Dumb Kwestion #53 - What dumb thing did you do as a kid?

Have we done this one yet? I was thinking back to something I did as a kid. Probably 1977 or so, I was probably 6 or 7 years old. We have a Chevy Caprice Classic. On the hood was one of these:

They were not completely stationary. You could bend them over or flip them around backwards. I did it all the time. I don't think anyone ever saw me do it but I probably did it hundreds of times. One time I kept flipping it in the same direction over and over until the cable that hold it in place snapped. I freaked! I probably even cried! But I didn't dare tell anyone! I simply "put it back" right-side up. Then the next time we went somewhere when my dad put the car in reverse it fell over. I don't think I ever admitted to it and I don't think my dad ever suspected anything. It made a loud "clunk" when it fell on the hood. Looking back I think if I admitted to breaking it my dad probably wouldn't have been very mad. 

I have another story and I will see if I can find a photo, will post if I can find it.

Here is another. This is our home when we lived in Michigan. I was looking around on Zillow for our old house and found it. 


Look at the smaller window to the left of the bigger one. Do you see underneath it? That is a set of double doors that lead to an unfinished basement. When I was a kid I thought I would see what happened if I jumped on those doors. And guess what? Yep! I fell thru! There are no stairs, just a hole in the ground and then a door in the hole that leads to the basement. So I fell in a 6 foot hole I could not get out of! Luckily one of my older brothers heard something from inside the house and ran out to see what had happened and got me out of the hole. Luckily I didn't get hurt and I didn't get in trouble but man that was DUMB!

Also, look at the second story. Do you see that window that leads to the roof? Well, in the late 70's 2 liter plastic bottles had just come out. They were supposed to be unbreakable if you dropped them on the floor. So one of my other brothers climbed out that window and went to the highest peak on the house with a full 2 liter bottle of Pepsi. We wanted to see what would happen to the bottle. He dropped it from the top and Pepsi exploded everywhere! I don't think we got in trouble for it and it wasn't too dumb because I was safely in the yard. Now if my brothers dared me to climb out there and do it that would have been dumb!

Oh man I think I could write a short book of the dumb stuff I did as a kid....and I didn't have the excuse of brothers to blame it on!  I'll have to think up a few.  Some of them I never told my parents about.

My legal team advises me not to speak about what I did as a child.

I taped a model rocket engine to a balsa wood airplane.  When the engine ignited, of course the plane took off like a shot.  But the wings seemed to hang in place for a split second before crumbling into splinters onto the street.  The fuselage took off but the wings didn't.

I had a wrist rocket and my cousin and I broke every dish in my sisters doll set then we told different stories about what happened. 
My Grandparents had air rifles and we put dirt in them and shoot them in each other's face.

I think I've done dump things too as kid.


I can remember I would knock on the window and it was a bit to hard.
So the window was broken.

Oh, my childhood was full of dumb things!

We used to go sledding on folded pieces of roofing tin.  While it never happened, that stuff could cut you in half with the right crash.

We would ride Tonka trucks down a big hill at the house.

My brother and I had many BB gun wars.  The only rule was you couldn't shoot someone in the nuts or in the face.  Anything else was open season.

We walked on a neighbor's pond when it would freeze over.  That sounds magical to you Yankees, but it doesn't get cold enough long enough to freeze a body of water here solid enough to walk or skate on.  We would test it by shooting the ice with a .22 rifle and then move to the center.  When it began to crack, we ran to keep from getting soaked.  The water wasn't deep enough to drown in.

I used to go to this girl's house I was sweet on.  We would walk the railroad tracks back to town to get a Coke sometimes.  We had to cross a train bridge to get there.  We messed around on that bridge one day and didn't hear the train coming.  We had to get down in some holes where poles used to be that they could swing mail bags off in a hurry back in the old days.  The train was literally inches above our heads.  If we didn't duck down enough, we would have been decapitated.

My brother shot me with a 12 gauge shotgun at point blank range and I lived!  Of course, he had taken all the buckshot out so that it just made a big BOOM and enough compression to knock a guy over.  I hit him repeatedly with a big stick, too!

We would set up ramps in the yard out of old lumber and concrete blocks.  Our yard was very hilly and bowl shaped.  We would ride our bikes down the hills and hit those ramps to see how high we could get.  We would also take turns laying on the ground and allowing the other to jump us.

I would go to a buddy's house growing up.  We'd listen to metal all day.  We'd play games, rent movies, do stupid stuff, etc. just like guys do.  Our favorite dumb thing to do was to take darts (really sharp dartboard darts), take off our shoes, and throw them at one another's feet.  You were to try not to move.  I have had a dart sticking out of my foot more than once.  DUMB!!!

I could go on and on.  My childhood was filled with a lot of dumb things.

Alldat is like: ain't skeered of little virus, should've seen what I did as a kid.

I had a new swimming suit and used the sofa as a diving board. The sofa broke and my parents had to buy a new sofa.

TTDR was it so worse what you did in your childhood?

Black Rider wrote:

Alldat is like: ain't skeered of little virus, should've seen what I did as a kid.

Well, not really.  There were other things I was terrified of.  I don't like heights and didn't risk climbing trees except for a few lower limbed ones.  I didn't learn to swim until I was 18 because of fear.  I didn't learn how to float on my back until around 2013 on a youth trip.  Until then, I could float but I couldn't let go of the side of the pool.  On that trip, however, I let go!

I am not afraid of a virus because I know that Jesus is alive and has the situation under control.  Whether I live or die, the virus doesn't decide.  That's God's job.  Either way, I will be with him.  Oh, Death, where is thy sting?  Oh grave, where is thy victory?

I grew up

BearDad wrote:

I grew up

Oh wow, it's a super rare BearDad sighting!  Good to see you here again brother, hope things are going well with you.

Staybrite wrote:

BearDad wrote:

I grew up

Oh wow, it's a super rare BearDad sighting!  Good to see you here again brother, hope things are going well with you.

Great to see you, BearDad!

I hope this story doesn't offend anyone. Keep in mind this was STUPID things done as a kid.

All in all, I was a pretty good kid. I can remember things that happened all the way back to when I was 18 months old. Yeah, it's weird. There were certain... words (one in particular that started with an n) that were used around me that I didn't understand. This story takes place in 1978. My family & I didn't truly come to Christ until 1985/1986. Please keep that in mind & don't judge!

October 30, 1978. I was 2 years old & I had gotten really sick. My mom took me to the "local' hospital & they said it was no big deal & sent me home. I remember waking up the next morning & I could barely breathe.  I had double pneumonia. I clearly remember reaching for a glass of Coke, trying to catch my breath.

My mom took me to a better hospital a little farther away & I was immediately admitted. Again, please remember, I didn't know what a 'racial slur' was. I was 2. All I knew is that there was this one certain word that was (in my mind) an insult & it was a bad thing to call somebody. I have a vivid memory of a bunch of nurses trying to hold me down & put an IV in my arm. I was horrified, so what did I do? I hurled the most (to me anyway) hurtful & insulting thing at them I could. I screamed, "DON'T TOUCH ME YOU ******!" It embarrassed my mom to death. She put her hand over my mouth & frantically shout-whispered, "There's a black lady right there!" I can still see the nurse's face. She looked to be in her late 50s/early 60s & she wore wire rimmed glasses.

Needless to say, I spent Halloween & what seemed like forever, in the hospital. The next trauma they put me through was something call an "oxygen tent". Not fun for a 2 year old. One strange thing though, I never spent another extended stay in the hospital until 2008 when I was having major stomach issues. And yes, it was on Halloween. It was 30 years to the day since my last hospital stay.

I seriously hope no one is offended by this. Please remove it if it does, but this is exactly what happened. If there is a thread about stupid things you did as a teenager, I could write a book. Well, more silly than stupid. We filmed most of it too. Nothing illegal. I've been in Lordchain since I was 13, so I stayed out of trouble for the most part. I never wanted to preach Jesus from the stage & not live the life.

Wow, a lot of great stories!   And KellyM, I don't think telling a story about a dumb thing you did as a kid would or could be considered offensive, it's just that: a dumb thing, or in some cases: just ignorant. I was totally ignorant when I was a 3 year old in my moms arms at the bank when I pointed at the man in line behind her and said "MOMMY! THAT MAN'S SKIN IS BLACK!!"   She was devastated and embarrassed, but she said the man thought it was funny. 

As for my "dumb" childhood actions? MANY. But what sticks out in my memory are the dumb things I did with my FIRE fascination. I was a little Beavis pyromania. One time, I believe I was 7, I was in my Grandma's backyard with a pack of matches I found. She had an old bed leaning up against the house. I knew it was heading to the dump... sooooo, I would light up parts of the underside of the bed, then put it out real fast (you see this coming don't you?). By the 4th or 5th match I was unable to put it out - thing went up like a stack of dry leaves!  I went running for the house and yelling "SOMEONE LIT THE BED ON FIRE"... Geez, a pyromaniac AND a friggin liar... what an evil brat I was 

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Geez, a pyromaniac AND a friggin liar... what an evil brat I was 

Yes, you were!

But you're a funny little pyro-liar.

I have one that is very similar to Kelly's, only I didn't have a fever to use as an excuse.  When I was 6 we moved to a city just outside of Richmond Virginia (my dad was in the Army).  Previously we had lived in Colorado and we didn't have many black families in our neighborhood.  But the house we moved into in Virginia was in a neighborhood that was 99% black (or African-American).  We lived in a two story house, and rented the upstairs portion which had been turned into an apartment.  The owner/landlord was a retired black couple in their 60's who lived downstairs.  I was the only white kid for several blocks around, but it didn't phase me.  I made lots of friends with the neighborhood kids and their older siblings watched out for all of us.  When I started school a month or so after the move I went to the elementary school on the Army base.  A few of the kids from my neighborhood also went to school with me.  So I played with them on the playground at recess (along with many of the other kids).  Apparently some of the white kids didn't like the fact that I played with the black kids and started calling me "Ni--er Lover".  I had no idea what it meant, and quite frankly didn't think much of it.  When I got home from school I remember walking into our kitchen and asking my mother "Mom, what's a ni--er lover?"  She happened to be sitting at the kitchen table with the lady landlord (who was obviously black).  My mom was horrified, but the landlady laughed like it was the funniest joke she ever heard.  That was my introduction to racism.

I used to try to light the hornets nests in the neighborhood on fire and of course, one time lit the neighbors yard on fire. Kids are dumb.

Black Rider wrote:

I used to try to light the hornets nests in the neighborhood on fire and of course, one time lit the neighbors yard on fire. Kids are dumb.

Oh man, glad I'm not the only pyro at the CHM 

Quote :

That was my introduction to racism.

What a great story! I could picture it all in my head... (course with your current face on the body of a 6 year old) 

I got another one. I may have told this here before... many years ago, so for the benefit of our newer members:
4th grade. I asked to go the John. On my way back I stopped off at the fire alarm. Now this alarm was one of those glass ones, you break and the button automatically pops OUT. I did not know that. Well, this one was broken. The glass had been broken on either side and the button was held in by a 2 inch piece of remaining glass. It always caught my attention and intrigued me as I passed it every day, so this day I decided to "mess with it". I grabbed the piece of glass and moved it just a little... it came loose and the button popped out - RRRRIINNGGG RRRRIINNGGG RRRRIINNGGG RRRRIINNGGG ...

Crud.

I casually blended in with all the thousands of students at this Los Angeles elementary school and played the part of the innocent student. Course I've never been a good liar and when my teacher questioned me (since I was out with a restroom pass at the time it happened), I broke down and told him I didn't MEAN to! Which was the truth, cuz I believed 100% that you broke the glass and pushed the button! I seen it in a movie once, the guy broke the glass and pushed the button with his thumb. 
They didn't believe me. I got 3 days off to think about what I did. My Mom believed me, my Dad did not (though I think to this day he's still a little proud of me for doing it)  

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

I got another one. I may have told this here before... many years ago, so for the benefit of our newer members:
4th grade. I asked to go the John. On my way back I stopped off at the fire alarm. Now this alarm was one of those glass ones, you break and the button automatically pops OUT. I did not know that. Well, this one was broken. The glass had been broken on either side and the button was held in by a 2 inch piece of remaining glass. It always caught my attention and intrigued me as I passed it every day, so this day I decided to "mess with it". I grabbed the piece of glass and moved it just a little... it came loose and the button popped out - RRRRIINNGGG RRRRIINNGGG RRRRIINNGGG RRRRIINNGGG ...

Crud.

I casually blended in with all the thousands of students at this Los Angeles elementary school and played the part of the innocent student. Course I've never been a good liar and when my teacher questioned me (since I was out with a restroom pass at the time it happened), I broke down and told him I didn't MEAN to! Which was the truth, cuz I believed 100% that you broke the glass and pushed the button! I seen it in a movie once, the guy broke the glass and pushed the button with his thumb. 
They didn't believe me. I got 3 days off to think about what I did. My Mom believed me, my Dad did not (though I think to this day he's still a little proud of me for doing it)  

We had those in 8th grade. But ours were like the ones in the movies -- you break the glass then push the button. I accidentally broke the glass on one. 


It looked just like this one, with a "hammer" on the front. We would always mess with the hammer when we walked by and one time I did it a little too hard and the glass broke. When the glass breaks the hammer and the "door" flop down and it just hangs there. We were in panic mode! Luckily, no alarm so we had time to clean up all the glass and one of my buddies had the idea to tape the door back up so we did. We worried about it for days but no one ever noticed.

Wow Mike, you got lucky ! LOL! 

Some reason I cannot find a picture via google search of the alarms our school had, so I just drew one   This is how it looked - The glass had been broken for months and it always drove me crazy cuz I was such a curious kid that had to touch and mess with everything. There were no instructions saying the button was held IN by the glass and you didn't PUSH it, rather it would pop out when the glass was removed. So it technically wasn't ALL my fault