"Idiotic things you did as a kid that did not kill you, someone else, or ...

[BmillsSkier]

Draino bombs anyone?

In glass Gatorade bottles?

Man we were dumb.

[Mustonen]

Draino bombs anyone?

In glass Gatorade bottles?

Man we were dumb.

Pretty sure draino bombs were a rite of passage.

I did some really stupid stuff in cars when I was 16.

I took a 16ft aluminum rowboat, equipped with an 8hp outboard, out on to Lake Superior in a (small) storm once. I didn't get out too far. Waves were only 6-8 ft. Nobody knew where I was. Had a couple close calls where the bow crested a wave and then caught the wind like a sail, turning me about 90 degrees off course, finally convincing me to beat it back home. Lake Superior waves aren't like ocean waves, they're steep and close.

[hatchgreenchile]

Trying to dodge Roman candles fired at your feet. Of course they didn't fly straight.

[riser4]

Roman candle fights and tequila.

[BmillsSkier]

Pretty sure draino bombs were a rite of passage.

I did some really stupid stuff in cars when I was 16.

I took a 16ft aluminum rowboat, equipped with an 8hp outboard, out on to Lake Superior in a (small) storm once. I didn't get out too far. Waves were only 6-8 ft. Nobody knew where I was. Had a couple close calls where the bow crested a wave and then caught the wind like a sail, turning me about 90 degrees off course, finally convincing me to beat it back home. Lake Superior waves aren't like ocean waves, they're steep and close.

Growing up on Lake Erie your story sends chills down my spine. For some reason my buddy and I thought it would be cool to go out in a dinghy in the springtime and try to go to downtown Cleveland. Made it out fine but on the way back a springtime snow squall kicked up it was April. Waves beat us into the breakwall and pinned us down. Little 5hp on the zodiac couldn't do shit. Got picked up by the harbor master when a call came in about two kids out on the breakwall. He didn't expect us to be in a boat, thought we walked/swam out and got stuck when the swell covered the shallower wall leading to shore. Man was he pissed. So were our dads.

Scary shit.

[flatlander#2]

Whippets. Like to find of that fun again.

[iceclimb]

I suppose 2 stand out. We lived along a creek and I wasn't a fan of the battleship models a friend and I had made. So we hatched a plan to release one onto the creek. Now this is a slow flowing Pennsylvania creek... 100 yards wide and a foot deep. So we floated one, which was kind of lame. So, we put an M80 in the next and let it go... Which was more fun but not the spectacle we sought.

So we got all the ship, car, anything models that could float and put anything that counted as a firecracker into them, lit the fuses, and set them adrift towards a slick of gasoline. The resulting burning slick of gasoline and melting plastic went for the better part of a mile before burning out.... And fortunately not making landfall.

Later, I would sneak out of my room at night and go paddle a raft out on the creek to sleep in the summer. I'd anchor the raft and look at the stars until I fell asleep. Now, we lived near an army helicopter base, and no one really knew that they'd take the helos out at night and have the trainees fly the curvy creek at treetop level, fast. I got it in my 13 year old mind that it would be a good idea to take a picture of the helicopters... Since I was a budding young photographer.

What I hadn't pieced together yet was that the pilots were training with night vision.... I only figured that piece out when the flash went off and the helicopter climbed like I couldn't even imagine.

[evasive_MT]

Draino bombs anyone?

In glass Gatorade bottles?

Man we were dumb.

Yup. Then in college we got access to liquid nitrogen.

[~mikey b]

Dry ice and dish soap in the StanfordStadium restrooms = too many bubbles..

[mmmm...pow!]

In HS liked to mix acid with Firewater and drive around in snowstorms with the high beams on to Voodoo Chile (not slight return) - fucking warp drive, then would hit the beer store and just buy green bottles, too fucked up
to read labels and wanted Rolling Rock bottles so just bought the first green bottles we spotted, sometimes got it right.

Around same time would drive to Ocean City MD huffing nitrous. Buddy would crack the whip-it and hand it to me while I drove, I sucked it down while he held the wheel until I gained my brain back.

Really am surprised I'm alive today.

Ah, yes, forgot about whipits. Used to go out on a buddy's boat tripping balls, then do a whipit and jump overboard.

[~mikey b]

Oh yeah.

Tripping balls...

I forgot about that.

[Flounder]

Lots of burning things, worst was probably home made flame thrower using lighter fluid.

Out ran the cops after shooting bottle rockets at cars.

In college a group of us were into post bar building climbing. We'd try for as many roofs as possible. I did climb the "chimney" to the top on this building but no roof access


Oh yeah, ether.....should have never read fear and loathing in los Vegas

[Art Shirk]

Off the top of my head:

Letting a bunch of buffalo out of their enclosure and having them wander the streets of the town adjacent to where I grew up. That one made the paper I think.

Jumping my Honda Spree (AKA the Killing Spree, AKA the General Spree) over my neighbor

Throwing spark plug ceramic pieces at windows

Jumping from tree to tree (two ER visits for this pastime)

Bottle rocket wars (ripping stick off, lighting and throwing)

I broke my collar bone, a femur, both arms, a wrist, tibia, ankle and every toe by 8th grade between bmx riding, sports and being a grade-A moron.

[garyfromterrace]

I broke my collar bone, a femur, both arms, a wrist, tibia, ankle and every toe by 8th grade between bmx riding, sports and being a grade-A moron.

Solid work commonlaw! Thank you for sharing. Somehow, I never broke anything (cracked ribs once, now knocking on wood). On at least one occasion - ski catching rock underfoot causing head first (1982 so sans helmut of course) dive into large rockpile on upshoots at Louise, the doctor suggested it was one of the worst soft tissue injuries he'd seen to a shoulder without dislocation or collar-bone fracture.

[Rip'nStick]

roman candle fights on acid.

Check. The best. One of my friends hid for an hour in the bushes somewhere. Didn't get it. Thought we were trying to kill him

[Binky]

Napalm polo: soaked a tennis ball in gasoline mixed with styrofoam, lit it on fire, and whacked it around in the street with metal baseball bats.

Firecracker frog hockey: caught bullfrogs in my backyard pond, stuffed firecrackers in their mouths, and slapshot them in the driveway with explosive results

Quarry jumping: not nearly as deviant as above, but jumped 110 ft granite quarries a short bike ride from my house

Propel inhalation: Walmart used to sell canned airbrush propellant (Propel). Its effects when inhaled were remarkably similar to nitrous oxide. We all used to sit around and huff it until the mental helicopters rolled in or we passed out. I saw fish tanks destroyed and several amazing facial injuries as friends blacked out.

[Gcooker]

Drinking around a campfire one night my college roommate got this genius idea of pissing in beer bottles and putting them on the fire. The piss would eventually boil and then spray out. So after probably 10 or so boiling piss bottles I finally gave er a whirl. I was drinking cans so one of the girls gave me her empty glass cooler bottle with a screw cap lid. So I piss, screwed the lid on and put it in the fire. After 10 or so minutes we realized the fuck up and started moving away from the fire. Hoolllyyyy FUCK did it blow up. Blew the fire out, fire bricks were blown back 5 feet, all the coals were up in the trees and surrounding property. Luckily no injuries.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Wow. It's rare that someone actually admits to huffing... I always wondered if anyone actually did that...

And the wanton killing of amphibians. We killed frogs as kids because we wanted to try frog legs.

Lots of questionable activities as a kid. Jumping bmx bikes over cars, pellet gun fights(Sheridans), M80 wars, jumping off train trestles into shallow water, bumper tag on backcountry roads at night, random exchanges of shot spray with friends while duck and goose hunting. My friend driving(pretty loaded) his super charged Vette with nitrous down I5 from Mt. Vernon to Stanwood exit about 175+ at 1am. There's more I can't remember.

[TAFKALVS]

Drinking around a campfire one night my college roommate got this genius idea of pissing in beer bottles and putting them on the fire. The piss would eventually boil and then spray out. So after probably 10 or so boiling piss bottles I finally gave er a whirl. I was drinking cans so one of the girls gave me her empty glass cooler bottle with a screw cap lid. So I piss, screwed the lid on and put it in the fire. After 10 or so minutes we realized the fuck up and started moving away from the fire. Hoolllyyyy FUCK did it blow up. Blew the fire out, fire bricks were blown back 5 feet, all the coals were up in the trees and surrounding property. Luckily no injuries.

We had a big bonfire and threw sealed paint cans and solvent cans into the fire. Fun times.

[adrenalated]

Napalm polo sounds awesome though.

re: ghetto flamethrowers. I still do that, though I prefer brake cleaner to WD40. I once used that method to deal with a wasp nest on the wooden fence on my patio. It worked WAY better than wasp killer, was more fun, and brake cleaner burns hot/fast enough that it did not light the fence on fire. Luckily.

We built a zip line from a climbing rope one time starting about 30ft up a big pine tree. We didn't use a harness or anything though, just wrapped a loop of webbing around a wrist, clipped to the line with a carabiner, and jumped. Never got hurt, definitely should have.

[Buster Highmen]

hot knives. Cliff jumps (Clackamas cliff we jumped took over 2 seconds to hit the water, so around 70 foot drop. on acid of course).

[MagnificentUnicorn]

We had a big bonfire and threw sealed paint cans and solvent cans into the fire. Fun times.

I used to throw spray cans in the burning barrel all the time when I was about 8-9 and wait for the boom. My dad finally saw me doing it and cuffed me and told me not to do that anymore. He wasn't really pissed just worried. Only time he ever hit me.

[Grape_Ape]

One time I ripped the label off of my mattress. Of course I was high.

[TomCrac]

Tearing off the mattress label is just a gateway.

[DJSapp]

Damn, I seem like a good kid by comparison.

Roman candle fights (sober, this was from age 9-14)
Shooting bottle rockets low over US 50 in rural MO. We aimed at big rigs whenever possible.
Shooting bottle rockets at passing freight trains carrying lots and lots of tanker cars
Gasoline/white gas soaked tennis balls, we played tennis. Still don't know how the strings held up.
Homemade potato guns that were the size of small howitzers, then taking them around town in the back of my buddies pickup truck
Super-modified pinewood derby cars with model rocket engines attached. Raced those down the sidewalk. Only set one lawn on fire before the parents busted us.
Backyard trampoline antics, including the difficult combo of jumping off the roof, bounce and land in the doughboy pool. The pool had a 4' wide deck and handrail around it. And yes, the pool was only about 4' deep.
Shooting bulls with BB guns at 100' (we were smart enough to be on the other side of the fence)
Portapotty tipping at various construction sites. The best was at the new football stadium where it went down the stairs for ~300'