What dangerous childhood activities did you do?

Question

What did you enjoy as a child that would be considered too dangerous today? Here are mine:
1.Rode my bicycle all over town, no helmet of course.
2. Played kick-the-can in the street after dark.
3.Galopped on a horse through the farm fields and woods with a younger cousin; no helmet of course.
4. Stayed out trick-or-treating with my best friend till the last porch light in town was turned off.

Answer 1

Learned to ride a bicycle on my older brother's ten speed when I was only 8 years old...could barely reach the pedals, let alone the GROUND. And I had to mount the thing by walking it up to our two foot high side porch and mounting it like a horse. It was REALLY SCARY being up there and NOT in control, so I learned to balance really quickly just from sheer fright!

Explored the whole neighbourhood by myself from the age of five. By the time I was ten I knew every nook and cranny of it in a 10 mile radius (and yes I DO MEAN radius!), except for what was actually out IN the lake that is located two miles to the south of us. (But I DID dive and explore everything underwater out to where the bottom dropped off suddenly about 30 feet out. AND I learned about rip tides from first hand experience--which were thankfully not as bad in our lake as they could be in an ocean!). That is Lake Ontario--big mother--you can't even see haflway across it from shore.

Toboganned down the ravine hills behind our houses. Got VERY good at steering to avoid all the trees in the way. And got REALLY CREATIVE by weaving back and forth across the shallow valleys to make the trip longer and more "fun", with twice as much tree dodging of course.

Went skating in the winter on the river in the bottom of that ravine. Which is a normal passtime for most kids...EXCEPT, this river has lots of deep pools that never fully freeze over. Learning how to extricate yourself once you fall in is a must for any kid adventurous enough to do this to begin with.

Lived next door to the local paedophile. All us kids knew about him, because his own kids were very specific about what he would do to us if we let our guards down. Our parents just "refused to see" what was going on with this man and all his religious and police "friends" who thought the same way he did. The courageous thing was learning how to grow up STILL believing in the inherant goodness in people! A view neither his daughter nor his son shared.

Oh, yeah...nearly forgot this one! Stole the fruit out of the trees of a not-so-close neighbour. At night. It was dangerous because we needed to sneak up right underneath his bedroom window to get to the peach and apple trees. And the ONLY way you got enough to go around between your friends was to break off BRANCHES of the fruit and run. And the guy had a shotgun, AND a German Shepherd!

Answer 2

If anyone has serious issues with independence, etc, it is probably your parents; they are probably clinging to you more because they are afraid- underneath, not openly- of what will happen to THEM if they let go, although the overt reason is they are concerned about you. Stick it out- it's not that much longer, obtain your degree; get a job, and once you have a career and an income, you will be financially independent, and able to move out on your own and live your own life. In the meantime, if it's intolerable, are there any groups like church socials, or something they wouldn't feel threatened by where you could at least widen your social circle somewhat without causing major repercussions. And in an offbeat way, they are probably right that your priority right now should be getting qualified first, and getting employed, second. You have your whole life thereafter to find a partner, have a family, etc; remember most people these days often don't marry until their thirties or later; don't be in such a rush, you'll only put yourself under needless pressure.

Answer 3

We did all of the above and never even thought about danger...bicycled at night with no lights...just stayed out of Car's way. The thought of riding a bike with a helmet is funny, in retrospect. As for horse riding, full gallop, horse headed for a deep ravine, stopped instantly, I didn't, went over the horses head and was hanging by the reins over the ravine...the damned horse did this intentionally...horses are not stupid. I was laughing so hard, I damned near fell !
The most insane thing we did was steal some of my uncle's bullets, take pliers and pull them apart to salvage the gun powder! We would steal my mom's cigarettes and be very grown up. When cigarettes were not available, coffee ground in a straw had to suffice (that was rough!). Forts built of bales of straw, then opposing "armies" would have horse turd fights....some of those dried up things can smart when thrown hard! And of course, a fascination with all things Matches..strike and toss...I started a nasty fire in a vacant lot with that trick. I am truly surprised I survived this era...why my parents did not serve life sentences is amazing! My kids would have been murdered had they done half of what I did.

Answer 4

1. I used ride my bike on the main road and on highway when I was staying in Toronto, Canada. Which was a no-no but I had problems fighting my sister for the car that I bought and paid for. She thought if I bought it, she should be the one using it.

2. I used to live in Singapore and I lived with my parents at a condo here between the first floor to the parking lot is not that high. So, sometimes being lazy I would jump from the balcony to the parking lot ground to just go to the store to get food.

3. I used to like playing volleyball. and there is a saying called "six pack" where you spike the ball and you nailed someone in the face. Well, my friend and I were the best players on the team and with our height and our ability to jump and lift off the floor. We normally will spike a ball and not on purpose to spike the blockers right in the face. With time changing, today's volleyball when get hit in the face by the spiked ball can mean broken nose and even concussion.

Answer 5

Rode my bibycle or roller skated everywhere with no helmet. In the summer played all day long and came home only for lunch and dinner. Rode the Los Angeles buses to downtown L.A. for swim team practice at age 12. Can't think of anything else right now, but I'm sure there was more.

Answer 6

I also rode my bike all over town,small town though. My best friend and I went on picnics in the woods nearby and often ''tight rope'' walked over a big ditch on an exposed sewer pipe., the neighborhood kids played hide and seek till 10pm in the summer. Went into a pasture nearby and rode the pony bareback.

Answer 7

As a kid:
1. I rode in the car with no seat belt
2. Climbed on the school's roof to get a better view
3. Slide down a snowy hill on a cardboard box
4. Went barefoot in a creek to catch tadpoles
5. Played football (tackle) with the boys (I was a tom girl at one time)
6. Rode my brother's English Racer and didn't know the brakes were not on the handle bars!!! Ouch!

Answer 8

I'm still a child 13, and i ride my skateboard without any helmet, and still do (bad habit). When I was 9 or so I was a tomboy (and still am) and I liked to play in the dirt, get messy, stuff like that. We used to play in dirt piles by jumping off the edge (these things were really high, too), rolling off the side or stuff like that. We can't anymore because adults are afraid of diseases you could pick up from the mud.

Answer 9

I was raised literally on the beach in So. Calif. My brother and I would go and play in the tide pools or caves or just swim all this by ourselves (try doing that today), went downtown (San Diego) on a bus without a guardian, played outside after dark all over the neighborhood, rode in the back of my parents car without a seat belt or seat (we had a station wagon and with the seats down it was a play ground in motion) and the big one rang doorbells and ran away (that will likely get you killed today).

Answer 10

Not in chronological order:
1. Ran away from home and got picked up by a trucker then got picked up by the police.
2. Played 'chicken' with switchblades.
3. Hid in the bushes at City Hall instead of going to church and smoked cigarettes.
4. Slit my wrist.
5. Walked home from boyfriend's house to let him sleep about 10pm - he lived three towns away. Let five guys in a car pick me up who 'promised to drive me home straight away' - of course they didn't and because 'I wouldn't' got put out and ended up walking the rest of the way getting home about 1 in the morning to phone ringing off the hook.

ps: despite the above and more, still graduated from high school and a virgin when married at 21.