Dumb Kwestion #35

Ok this is something that has been buried in my mind for 36 years. I completely forgot about it but from the depths of my mind the memory came back to me. 

So for this thread let's confess something dumb we did as a kid. Think hard.

Here's one of mine. In 1980 or 81 we moved to Tennessee. I was a shy kid and didn't talk a lot. We found a new church and my parents decided to visit the pastor's home. They had some rabbits in a pin out beside their house. I was extremely bored. There were no kids to play with. It seems like we were there for days. Again I was very shy and didn't talk much. I was outside looking at the rabbits trying to pass the time but had to pee real bad. I was afraid to ask if I could use their bathroom, that's how shy I was. I held it in as long as I could and couldn't wait any more. So I found the best spot: beside the rabbit pin and I peed on the side of the pastor's house. 

No idea WHY I remembered this today after so many years. 

So what dumb thing did you do as a kid?

Dumb thing you say?  (this sounds like a Dumb Kwestion!!!!)
I did lots of dumb things as a kid.  I will have to try and remember a really good one.

Good idea, title changed from confessions of a 10 year old to Dumb Kwestion #35! Let the games begin!

Very cool, now I really need to come up with a "dumb youth" account.

I tried sticking the wires to a battery powered motor into a wall outlet.

I opened some Christmas presents two weeks before Christmas and then left for basketball practice, not realizing I left my house key at home.

watching Saturday morning cartoons (I assume), console TV with fabric over the speaker, held a lit lighter up to it (???) and burnt a hole in the cover.

mitigation: lean a book against the TV to cover the hole...nobody will ever notice 

I used to walk the railroad tracks to go see this girl I liked when I was in the 8th grade.  We'd walk the tracks to go back into town to get a Coke sometimes.  You had to cross this train bridge to get there.  We were skipping rocks from the bridge and didn't hear the train coming.  There were some large rectangular holes in the bridge where we had to jump into to keep from getting hit.  It was SO loud in those holes as the train was literally inches above our heads.

I do not know what the holes were made for.  They were just rectangular compartments inside the bridge.  We had checked them out and wondered what they were for.  Now, I guess we know!  LOL For stupid kids to hide in!

Needless to say, this was the last time I went to see this young lady.  I guess it just wasn't meant to be!

I used to get left home a lot when I was younger, and did some dumb stuff.

One time I had a small .22 round from my dad's gun.  I wanted to seperate the slug from the shell because I was going to put the slug on a necklace or keychain (or something).  So I went outside with two pairs of pliers on the back patio.  I gripped the slug with one pair of pliers and the shell with the other and commenced to trying to twist the slug out of the shell.  The pliers holding the slug kept slipping though (because the slug was soft and small).  I was kneeling down while doing it and a few times I hit the concrete patio with the hand holding the pliers on the slug end.  My grip slipped on the slug once and all of the sudden there was an intense ringing in my left ear.  I was very confused, and looking at the bullet I noticed the slug was gone.  It dawned on me I had manged to hit the primer against the sidewalk and fire off the slug.  I slowly set everything down and went inside to look at myself in the bathroom mirror...I almost couldn't hear out of my left ear.  When I saw myself in the mirror there was no blood (thankfully) but there was a red streak on the side of my face next to my ear, as if I had gotten a mild burn.  Realized immediately I was only an inch or so away from probably killing myself in an incredibly dumb accident.

Let this be a warning to all parents with guns.  Always keep them locked up (along with the ammo) and keep the key away from your kids.  At the time I was in the 5th grade (about 11 years old) and definitely knew better, but kids do dumb things.

Staybrite: 

Well, hard to single out one thing....

6 years old:
Crucifyd's story reminded me of what a little pyro I was. One weekend I was spending at my Grandma's, I found a pack of matches. I looked for little things to burn, until I thought it'd be a great idea to light small sections of an old bed that was leaned up against her house (don't worry, story doesn't go there). I'd light a section then put it out real quick, until one time I couldn't. I went screaming that this bed was on fire ! My uncle came running out and put it out with the hose. 

7:
Class is in session. I got a bathroom pass and am the only one walking the school yard. I pass a fire alarm that had broken glass with just a shard holding the button. I assumed you broke the glass and pushed the button for the alarm to ring... WRONG ! When I slid the broken piece out (not sure why I messed with it) the button popped OUT - the whole school was lined up in the playground in seconds.
I got a 3 day vacation.

9:
During recess, I threw a rock towards my buddies so it would land near their feet or maybe peg their feet or legs... a teacher stepped in the way without knowing and was pegged right in the back of the head. Made her head bleed. I got a whippin' at school, I got a whippin' at home. (today they'd call that assault and I'd spend time in jail probably)

I could go on. I was a bit of a handful 

Staybrite wrote:

I used to get left home a lot when I was younger, and did some dumb stuff.

One time I had a small .22 round from my dad's gun.  I wanted to seperate the slug from the shell because I was going to put the slug on a necklace or keychain (or something).  So I went outside with two pairs of pliers on the back patio.  I gripped the slug with one pair of pliers and the shell with the other and commenced to trying to twist the slug out of the shell.  The pliers holding the slug kept slipping though (because the slug was soft and small).  I was kneeling down while doing it and a few times I hit the concrete patio with the hand holding the pliers on the slug end.  My grip slipped on the slug once and all of the sudden there was an intense ringing in my left ear.  I was very confused, and looking at the bullet I noticed the slug was gone.  It dawned on me I had manged to hit the primer against the sidewalk and fire off the slug.  I slowly set everything down and went inside to look at myself in the bathroom mirror...I almost couldn't hear out of my left ear.  When I saw myself in the mirror there was no blood (thankfully) but there was a red streak on the side of my face next to my ear, as if I had gotten a mild burn.  Realized immediately I was only an inch or so away from probably killing myself in an incredibly dumb accident.

Let this be a warning to all parents with guns.  Always keep them locked up (along with the ammo) and keep the key away from your kids.  At the time I was in the 5th grade (about 11 years old) and definitely knew better, but kids do dumb things.

We lived in the country and burned all of our paper and plastic trash.  We only took things like cans or glass to the local dumpster as we didn't even have a convenience center in our county.

My dad had a bunch of those primers given to him as he was interested in doing reloading.  He never did anything with them.  So, when I was around 14-15, I sneaked a bunch of those out with me when I burned the trash.  I put those primer buttons in some of the bags.  They definitely go off when exposed to intense heat.  They started popping like gunfire and flying all over the place.  I had to dive behind a fallen tree in the back yard to keep from getting hit.  My mom came flying out and wanted to know what happened, and I lied and told her someone had put some glass bottles in the trash.  She bought it, or at least she didn't bring it up again.  Knowing moms, I am guessing she knew what it was but felt I had learned a lesson.  She was wrong.  I did it multiple times because is was so freaking fun!

G/F, I was a pyro myself, fascinated with fire. I still light matches to this day just to watch 'em burn...and the smell is amazing as well...


when I was 4 I lived in Mapleton, OR in an apartment, with my dog Skeeter, on the first floor. the second floor had a deck the full length of the front of the building with the stairs on the side of one end.

one day I decided Skeeter was going to be Underdog so I went up the stairs with Underdog Skeeter in hand. I had my buddy Paul positioned on the ground to "catch" Skeeter...he didn't

one broken leg later...genius

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Staybrite: 

I know, right? 

As for the pyro tendencies I did that was well.  Nearly caught the shear drapes on fire when I was around eight and ruined my mother's coffee table burning lighter fluid in two large alabaster ashtrays when I was 9 or 10.  Got my butt blistered good for that last one.

alldatndensum wrote:

Staybrite wrote:

dumb stuff...

We lived in the country and burned all of our paper and plastic trash.  We only took things like cans or glass to the local dumpster as we didn't even have a convenience center in our county.

My dad had a bunch of those primers given to him as he was interested in doing reloading.  He never did anything with them.  So, when I was around 14-15, I sneaked a bunch of those out with me when I burned the trash.  I put those primer buttons in some of the bags.  They definitely go off when exposed to intense heat.  They started popping like gunfire and flying all over the place.  I had to dive behind a fallen tree in the back yard to keep from getting hit.  My mom came flying out and wanted to know what happened, and I lied and told her someone had put some glass bottles in the trash.  She bought it, or at least she didn't bring it up again.  Knowing moms, I am guessing she knew what it was but felt I had learned a lesson.  She was wrong.  I did it multiple times because is was so freaking fun!

Oh man that does sound like fun...and slightly less dangerous than throwing whole bullets into a fire.

You guys are a BUNCH of pyros. I can't believe you!

So I'll share one of mine. When I was in the 8th grade I was home alone. I built a fire in the fire place that would not keep burning. My first thought was "find something to get this started". So I found some kerosene in the garage. It couldn't be THAT dangerous, after all it wasn't gas right? I put some in a jar and took it inside. Threw it on the fire and BOY did it blaze! So much so that the jar I was holding caught fire. I ran into the bathroom and put it in the sink but when I did some dripped on the bathroom rug and it started to burn. I stomped it out but there were burn marks all over the rug. Fire was put out and I was in the clear except for that dang rug. So I wadded it up and hid it thinking no one would miss a bathroom rug. My mom came home and the first thing she said was "what's that smell? It smells like gas in here!". My response "I dunno, I don't smell anything". And the subject was dropped for many hours until guilt set in. Then I decided to fess-up and told my dad what happened and gave him the rug.

Surprisingly I didn't get in trouble. They were upset but is was along the lines of "Well Beaver I hope you learned a good lesson". My older brother: "Gee Beav, that was a dumb thing to do". My mom "Ward I think The Beaver knows better and won't do it again". So I escaped without punishment!

I've said before growing up I lived in the Cleaver home. My parents were just like Ward and June. I had 4 older brothers that were all like Wally.

We used to take standard firecrackers, light them, and hold them when they exploded.  Smarted like the devil!  Then, to show we were "tough", we'd light several and hold them and see who could hold on the longest.  I am surprised we didn't lose a finger!

We'd take the BIG bottlerockets, break off most of the stick, and then light them.  You had to throw them up in the air and hope that they stayed up in the air.  But, they have a tendency to come down and chase people.  LOL

Sadly, I did this well into my adult years with my brother.  LOL  We shot fireworks off of my sister's mailbox one year and burned the box up.  We had to replace it because the post office refused to deliver her mail after that.  Good times!

Strewth, some of your stories are really out there!  I think I won't bother mentioning the time I rang someone's door bell and then ran away...

I didn't do this one but my older brother and his buddy did.  I witnessed it.

My brother's friend used to take a match and cover the head in foil.  He then bent a paperclip into a holder and place the foil match on.  He'd light a second match and put it under the foil match.  When the foil match ignited it would "pop" and shoot the matchstick across the patio.

Epiphany!

If one match would pop and shoot across the patio, what would a bunch of matches do?

So they set out tearing the heads off of a large amount of matches and placing them into a sheet of foil.  The resulting wad ended up about the size of a softball.  They constructed the holding rack out of a wire coat hanger and placed it in the middle of the street.  A small fire was built underneath the ball and the waiting began.

We stood a safe distance of about 10 feet away and watched the foil ball change color knowing any minute there would be an earth shattering "kaboom".  We waited, and waited and waited some more.  A VW van came along and spotting the fire drove by really slow.  About the time the driver's door lined up with the experiment there was a strange, slow whooshing sound.  The top of the ball split open like a sinkhole and a multi-colored flame rose up about 6 feet.

The van sped off and we laughed even though we were very disappointed that there wasn't any explosion.

Wow, we were all messed up arsons... Thank God our kids didn't follow in our footsteps.

Speaking of kids, and learning from their parents. When we'd be cleaning or whatever, I used to take the aerosol can I was using for whatever project and, with a talented ability to make the exact sound of it spraying, would point it at the kids and make that sound. They'd flinch or whatever, we'd have a laugh.
One day, my daughter, who was about 11 at the time, decides it'd be a good idea to COPY me ! She points a bottle of 409 at her little brother and makes the PSSHHT noise, only she ALSO sprayed a little, hitting him in the eyes.
I ran in to the screaming, heard the explanation, and while washing his eyes out in the bathroom, I was laying in to her with all the "YOU COULD HAVE BLINDED HIM" guilt. She was crying, he was crying...
Later that evening I decided it'd be a good idea to not play with the kids like that again, so's not to teach them bad ideas. Sigh.

Fundy wrote:

Strewth, some of your stories are really out there!  I think I won't bother mentioning the time I rang someone's door bell and then ran away...

Oh that was always fun but I was the big chicken and afraid to do it. I always wanted my friends to do it but I never would.... Until they stopped doing it until *I* did one. So I picked a brick house (which we referred to after that night as the "red house" because of the bricks).

I slowly approached the door. Rang the door bell and ran as fast as I could down the street while my friends hid in the bushes a few yards away. I stayed away for a good 10 minutes and thought it would finally be safe to take a peek. When I saw the yard they were still out looking for whoever rang the bell. They were kids around my age but I didn't know them (yet). It was hilarious they were out looking in their bushes and yelling and hollaring. hahaha.

My friends were also pleased with the results but I was still a chicken after that. Most of the time people would open the door then go back in and not put any effort into looking for whoever rang the bell and ran.

About a year later I met the kids who lived there. Cool brothers, I spent the night with them and had loads of fun with those guys but i never admitted it was ME who did it. I causually mentioned it one time and asked if they had ever rang a doorbell and ran. And the response was what I hoped for... "No, but one time someone did ours! We searched all over for them and I know they were hiding in the bushes but they kept getting away!" I laughed and laughed. haahahah. I never hid in the bushes I ran as fast as I could away from there.

I decided when I was an adult that if anyone ever rang my doorbell and ran I would give them the show of their life -- it's what they want -- it's fun to watch someone come out and look around and i wanted kids to have as much fun as I did watching someone... But alas, no one has ever done it to me I think it is a lost art form.