It's obvious that we mostly grew up around the same times. One of our neighborhood favorites with the gang, we had our toy plastic soldiers battles, you know these kind of toys. We'd set up a 4x8' sheet of plywood and arrange our scenarios. Upon completion the barrier was removed and the battle begins. BB guns, firecracker mortars, lighter fluid flame throwers..hours of laughs and burnt plastic

In second grade 3 of our "gang" occupied an empty house up for sale, we played with matches and lighters being the little pyro maniacs we were. Guess what? We started the closet doors on fire the spread to the roof...damn, here comes the fire dept and police. We were nailed for it and between our three families the parents had to cover the costs of the home. Lot's of a$$ whooping that day

Many BB gun wars in the woods splitting into a few teams, guns, rocks, and hand made spears tossed.

My closest friends at the end of the block had a Dad that owned a Commercial Art Business and would often spend time helping us create and build flying saucers, outfits, wings, etc. My friend Bobby did convince Mike to try out the wings and strap them on and jump off the roof..another a$$ whooping for breaking his arm

My next door neighbors step in for some intervention and started taking me to church which lead to our church troop 336, cubs pk 228, weblows and on to troop 336 almost made Eagle over the years until his Dads job with Bell South moved them to Stone Mountain area in Georgia. In retrospect, I overheard the parents at a nighttime card game where the Mother mentioned that my acts got me the notoriety of being a little demon that probably pull's the wings off butterflies! Now I know why they offered my parents to take me to Church every Sunday

the chineese torture test.

i was hoping someone would want to know about that. just as well no one would believe it anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by Otto Pilot:
Kneeboarding behind a boat going waaaay too fast causing me a "6 Million Dollar Man" style wipeout. Everybody had wipeouts like that. Lots of bruises, a little blood and all caught on video tape.

Tons of others but that one stuck with me because we were all there.

I've got a kneeboarding one. going waaaay too fast and hit a wake. observers say they lost count of how many flips and spins, but after hitting the water I came up with a handful of mud. I was wearing a full ski vest and the depth finder said it didn't see any mud closer than 21' down.

waterboarding each other just to see what it was like.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:

quote:

Originally posted by Perception:
I put one of my friends into a hay bale at about 45 mph. In hindsight we were really lucky there were no serious injuries, but that wasn't a concern back in those days.

I've gotta wonder: were we all just tougher back then? I mean, kids just weren't so prone to injuries?

That said... there was jumping off the grandparents' porch rails, riding a Big Wheel towed behind a minibike (using jumper cables) on a gravel road (Mom was PEEVED over that one), and making bike ramps out of firewood and pieces of 2x4. Oh! And let's not forget the lawn dart battles.

Scrapes, bruises, bumps, and a lot of "betcha can't do this!" Great days, they were....

I think our parents were tougher... Somewhere along the line all the kids just became pansies...

Parents today don't want to be tough on their kids. And now it has gone 2 or 3 generations of that.

About age 6 or 7 my brother and I discovered a sapling in the back yard that was broken off at a height a few feet taller than us. Working together to pull it down, we discovered it would launch rocks, dirt clods, and marbles at our buddies a few back yard fences away. Lacking such a natural mortar, they were forced to return fire by throwing stuff back at us, and they mostly came up short. This was great fun until one decent sized rock arced fairly high and landed with a loud crash on a neighbor's metal garden shed between our yards. We all slinked off waiting for the ass whipping that was sure to come, but either the neighbor wasn't home or he decided to not tell our parents.

I grew up on a long cul de sac late 70s early 80s. There about a dozen kids on our street 10 of which were boys. From a few years old to a few years younger than me. They all looked out for each other’s. One thing I remember for sure was that other parents would discipline kids that weren’t there’s and nobody cared. If I complained to my dad that another mom or dad spanked me they’d say yeah you had it coming. Jesus. If I laid a hand on the neighbor kid today kid be sued out of existence

Yep pretty much all of the above in 1970’s to mid 80’s. Dirt fights, BB gun wars, bottle rocket fights, snow surfing behind a truck on unplowed streets, climbing cherry trees or any for that matter, home made parachutes etc etc. do something stupid and get an injury - don’t cry about it.

We didn’t have a lot in rural southern Missouri but we were active. No internet, limited cable if you had it, but we also didn’t have the perversion that is openly rampant either. I could be wrong but did it change in the 90’s with the internet and communication expansion?

Showdowns in the street with tennis rackets and hard, green Queen palm berries.

Dirt clod fights. Threw horse apples at the cows and then ran like hell for the fence when they charged.

Like others here, too many to tell.

The one that stands out the most is "The Arena". First job was at a Hoity Toity country club caddying. I was 12, lied and told them I was 13, which for whatever reason was their minimum age. Across the street from the club was a huge construction site for a mall expansion. The very large basement had just been dug that summer and massive mounds of dirt were everywhere. Any caddies that had beef over stolen wages, stolen loops, or stolen women, could take their problems to The Arena. We would all gather 'round Lord of the Flies style and watch the brawl, all while heaving massive dirt clods down onto the combatants.

All those good times came to an end when someone brought in a three man slingshot and we started launching golf balls into the parking lot of the mall from a position at the club. Surprisingly, no one was killed.

quote:

Originally posted by sigalert:
How is it we all had the exact same childhood?

We didn't. I've never been in a fight, and certainly wouldn't have been with a friend. I've also lived a relatively safe and sane childhood--no jumping off roofs or fireworks fights. Maybe I missed out but it is what it is.

flashguy

I went to visit a good buddy in VA Beach after we both moved away from Dallas when we were about 12. His older brother more than roughhoused us both, beat me up pretty good a few times. About five years ago I was working at a major financial services company in Phoenix and saw the big brother's name on a large email. I looked him up in the company directory and, sure enough, it was him, looking 30 years older. I emailed him, but he pretended to not remember me. He was a pretty big shot, so I guess being a bully was good training for his future career.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
I went to visit a good buddy in VA Beach after we both moved away from Dallas when we were about 12. His older brother more than roughhoused us both, beat me up pretty good a few times. About five years ago I was working at a major financial services company in Phoenix and saw the big brother's name on a large email. I looked him up in the company directory and, sure enough, it was him, looking 30 years older. I emailed him, but he pretended to not remember me. He was a pretty big shot, so I guess being a bully was good training for his future career.

Look up the photo of you together shirtless as kids and put it out on social media.

flashguy

We would challenge, or dare, each other to crazy stunts on bikes, skateboards, roller skates...whatever we had at the time.

Our bikes had banana seats, and we'd fly down the hill in front of my house...standing up on the seat, holding up our hands, and of course, not wearing a helmet.
We'd "borrow" my mom's jar of Dippity-Do hair stuff, go down to our church, smear the stuff on the big set of stairs leading out to the road, and take the skateboard down the stairs through that crap to see who could do it best...extra points for wipeouts...no helmets.

Some of my best memories are bottle rocket fights, using pieces of pvc as our handles to launch them. Many times, we'd have those battles in and around the construction site of Richard B. Russell Dam after hours. It was being built right down the road while we were in middle and high school, and was the site of many of our adventures. Today, we'd be arrested for being out there I bet.

Surprisingly, the only injury I can remember was when we were old enough to take out my friend's parents' boat by ourselves and go tubing. One of my buddies was always hell-bent on throwing us off the tube, and wouldn't stop until he did, or we tapped out. We didn't tap out. Anyway, one of the guys was thrown off one day, came up screaming and holding his ear. Of course, we went to the local drug store, bought some Swimmer's Ear, and figured that would do the trick. I still remember him going crazy when we put that stuff in his ear! Later, after he went to the doctor, we realized why...he'd ruptured his eardrum, so we were dripping that alcohol crap down into his sensitive middle ear. I still feel guilty about that one.

I'm 53, and both of my parents have passed away...I really don't think they were aware of most of that kind of stuff we did growing up. My mother would have skinned me alive.

Honestly I wish I had a good friend that didnt want something from me. times have really changed since I was young.

We did some crazy things bb gun fights were one or them, I dont know how anyone didnt get an eye taken out. I took a bb right between the eyes, it was pretty common to go home with welts on our legs. when we got older and everyone got a .22 we never shot them at each other but did some stupid stuff and had a few close calls. looking back it was some of the greatest days of our lives we just didnt know it.

Several years ago after receiving a few pranks, I took it upon myself to get into their computers and reassign all of the keys on the keyboard to whatever I pleased (tapping the J repeatedly gave them many 7s ). Did all three of them in about 15 minutes.

Yup, that was the end of that. They said I was mean and didn't play fair. We joke about it today...

quote:

Originally posted by Tejas421:
Dirt clod fights.

That pretty much sums up my childhood. Loved the clod fights.

Here is a snapshot of my genteel and refined 1960s suburban upbringing:
When my brother was about age seven, he began to hang out with two friends. One evening, I was assisting my Mother in her rose garden while at the same she kept a causal eye on my Bro and his buddies. I happened to glance at my Mother and saw she had frozen in place and had a horrified expression on her face. I looked up to see that my Bro and his friends had walked to the end of our driveway, dropped trou and began triple tinkling, for all the world to see. My Mother charged out of the posies bearing a garden stake and her first swing dropped my brother like a bad habit. Her follow up caught friend one just over his ear and he too went down. Friend two attempted to flee but his unsecured pants made that awkward and soon he too was out of action. The mental picture of my Mother standing victorious, weapon in hand, over the tinklers will stay with me forever. My Father thought this episode was hilarious. Several our neighbors saw the whole scandalous event take place and our social status rating in the neighborhood soared. My Mother dragged the friends to their parents and more abuse took place.
Very Ozzie and Harriet, wasn't it? What a shame you cant beat your kids anymore.