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

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Drunk:

Throwing snowballs at cars in South Boston and being threatened by a guy who claimed to be brandishing an Uzi. We hid as soon as he stopped his car so I don't know if he was telling the truth.

Throwing snowballs at cars in Crown Heights Brooklyn. Continuing to throw snowballs at guy who got out of his Crown Vic with a tire iron until he got back in his car.


Not drunk:

Cliff jumping blind into a small mountain pool. Couldn't see the water from the take off zone. Once was too much for me. Thought I was going to die in the air. Would have been crippled if I went a few feet further.

On halloween, walking around stealing campaign signs (of a local politician we hated) out of lawns and smashing them on trees. We were chased by guy with a baseball bat but we were faster. We hid in a swamp while he organized a neighborhood search party with flashlights and many false claims "we know who you are" and "the police are on the way."

[Buster Highmen]

One year, we collected all the campaign signs in the neighborhood and put them in the yard of a friend. Hundreds for all parties.

[riser4]

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.

So. My parents used to burn trash. In the house. In the Big Brown Furnace that we used for both wood and coal. It was a monster. I always thought it was a bad idea to burn trash and in the house at that. So I used to 'forget' and leave aerosol cans in the trash. I eventually cured my dad of the trash habit. It was a monster stove and could probably withstand a full stick so the danger was minimal as long as the door wasn't open, but it made a great noise, send a cloud out of the ash pan door and would sometimes knock the stovepipe loose when a can exploded. My wife says I tend to be a little passive aggressive at times.

[riser4]

while he organized a neighborhood search party with flashlights and many false claims "we know who you are" and "the police are on the way."

IKR

If they knew all that, why search? Much easier to just wait at your house. Losers.

[skinipenem]

Waterskiing with aircraft grade bungee line as a tow rope. Handle recoiled to the spotters eye. So we made the spotter duck.

[riser4]

hot knives.

Got the lip burn scars to prove it?

[Buster Highmen]

Got the lip burn scars to prove it?

No, we used a paper cone. Virtually everyone I knew eventually hit the floor after doing one.

[KQ]

No, we used a paper cone. Virtually everyone I knew eventually hit the floor after doing one.

Mom always wondered why two of her knives were black at the tips. I certainly wasn't going to tell.

[Marshall Tucker]

so I'm about 10 and my buddy gets into majic, which I thought was a little gay, but he had this neeto "flash paper" that you lit with a match and litterally looked like a strobe light went off. So I figured if i soaked a sheet of notebook paper in a pan of coleman fuel it'd work the same. Tried it in the laundry room lit the paper threw the match over my sholder into the pan. To this day don't know how the house didn't burn down. In high school on the way to the Keg party took a right turn too sharp scraped our 76 caprice classic hard against a telephone pole. figured WTF I won't be driving again for a while so I'll go on to the party. Have a good time. Got arrested for drinking underage. That landed me in boarding/'reform school. Good times.

[frorider]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...dolescent.html

I remember watching my friends go through their Let's Do Stupid Shit phase but I was pretty meh about joining in. Couldn't shake the feeling of it being an episode you'd look back on ten yrs later wondering how the fuck you avoided getting killed or maimed. I think it was also due to having to be a pseudo parent to my kid brother and sister while my parents worked long hours starting a business. Fucking around and ending up in the hospital or burning down our home just seemed so selfish I couldn't bring myself to do it. Probably why my wild phase was more during the college years.