Fun/Stupid things as a kid that you Won't let your kids do

BB gun fights.

Back flips off the bunk beds.

Using living room furniture as gymnastics equipment.

Climbing on the roof.

Bumper surfing (back bumper of a pickup truck holding onto the tailgate)

Bottle rocket wars

Tunneling holes through dirt mounds 

 I don't have kids yet, but omg that was the highlight of my childhood! I won't deprive my children of the same experience

The snowplough would make a 10 foot high pile in the middle of our dead end crescent  (back when Canadian winters in our neck of the woods were worth remembering) and then we tunnelled through them, making forts and actual rooms inside. We actually had the forethought to think about what would happen if it caved in, so we used a broom handle to punch air holes through the snow to the outside...like the holes would still be there if it caved in - d'uh!

When camping, a pickup truck would drive up and down the campsite roads with a big mosquito fogger in the bed spewing out clouds of insecticide and all the kids would run behind it and the fog for what seemed like hours. To this day I like the smell of insecticides.

Play in construction sites.

And the most stupid of all - when I was 16 with my first car we would urban surf - driving solo around neighbourhoods in low gear, climbing out the window and "surfing" on the roof. A convoy of 3 or 4 of us buttheads used to do this all the time.

well, I can't imagine that a lot of the crazy fun stuff y'all did was actually sanctioned!  There's a whole lot we did that I hope my kids never try, as fun as it was, but if my parents ever knew-- fuggetaboutit...

but my parents DID know about our stair sledding (fools)- we had an old mattress and would fly down the basement stairs (we were about 8 and 6)-- it was an unfinished basement in which we were allowed  to do just about anything= one false move and our heads would have split like eggs against the cement walls. I can't believe we never got hurt

And they knew about the biking with no helmets, no one used helmets in the 70's and 80's.

And they certainly didn't mind that at age 10 or so we would walk to the beach and swim and play unaccompanied by grown ups.  That's how my mom grew up too. There is no way I am letting my kids walk that route, the cars are insane, and having been a lifeguard at that beach in later years, I can tell you, um, kids on their own are pretty much on their own.  

Maybe I am already way too overprotective?  I just think in some ways, the world was a bit gentler 25 years ago? 

we spent most all of our tme with other kids, unsupervised by grown ups.  We were everywhere- the beach, (which required crossing a four lane US 90), on our bikes sans helmets, in the city pool, walking to the store, walking to whatever, just walking around... leave at dawn and come home at dusk. 

No seatbelts, no car seats, no helmets... daddy smoked in the house, drank a beer almost every trip we went to Grandpas (yep, drinkin' and driving).... 

oh yeah, the most fun.  We'd go to the old Biloxi -OS fishing pier, it was an old bridge with the span removed. We'd drive to the end and jump off.   Then my uncle would take us to an I 75 overpass bridge and he'd let us jump off that!   Crazy times.  And of course we were only thinking about having fun, not how insanely dangerous it was.  

I think the WORST thing I ever did was get in a car with my falling down drunk leaving for boot camp the following monday ex boyfriend.  I was so scared for my life but I had no idea where we were, and at the time I was a bit looped too.  I remember putting up a fight about him driving... I distinctly remember his friend having to shift and the car stalling out a few times....  gosh.   If I had a cell I'd call someone come pick me up I don't know wTF I am though!!  This was, what, 1984 I think. 

Pellet gun Wars

Bottle rocket wars

Drinking MD 20 //20 and Stroh's Light

Hanging Out at the Pool Hall

A few things that the Statute Of Limitations may not have ran out on, so I won't mention here. 

Two Words.....Lawn Darts

Lawn dart chicken - you'd see how close you could toss the dart without actually hitting the other person standing inside the plastic yellow ring. Yep, fun times.   

OH  My  GOSH!

I have chills even thinking about that... 

Riding 90mph on the back of a 3-wheeler

Jumping a 3' high ramp on my Big Wheel...plastic does not absorb shock 

playing tackle football, barefoot, in a freshly turned tobacco field...did you know that tobacco plant roots can puncture your arm when you land on it? 

• burping contests
• farting contests
• BB guns for the cowboys and real bows & arrows for the indians
  
• bumper skiing in the winter - hanging on to bumpers of cars and busses and skidding on the snowy roads
• diving off the top of train bridge (20 or 30 feet)  into a shallow river
• mountain climbing without any equipment
• setting a bag of feces on fire in front of someone's door and ringing the door bell
• trying to look more mature by smoking!?!
• skurfing (rollerboarding) behind my brother's motorcycle
• lawn darts!!!!!!

Dude, unless you are the younger of the two in your avatar, or you extended your childhood way past normal college age, the statute of limitations ran a long time ago on everything but murder and some types of concealed fraud.  Must be some good stories there.

I remember those days, except that I had to be home at precisely 5:15 for dinner.

Otherwise, the entire day was an early version of "don't ask, don't tell"

Yeah, we NEVER wore helmets as kids. But now it's illegal in many states, I think; if you're under a certain age (NY state is 14, I believe), you HAVE to wear a helmet. Wasn't the case when I was a kid and that wasn't that long ago.

Too many to list...

Just a few:

• Thowing rocks at cars on the highway
• Setting fire to the trash piles at an abandoned school
• Breaking into the same mentioned abandoned shcool.
• Crawling through walls and attacks of homes being rehabed.
• Riding grocery carts down a LARGE hill that dumped into a major intersection...

Hmmm, I can't believe I'm still alive or not in jail.  Oh well

Oh man did I forget about this one.  OUR VERSION:  Stand about 8 feet from each other and THROW the knife with the intention of making it stick in the ground somewhere near the other persons feet.  If it STUCK then that person had to move a foot to where it stuck.  Then take turns throwing it back and forth.  The intent was to make the person do the splits by continually moving their feet further apart.  The loser was the one who fell over first.