People over 35 should be dead

[Quarrior]

I never thought that starting this thread would bring out so many people telling such wonderful stories from the formative years. I am very pleased and have enjoyed reading each and every post.

 

[jbichsel]

Wow! I've been dead for 7 1/2 years and didn't know it.

Personally, I think I'd rather squeeze toothpaste from a lead tube than eat beef raised on steroids or drink lemonade with "Yellow Dye #5" or eat something with "Monosodium Glutomate".

Growing up on a ranch in Monatana, we fertilized our garden with horse, cow and sheep manure not Saudi Arabian Crude Oil Distillates.

We used to sleep in the forest without a tent. Sure, we had a .357 or .44 Mag as protection from bears, wolves, etc., but we never even thought about shooting our friends.

In high school, during hunting season, we were allowed one day to 'skip' school. We could go hunting, stay home, go to town, whatever. A group of us always went hunting and would meet in the school parking lot at 3:30 am, guns in hand, and head into the mountains. No one ever got shot.

At 18 years old, I forgot I had my .44 Mag on my hip and ran into the bank to get some money out of my checking account. I had to take the gun/holster off my hip and leave it at the receptionist desk and pick it up on the way out. Of course, I'd had an account there since I was two, and every one knew me and my family.

We had a few 'potheads' when I was in high school, but mostly beer drinking (DOOMED!) and fist fights. Then in the '70's, Hollywood discovered the Bitterroot Valley. Now Charles Schwabb, Huey Lewis, Kevin Kostner, Andie McDowell and the other pervs from CA (not everyone from CA is a perv, just those yahoos who want to 'get away' but bring all their crap with them) have brought all their crap with them. The whole valley is houses and casinos now.

But hey, we're a more gentle society now, right?

 

[diveski01]

Years later at a high school christmas party we went tobogganing in the dark, down a steep, rock strewn hill, towards a river with only a fence between it and us.

I come from good hearty stock: My dad stole his brother's sled on Christmas day and promptly rode it right into the Detroit river. His brother responded with a snowball to the forehead - with a big rock in it. To this day he still has a scar and still prefers cold water.

When we kids "came of age" we rode our sleds right down the middle of our street - which was very steep and ended at either an access road IF you could manage the SHARP left turn or somewhere in the middle of a 4-lane highway. Good thing the suburbs weren't booming back then - we had at least a minute between semi's to get out of the way.

Football on the lake that only froze over once in our lifetimes probably would land today's parents in jail.

Oh yeah, and my brothers burn scars went away after he threw a lit match into an "empty" gas can.....

 

[diveski01]

I come from good hearty stock:
.....

Hmmm, now that I'm thinking about it, I can think of SEVERAL things we've done as adults that qualify for this thread..... Never too old to build character....

HINT: If you're going to ride in the laundry mat driers at 3am - remember to use "FLUFF" or "AIR DRY" settings.....

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Hmm... the sledding stuff brings back memories of sledding late at night. The day had to be warm enough to melt the snow on the road, then turn cold and it became a sheet of ice, usually with a couple inches of snow. We would wait till the little ones went to bed, then walk up the road, to the top of the hill, and fly down. Traffic back then wasn't too bad, and you could see the headlights of the cars, so we all stayed nice and safe.
During the summer, we played Evil Knevil with our bikes. Lesson learned. A landing ramp is a bad idea.
We lived in the country (now suburbia) and would play in the crick (creek) all day. It was nothing to venture with my sister to one of the swimming holes and be gone for hours at a time.
I still can here Mom yell at us to get out of the house, just go do something during those summer months.

 

[The Kraken]

Viet Nam . . .

 

[getwet2]

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.


.tniap eht fo etsat eht dekil I

 

[Tobagoman]

We as kids sure knew how to have fun back then. I remember hiking out of the mountain to the river valley and jumping a coal train down to fish creek and spending the day fishing and jumping off the tressel to swim, then jumping the 2 pm freight train back north. And I was barely in my teens.

The government is forcing schools and parents to teach children that they must live in a sterile unimaginative world ruled by video games and TV. That the government is there to watch out for their best interests and that they know better than mommy and daddy on how to raise them. (if you see mommy or daddy doing anything that the government doesn't like, you MUST report them!).

Ughh! At least I got to enjoy my childhood.

 

[getwet2]

Forgive the ethnic slur, but does anybody remember Polish Cannons?

Three beer cans with the tops and bottoms cut off, duct-taped together. A tennis ball, a bottle of lighter fluid, and you've got a fun-filled day.

Could also be done with coke cans or tennisball cans but beer cans added that certain badass quality. Popular choices were Shlitz, Hamm's, or Blatz.

I had many of those, parents kept taking them from me though, could never understand why?

 

[Foo]

We used our metal skates to make skateboards (after we lost the skate key). Hammered flat the part that curled around our shoes, then hammered the metal onto a board. I have matching scars on my knees from playing on those. I guess I didn't learn my lesson or I wouldn't have matching scars.

I was also a mosquito fogger truck chaser. What kid could resist playing in the clouds? Even if it smelled kinda funny...

Anyone remember having races down a hill, in a red wagon? They were kinda tricky to steer, usually landed in bull-nettle in the ditch.

Heights- we used to jump off the 2nd story porch of the garage apartment behind our house. I still remember the way it jarred my legs. Wow, you think that could be the problem I have with my hips and knees now?

In the summer, we would wrap a PB & J sandwich in wax paper, and fill a Tupperware glass with iced tea, cover with the little lids that fit them, put it all in a brown paper bag and disappear on our bikes for the entire day.

And I'll never forget the time all the kids (sisters, cousins, etc) piled into the back of my aunt's pickup truck, to go pick up our uncle. Before she took off, she gave each of us a cigarette and passed the lighter. We rode down the street smoking those cigs in the back of that truck. What a great time we had.