Messed up stuff we did as kids

[Tpmetal]

We played chicken with yard darts from about 75 feet apart. One foot in the ring and you could not remove that foot, while we tried to land the dart in the same ring. I think they outlawed those things long ago.

One toy my generation was not allowed to have haha

 

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[4x4x4]

....One summer I lived with a friend in his enclosed patio....it was across from a High school. He would buy high sudsing dish washing soap and pour it in the evaporation cooling unit. When the giant fan came on it made a 16 foot wide foam snake that floated over the neighborhood !
....Another time he was expecting rival car clubs to meet in the parking lot. It was a quiet but tenuous meeting until Leroy retrieved some eggs and from the comfort of his back yard across the street , tossed two ........ MAYHEM erupted !
Another fun forum , THANKS !

 

[Obsessive]

The nice thing about being young is bouncing back when you hit the ground after a hard fall... from a roof, or off a retaining wall, or a tree... etc.

In my later years i cant help but wonder if all these unexplained aches and pains are in any way related to the joys of my misspent youth.

I cant help but wonder if my partial hearing loss and constant ringing in my ears are a side effect of my fascination with explosives... be it oxy- acetylene filled balloons with fuse cord for a string, black powder filled kfc buckets buried in the ground, or even the usual bottle rocket and roman candle wars we'd have across the farm pond. Nevermind my friend that got arrested for blowing up a one hour photo both, i guess fire bombing mailboxes had lost its appeal. It was a much simpler time then.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Canoga Park, California, July 7, 1970, 5:30pm. My younger brother is loading large bottle rockets into one of the four, 24” steel connecting tubes, from our Korean War-era bunk bed, that I am currently holding on my shoulder like a bazooka. We are ensconced in an almost impenetrable Magnolia tree, giving us reasonable protection from the “enemy” bottle rocket team across the street, in Timmy Johnson’s shrubs.

We had been trading shots for about ten-minutes, when my brother tapped me on the head signaling he had just lit a loaded rocket. I aimed just a little high this time, to see if I could bounce it off the wall behind the shrubs and ruin Timmy and Orlando’s day! The rocket left the tube with a hiss just as the police car rolled into my peripheral vision.

Both Cops had their windows down, and were looking at the Johnson’s house when the bottle rocket flew through the open window on the passenger side, and out the driver’s side window of the still rolling car, before hitting Timmy’s wall and blowing up! I was in the Seventh-grade, and to say I was freaked out would be a mild understatement as the policeman hit the brakes and came out of the car with their guns drawn.

My brother and I were onto the roof and into the backyard before they ever left the street! My Mother asked me what was going on as I came in the back door holding the bunk bed part. I shrugged and was about to say something stupid when the doorbell rang. My Mom answered, it was the two Cops. We heard her say, “No, my boys are with their Dad,” and shut the door. We knew we were dead.

 

[4x4x4]

....Oh Geeze Terry , that's great !
I never got into much trouble with the law as we were in bedded but I had my moments....Dad was loading a flatbed pick-up with soil from the backyard....the gates did not go all the way to the bottom of the bed so he loaded the soil down the center of the bed.
I had an old pair of boots , worn out that needed to go. I screwed those boots into the end of that grave-like pile and Dad was pulled over on the way to his destination to see the Cops cautiously poking the mound with their night sticks ! Dad loved us but could often be seen pinching his eyes together and uttering "What were you thinking!?"

On of my chores was hand mowing the lawn . If I missed just one day the task became unmanageable. One day Dad brought home a brand new gas powered edger . With a bit of tutoring, I became quite good at the task ! Looking at those 3 wheels and a spinning blade set my mind to wanderings. I removed the blade and and found a perfect replacement in a red wagon wheel/tire.
....The next hour saw me honing my Edger Surfing skills as , up and down the street I flew ! On my fastest run yet , hunched down precariously .... I passed my Dad coming home in the car. In that that neck snapping moment I knew I was "done for" . I sheepishly pulled in to the driveway , Dad waiting with arms crossed . I think I detected a little smile when he pinched his eyes together and said..What were you THINKING !?

Mark.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Stupid things like pegging the speedometer riding on re-cap tires......

 

[chub]

I made a kind of petrol bomb when I was about 8. The gutters on the house had been replaced and the pile of old gutters was at the bottom of the yard awaiting removal....I blew up the 'bomb' and flaming petrol was running down all the gutters onto the road (think curtain of flames) added water....which just made the petrol run further....eventually put it out.

Another time headed over to a neighbours party (was winding down) at about 2am on minibikes and started wheelies and dohnuts and riding through the fire etc generally caused chaos and destroyed a lawn... rode over dozens of empty cans....just left the premises... we saw the cops headlights coming up the road. layed our bikes over and waited in the grass for the cops to go past then pushed our bikes home ....

crawled through the metal bars in a cave at a local slate quarry and retrieved some sticks of explosives. They were damp so we broke them up and left them on the back of my mothers car to dry...some time later my mother drove into town to get milk...dont know what happened to the explosives.

whent 'diving' in a water hazard at the local golfcourse in the middle of winter (no golfers) retrieved 230 balls, soaked the dirty ones in bleach. made a small fortune . somehow avoided pneumonia, meningitis, drowning etc

had a lemon cannon fail...lemon too tight...ear still ringing at the memory...shards of class 6 pvc all over the place

also did a Terry S and shot a red berry from a bush ( about 1/2 inch diam) with a slingshot THROUGH a car driving past while both windows were down....just missed the guys face...the guy did a u turn and came screeching in the driveway, luckily nobody home

made a home made 'salute' with aluminium tube and paper ends, blew up in my face, powder burns (spots) all over face and arms cant believe I didnt lose an eye...another ear ringing memory...

but hey, Dad killed himself and my mother worked or was at her boyfriends place so we raised ourselves. Can't believe we made it this far. Theres so much more when I think about it, but not fit for publishing! Makes millenials seem a bit watery.

chub

 

[Tpmetal]

Loving this thread haha great stories all

 

[trdking]

We were fans of shot gun shells and .22 rimfire ammo. We would slide the shell into 3/4 inch pipe and tape it to the end of a bb gun and blamo. We would break off some poor souls car antenna and insert rim fire ammo and hit it with a rock. Instant zip gun. This also worked with a piece of 3/8 inch pipe held over an el shipped 2x4 assembly. Hold pipe against 2x4 backer with a fire cracker in the barrel and roll a 3/8 inch ball bearing down the tube and light cracker. It would blow holes through half inch plywood. (the composition of my Dads back shed. Many many more...Probably a good thing we lost our copy of the Anarchy Cookbook

 

[chub]

We were fans of shot gun shells and .22 rimfire ammo. We would slide the shell into 3/4 inch pipe and tape it to the end of a bb gun and blamo. We would break off some poor souls car antenna and insert rim fire ammo and hit it with a rock. Instant zip gun. This also worked with a piece of 3/8 inch pipe held over an el shipped 2x4 assembly. Hold pipe against 2x4 backer with a fire cracker in the barrel and roll a 3/8 inch ball bearing down the tube and light cracker. It would blow holes through half inch plywood. (the composition of my Dads back shed. Many many more...Probably a good thing we lost our copy of the Anarchy Cookbook

thats remarkable- the car antenna...ha ha we also used it. Also found that a cattle/sheep drenching gun had the right size 'barrel' after we cut the bend out of it. I see the anarchist cookbook is available as a free pdf. We used to bend a mouse trap so that the flat neck breaking length of wire became a v shape point then cut a slot for a 12 ga shell in the wood and drill a 1/8 hole under the sear where the cheese goes. the trip wire gets tied around the sear and through the 1/8 hole... I guess these days these are all jail worthy offenses. back then it was just a way to spend the weekend.

thinking back we were actually expert marksman with slingshot and pellet gun. We just shot so often. Shooting a peg off the line at 25 or 30 feet consistently with a slingshot. One time my brother shot and killed a seagull at (what seemed like) 100 yards or more.

Chub

 

[4x4x4]

....At 15 years old I had my drivers license....my first truck , a civilian Dodge Power Wagon that measured miles by the oil used.
After rebuilding that go-anywhere truck....customization was in order. My first addition was a CB radio and under the hood loud speaker. Hanging out in the parking lot of a"local"Jack in the box I realized I could park behind the "Jack" and act as the order taker.
We were kicked to the curb when the line of cars was stalled over the wrong orders.
....My Dad asked if he could borrow the Power Wagon one day and forgot to tell him of another modification....the horn button !
I had installed a switch to make the button not only honk the horn but also a volley of windshield washer pumps !
Dad , at a red light, was behind a motor cop when he tapped the horn , soaking the poor cyclist......He has some 'splaining to do and so did I !

 

[trdking]

thats remarkable- the car antenna...ha ha we also used it. Also found that a cattle/sheep drenching gun had the right size 'barrel' after we cut the bend out of it. I see the anarchist cookbook is available as a free pdf. We used to bend a mouse trap so that the flat neck breaking length of wire became a v shape point then cut a slot for a 12 ga shell in the wood and drill a 1/8 hole under the sear where the cheese goes. the trip wire gets tied around the sear and through the 1/8 hole... I guess these days these are all jail worthy offenses. back then it was just a way to spend the weekend.

thinking back we were actually expert marksman with slingshot and pellet gun. We just shot so often. Shooting a peg off the line at 25 or 30 feet consistently with a slingshot. One time my brother shot and killed a seagull at (what seemed like) 100 yards or more.

Chub

The cookbook is online but not the same by any means. They took all of the fun stuff out of it. I think just googling it will get you looked at and God forbid you actually order a copy.

 

[GB1]

man ya'll did do messed up stuff

 

[jimhenry]

Canoga Park, California, July 7, 1970, 5:30pm. My younger brother is loading large bottle rockets into one of the four, 24” steel connecting tubes, from our Korean War-era bunk bed, that I am currently holding on my shoulder like a bazooka. We are ensconced in an almost impenetrable Magnolia tree, giving us reasonable protection from the “enemy” bottle rocket team across the street, in Timmy Johnson’s shrubs.

We had been trading shots for about ten-minutes, when my brother tapped me on the head signaling he had just lit a loaded rocket. I aimed just a little high this time, to see if I could bounce it off the wall behind the shrubs and ruin Timmy and Orlando’s day! The rocket left the tube with a hiss just as the police car rolled into my peripheral vision.

Both Cops had their windows down, and were looking at the Johnson’s house when the bottle rocket flew through the open window on the passenger side, and out the driver’s side window of the still rolling car, before hitting Timmy’s wall and blowing up! I was in the Seventh-grade, and to say I was freaked out would be a mild understatement as the policeman hit the brakes and came out of the car with their guns drawn.

My brother and I were onto the roof and into the backyard before they ever left the street! My Mother asked me what was going on as I came in the back door holding the bunk bed part. I shrugged and was about to say something stupid when the doorbell rang. My Mom answered, it was the two Cops. We heard her say, “No, my boys are with their Dad,” and shut the door. We knew we were dead.

We did similar using wooden toy milk bottles and M80s as the propellant but I never put one through a cop car!

 

[smokeythecat]

So far I like Terry Soloman's best. Here's a true one, without exaggeration I did, without even thinking I'd get a rise out of it. It was the week before Halloween long before Halloween became the big thing it is now. Like 1968 or so. My friend and I wanted to put up "scary stuff". Back then it was a sheet in a tree, or noises from a bush. We didn't have much to work with. No latex. So, my dad had a life size white Styrofoam mannequin in the basement. We decided make we could make a scary scarecrow or something like that. "Zombie" wasn't really used back then. So it was dark. And foggy. I grabbed the thing and started just walking down the street. Going to my friend's house. Just walking. So I get one house away and the next door neighbor decides to turn the outside incandescent front porch light on. I stopped. The girl who lived there looked out the front door in my direction and started screaming. Really screaming. Blood curling screams. Her mother came to see what was going on, she looks outside, and starts screaming and grabs her daughter and they both scream together. Now dumbell here did not realize a white styrofoam mannequin, in the dark, in a dense fog, with a light shining on it looks really wild. Scared the snot out of them. Didn't mean to, hadn't' thought about it beforehand, but hey! Never did tell them what had happened. I guess they though a specter was really after them.

 

[AlienLifeForm]

The cookbook is online but not the same by any means. They took all of the fun stuff out of it. I think just googling it will get you looked at and God forbid you actually order a copy.

I have an original print 1st edition, what parts did they take out?

 

[trdking]

I have an original print 1st edition, what parts did they take out?

Id be happy to buy that off of you or a full photocopy version. They took out a lot. No more poisons darts c4 and tnt recipes. Like I said most of the fun stuff. You don't need the book to learn how to wash dishes without water!

 

[AlienLifeForm]

Id be happy to buy that off of you or a full photocopy version. They took out a lot. No more poisons darts c4 and tnt recipes. Like I said most of the fun stuff. You don't need the book to learn how to wash dishes without water!

It's part of my collection of rare books, but I may be able to make copies. I also have a pretty hard to find one called the Poor Mans James Bond by Kurt Saxon, it is pretty similar in content - released in 1972. Have you heard of it before?

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

You guys probably know that the AC has some critical errors in chemistry that makes some hacks quite dangerous. I don't recall exactly what they were but even as a hi schooler many decades ago, I spotted them immediately.
I dumped my copy so none of my dumber friends would get hold of it. So use it for ideas if you want, but check all chemistry on the internet at a trusted site. And preferably do so from a free wifi spot that doesn't have cameras! And changing your MAC address before using it too.

And while we're on the subject, they don't call Kurt Saxon Ole 3 fingers for nothing. Never trust his stuff either.

eta: you can get all this stuff as digitals on the torrent stream if you want.

 

[AlienLifeForm]

You guys probably know that the AC has some critical errors in chemistry that makes some hacks quite dangerous. I don't recall exactly what they were but even as a hi schooler many decades ago, I spotted them immediately.
I dumped my copy so none of my dumber friends would get hold of it. So use it for ideas if you want, but check all chemistry on the internet at a trusted site. And preferably do so from a free wifi spot that doesn't have cameras! And changing your MAC address before using it too.

And while we're on the subject, they don't call Kurt Saxon Ole 3 fingers for nothing. Never trust his stuff either.

eta: you can get all this stuff as digitals on the torrent stream if you want.

Indeed, a lot of stuff in these books can kill or maim you, and some of the stuff is outright laughable like the section on smoking banana peels.