Posted on 08/09/2017 4:50:01 PM PDT by vannrox
Heh. I don't think it rated four alarms, but I can claim one big enough that it reminded the local forestry guys that a controlled burn was needed in the area.
Left off BB gun wars, creating tunnels in snow banks, X-game type snowmobile jumping, building a treehouse way up there, catching hay bales as they were shot at you from the baler, seeing if the new unbreakable bottles would break if thrown from a very fast moving care against a guardrail post, playing mumbly peg, shooting arrows straight up into the air and seeing who would not run (O.K. that last one might be a little foolish).
Hehehehe...one of the touchstones to appreciating the things you have in life, no matter your station, is the understanding that someone always has it worse than you.
As you looked over the fence at them, you must have had that insight in spades!
——Hammer a Nail-—
I watched the extensive construction of my neighbor’s new deck last week. No nails......
The fastening was totally with screws installed with cordless screw guns.
The nearest school to my hood is four miles away down a curvy two lane road. So no.
Most of the other stuff in the world today - OK but with adult supervision.
Well maybe not:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACtiDeZRe-w
Caught a small snake, tied a shoelace around its neck and put it on the handlebars of my bike(dad saw it after awhile and realized it was a copperhead. I handled every snake even back then like it was poisonous unless I knew for sure.
Road my bike (no handed) for miles. Road to the next town many times. Explored woods, picked more ticks off myself than the dog sometimes.
Aww freedom!
In other words, a normal childhood.
Yea, but the Crossman M-1 carbine killed it in rate of fire. Hold down the trigger and pump the barrel to load and cock it, and you could get darn near automatic it seemed.
May want to rethink the car thing. From our local news (BTW, check out dad’s age):
NEW HAVEN, CT — A 25-year-old father suffered life-threatening injuries after his daughter, 11, accidentally backed a car into him during a driving lesson Wednesday evening, according to media reports. The father is currently listed in critical condition, reports Fox 61.
Police say the father was a passenger in the car as the daughter was practicing driving in an apartment parking lot on Grand Avenue just after 5 p.m. But the child ended up hitting reverse instead of drive, and began to leave the parking lot, Fox 61 reports. At this time, the father jumped out of the car in an effort to get control of the car but he ended up pinned between a tree and the car, Fox 61 reports.
The car ended up striking a house, according to reports. The father was conscious at the scene and he was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital but his injuries became more serious later on, WTNH News 8 reports. The child was also taken to the hospital as a precaution, according to reports.
Man, you pretty much nailed my childhood, too!
My father didn't fish at the time, but I got a split-shot mold for my birthday once; my dad got a small ingot of lead, and showed me how to use a blowtorch and a ladle to melt the lead, and pour into the mold. I did this in our unfinished cellar, and never once came close to burning myself, or the house. My wife still can't believe it to this day, that a child would be allowed to do that.
By giving them the responsibility of using a knife safely, Hewitt’s kids became responsible.
You teach responsibility by giving responsibility - a concept that is as true in the workplace as it is in grade school. Many Americans have never been given any responsibilities, and these keep voting for Mom in the form of the Democratic Party to handle all of their problems for them.
I did the bumper skiing thing after getting off the school bus back when I was about 10. And to prove a teen doesn’t think things through, I bumper skied on cars doing donuts in a parking lot that had bare patches of pavement exposed.
Different world my FRiend.
You reminded me of one thing. Whenever we injured ourselves, we never went to my Best Friends Mom to be tended to. She always pulled out the Mercurochrome (yes, as in Mercury) red crap that stung to high heaven. She swore by that stuff. LOL
Instead we went to my House where my Mom used Hydrogen Peroxide, liberally pouring it on the wound. It didn’t hurt and the more it bubbled the better.
Thursday at our House was Beef Liver night. I hated Liver as much as I hated Beets. YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!
I talked my Parents into letting me eat Dinner in the Den so I could watch TV. Our Family Dog joined me, and he really appreciated Liver night and my Mother’s Cooking. LOL
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Come on, now!
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Hate to say this, but it appears that you, yourself, may have missed some of these very important "rites of passage". Join the kids -- it's never too late to grow up a bit more!
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FWIW, I did all the things in the article -- and far more.'-) And, I'm now "on the return leg of my 80th orbit around our local star" -- and am still in one piece. And I attribute much of that life success to empirically and experientially-determined self-limits I learned as a kid -- with the freedom to learn by trial and error.
Too bad! We even figured out how to add crossed pins atop the penny -- held on with Scotch tape.
The result was a "shield with crossed swords" -- when things went right...
My attitude is based both on childhood experience and,*far* more importantly,on a career of 20+ years working in the ER of a large hospital.
I could tell you stories about things that I saw during those 20+ years that would make you weep uncontrollably.
MY Dad grew up in Southie in the 20's and told me stories about his visits to the Quarries.He was a wild child! From stories I've seen you couldn't pay me enough to get anywhere near it.
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