawned (all of a sudden) on my brother that he no longer looked like the whacky boss that would buy his co-worker some sort of x-rated mag as an off beat secret santa............that he now did in fact look like the kind of saddo, that would go in and try and buy this stuff under false pretences.....Classic!

needless to say, I pissed myself laughing at his demise.   

buying hardcopy porn was so much fun.......and so much more rewarding,,,, it's sad, kids theses days never have to stalk the local newsagent, Invariably you would get the vicars wife serving, and be made to feel like satan. 

 

boris-magazines.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, dvickery said:

Hitchiking

at 18 years I hitchiked from Vancouver bc to St. John’s Newfoundland and back (about 15000 Kms).. gone for 4 months and never phoned home .

derrek

i found that the trick was to dress as a priest and hitch-hike. everyone wants to pick you up. but then they ask serious life questions and expect you to advise them. got from brizzy to melbourne like that once. about 2,000 kms. 

the time i really nearly got into strife was in lygon street - i'll confess i knew even less about religion then. long story but for non-aussies, lygon street is pretty much as italian as one can get. i got asked to bless a restaurant. long story. we survived. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Davin said:

We played this too here in Brooklyn, except we called it suicide.  The rule was if the ball touched you after the wall and you dropped it you had to run to touch the wall before another player hit you with the ball.  If they got you first you had to stand against the wall and each player had a shot at you.  Got intense if you upgraded to a racquetball.  Miss playing that one.

Yes.  That is the same game.  But I think we called it “ASS” because you didnt pay the price until 3 failures.  The first one you got an “A” then an “S” and on the third “S” you had to take your medicine.  I vaguely remember us doing this with harder balls too.

4 hours ago, mtapia3 said:

We called this “butts up” in my neighborhood. We would use a garage door as the backdrop. One of my favorite games as a child. Now a days people would be offended just by the name of this game, and it would also be considered an act of violence and bullying. 

One of my favorite games too.  I remember the fear of crouching in front of that wall, never knowing when it was coming.

And yes, that game would never fly these days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Getting a Swiss army knife for First Communion ... and wearing it everywhere, including school, church and on planes.

Riding bicycles without helmets, in traffic.

Playing Cowboys and Indians without a care in the world as we fired rubber-tipped arrows at each other.  Ditto playing Robin Hood and whacking each other with wooden swords  -- you learned how to parry very quickly!

Coming home with bruises and not expecting panic attacks by the parents.

Drinking beer from age 13, and nobody screaming "child abuse/neglect".

Being expected to make our own entertainment -- "go out and play, kids".

Going to school (and back) unsupervised from second grade.  On foot or by bus -- nobody thought of paedophiles lurking behind every bush back then.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Community Software by Invision Power Services, Inc.