what did you do as child that would be considered dangerous today? (1 Viewer)

We used to steal “torpedoes” out of railroad cabooses stopped in the rail yard. 
then use them to stop trains and ride them to the next town 10 miles down the line. Just climb on and hang from the ladders and jump off at the next town 

Made bazookas from tin cans, electrical tape, fuel them with gasoline and shoot tennis balls at each other 

LOCO said:

I would ride my bike behind the mosquito truck and my mom would say. “Hey don’t do that you might get run over”

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* Going to the park that was literally right down the street alone with friends.

* Going to a friends house for a sleepover

*  When we'd go camping my dad's BF son ( Born a week a part from one another I'm the older one) and I would wonder off for hrs. The camp ground was The Pine Barrens in NJ so we knew the area well enough. However with some bear sightings and we wouldn't come back to the site till it was almost time to make a fire. Our dads when 4 wheeling would let us sit on their laps too

* My Pop-Pop use to let me drive the Potone boat in the lake when I was 6-8yrs old. 

* Going to a friends without telling our parents. If we were home our parents would call the other and say "is little Djack or Johnny at your house? Yes ok just have him be home by 5 for dinner so he can wash up and all." Today a parent would lose their marbles.

* Going over to friends houses that had firearms. This was in the 90s but today I don't know many parents who let their kids over anyones houses adult surpervision or not that has guns in them even locked. My one Best Friends father was a cop so we were all always over at his place. 

* Asking me to take my brother to the grocery store for eggs or Milk it was 5 min walk across a busy street. Also letting us walk to the babysitters house who lived behind us. 

* My Dad's Best Friend still lives in NJ so whenever my family would go over his son and I would wonder off with his cousin who was a month older then me. In their old development there use to be a ton of construction so we'd adventure off to the construction sites of the houses for hours. 

* Playing street hockey in the literal street. Don't see many if any kids playing Basketball or hockey in the street like we use too. When I moved to my current house there was a family with a son my age into hockey. until they moved 2 yrs in we'd play hockey in the street and then the park with the friends I made and his. 

Skipdog77 said:

We used to ride Tonka trucks down the street/hill next to our house.  Sometimes we would even have someone watch for cars at the bottom. 

A lot of skin was lost on that hill.  

Also backyard wrestling matches with all the neighborhood kids.  That ended when one kid snapped my older sister's ankle. 

Good times. 

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My friends dad built us a nice backyard ring and all. Probably really unsafe. This was when ECW got big so we use to do all the stupid stuff there was and he'd take us to the 2300 Arena for shows. Today taking kids as young as 8 to an ECW show would be looked at as absolute terrible parenting 

snellman said:

The mosquito truck was a pickup with a big spraying machine mounted in the back of it that would go up and down every street in the summer months spraying a poison mist to kill mosquitos. Here is an example

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I could use one of those in my area during the summer 

ProstheticRGK said:

See my post above, grew up on the mainline/DelCo and we called it skitching.

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Which part of Mainline Delco were you? 

The sad part is the world is safer than it was when most of us grew up and we have phones for communication. In theory, kids should have more freedom than ever. 

DJackson10 said:

Which part of Mainline Delco were you? 

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Havertown

Set back alley dumpsters on fire and/or threw M-80s into them.

On the plus side we didn't have trash littering our front lawns on garbage day.

So much of thise stuff brings back memories.

For long trips I used to lay in the back windshield of the car and play my Mattel Football Game.  Forget the seatbelt.  I was rarely in a seat.  Nothing like rolling down i-95 in a Caprice Classic annoying my parents with the endless beeps from this thing.  

 https://www.google.com/search?q=mattel+football+II&sxsrf=ALeKk026WQvWMTEvJdCUP5xqD5jKGH_l8A:1594132287918&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj15_vFrbvqAhV7lnIEHWj2Ds8Q_AUoA3oECA0QBQ&biw=1217&bih=766#imgrc=nYNqQJRl0qCwBM

Ilov80s said:

The sad part is the world is safer than it was when most of us grew up and we have phones for communication. In theory, kids should have more freedom than ever. 

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Back then it made police work a lot lighter by just saying every missing kid ran away, now it makes 24 hour news and freaks out everyone. 

Brunell4MVP said:

So much of thise stuff brings back memories.

For long trips I used to lay in the back windshield of the car and play my Mattel Football Game.  Forget the seatbelt.  I was rarely in a seat.  Nothing like rolling down i-95 in a Caprice Classic annoying my parents with the endless beeps from this thing.  

 https://www.google.com/search?q=mattel+football+II&sxsrf=ALeKk026WQvWMTEvJdCUP5xqD5jKGH_l8A:1594132287918&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj15_vFrbvqAhV7lnIEHWj2Ds8Q_AUoA3oECA0QBQ&biw=1217&bih=766#imgrc=nYNqQJRl0qCwBM

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This was ours G.O.A.T.

brun said:

Was an alter boy. Played little league. Was in boy scouts.

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prosopis said:

Narrowly escaped a pedophile.

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Sorry @prosopis, its already been mentioned. 

Zow said:

Damn I was a pretty boring kid. Didn't really do any of this stuff. 

Only thing I can think of is that as early as like 5th or 6th grade I could bikeride wherever I wanted. 

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That's because you spent all your time preparing to win the Greatest All Time Sports Draft of 2020

huthut said:

Back then it made police work a lot lighter by just saying every missing kid ran away, now it makes 24 hour news and freaks out everyone. 

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Perhaps. I can't say anything about how missing children were or weren't reported. I do agree that the way in which the information is put on TV, social media, etc. has had a major influence on people's perceptions of how safe the world is or isn't. Just based on facts, violent crime is down compared to the 80s and 90s. Violent crime peaked around 91 and as of 2014, violent crime was at it's lowest rates since 1970. 

I heard an interesting study talked about a few years ago. In the 80s, a group of researchers went to a town to study how kids play when adults aren't around. They did all kinds of things like map where the kids went, what times they were out, how often they were not in the presence of any adults, etc. Then they came back to the same town about 25 years later to study the next generation of kids. They discovered that when kids went out, they traveled a much much smaller radius, they were gone for much shorter periods of time and it was much less common for them to be out without an adult around. All of this despite violent crime and crime in general in the area being considerably lower than it was when they were originally there. These kids who were allowed all that freedom, grew up into much more protective parents. There are several potential conclusions to draw here: the increased media presence creates a sense of fear, kids have more things to do at home now, parents are more responsible than past generations, etc. I find it an interesting phenomenon though. 

brun said:

Was an alter boy. Played little league. Was in boy scouts.

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prosopis said:

Narrowly escaped a pedophile.

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Cjw_55106 said:

Sorry @prosopis, its already been mentioned. 

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Coincidentally - When  I was 14, I found out after the fact that 2 of my friends were diddled by a local man. At the time my dad was teaching at Valley Forge Military Academy. The bad guy was a science teacher at the academy and lived in the same campus housing as us. My friends and I would sometimes hang out in his apartment and watch tv.

When my friend told me about it. It never occurred to me to say anything to anyone at the time and we were moving away in a couple weeks. Even though I understood it was forced, I think I figured if you let him do that, it was on you.

Ilov80s said:

Perhaps. I can't say anything about how missing children were or weren't reported. I do agree that the way in which the information is put on TV, social media, etc. has had a major influence on people's perceptions of how safe the world is or isn't. Just based on facts, violent crime is down compared to the 80s and 90s. Violent crime peaked around 91 and as of 2014, violent crime was at it's lowest rates since 1970. 

I heard an interesting study talked about a few years ago. In the 80s, a group of researchers went to a town to study how kids play when adults aren't around. They did all kinds of things like map where the kids went, what times they were out, how often they were not in the presence of any adults, etc. Then they came back to the same town about 25 years later to study the next generation of kids. They discovered that when kids went out, they traveled a much much smaller radius, they were gone for much shorter periods of time and it was much less common for them to be out without an adult around. All of this despite violent crime and crime in general in the area being considerably lower than it was when they were originally there. These kids who were allowed all that freedom, grew up into much more protective parents. There are several potential conclusions to draw here: the increased media presence creates a sense of fear, kids have more things to do at home now, parents are more responsible than past generations, etc. I find it an interesting phenomenon though. 

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As for me, I was a golden kid. Would not talk back or argue about rules, and was given a lot of freedom because of it. I loved playing outside with friends, but we rarely left the yard. The most dangerous activities I got into were climbing around in a tobacco barn or wandering out a few minutes to a little stream on my great grandmother's farm. Dunno, never felt compelled to explore much further.

Edit: one other thing "dangerous" was how fast we would whip 'round the merry go round.

ProstheticRGK said:

Havertown

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Are you serious? Thats where I am now 

Ilov80s said:

Perhaps. I can't say anything about how missing children were or weren't reported. I do agree that the way in which the information is put on TV, social media, etc. has had a major influence on people's perceptions of how safe the world is or isn't. Just based on facts, violent crime is down compared to the 80s and 90s. Violent crime peaked around 91 and as of 2014, violent crime was at it's lowest rates since 1970. 

I heard an interesting study talked about a few years ago. In the 80s, a group of researchers went to a town to study how kids play when adults aren't around. They did all kinds of things like map where the kids went, what times they were out, how often they were not in the presence of any adults, etc. Then they came back to the same town about 25 years later to study the next generation of kids. They discovered that when kids went out, they traveled a much much smaller radius, they were gone for much shorter periods of time and it was much less common for them to be out without an adult around. All of this despite violent crime and crime in general in the area being considerably lower than it was when they were originally there. These kids who were allowed all that freedom, grew up into much more protective parents. There are several potential conclusions to draw here: the increased media presence creates a sense of fear, kids have more things to do at home now, parents are more responsible than past generations, etc. I find it an interesting phenomenon though. 

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Some parents are just too overbearing though. The funny thing is seeing my friends who watched certain shows or movies wouldn't even allow their kids near them now. I'm not talking the "I learned from past mistakes" parent but the prudes. people who were well ok with that but then for whatever reasoned changed. I had a friend (Actually first serious crush) her name was Mallory in 6th grade. She was the typical COOL GIRL in school everyone and anyone wanted to hang out with as you knew you were gonna get into some fun trouble with her and her group. till 9th grade or so there was always underage parties etc at her house. The cool thing was she was only a 15 min walk from my house or a 6-8 min car ride. A buddy of mine would pick me up and go to her house for parties when parents were away. Then everything changed.

She got really serious about religion, parents sent her on this christian mission camp or whatever. 5 yr HS reunion coming up when we left (18 yrs since I left right now) I ask if she's going. She said no since it was at a bar and she couldn't go. She wasn't an addict or anything just because of what religion she practiced she couldn't even go to a dam bar for a class reunion. A lot of people were upset she wouldn't go. She was our class President for 3 of our 4 yrs in HS too. She turned into a total prune about a lot of stuff. Still think to this day what would've happened if I had the guts to ask her out in school and if she'd have kept the cool girl thing going. The best part is yrs later a co worker who is in her church group said something about working with me. Mallory admits to her that she knew I had a crush on her too. Never said a word to me about it. Her husband is a cool guy and knows about it too and he's always been fairly cool about it.

Dear god.

We’d take to the streets for “gun fights” with those old cap guns or the M-16’s and UZI’s that you’d pull the trigger and it sounded like it was firing. They looked so freaking real they’d get you shot by a cop today.

Waiting until the first good snowfall of the winter and then take our ten speeds down the biggest hill in town. Braking not allowed (like it would’ve worked anyway).

My uncle lived on a farm. My cousin and I learned how to drive tractors at 8 and cars/trucks at 13. And by “drive” I mean RACE. Taking turns driving and hanging out of the bed of my uncle’s ’74 Ford F100 at 65 mph in a freshly plowed field. Also learned to shoot out there. I was in geometry class, so I “understood” angles. So if you shoot at the steel rails of the railroad (or a sign, or scrap metal, whatever) in order to hear the cool ricochet sound, as long as it was at the correct angle, there was NO WAY that the slug could come back and hit you. Science!

Smoking cigarettes everywhere. Like EVERYWHERE. Like while stacking hay in the barn or shelling corn or while filling your car with gas.

Wrapping the rope from your sled around the bumper of your buddies car while he whipped donuts in the biggest parking lot in town. While smoking cigarettes.

Drag racing down rural gravel roads with big hills. You never would have seen another car coming over one of those things and we would get up over 90 mph, abreast, with windows down screaming at each other. While smoking cigarettes. Hell, we passed cigarettes between cars going down the road. But that wasn’t too unsafe. At least we only did that on the highway and the cigs weren’t lit.

And then we discovered alcohol and things really got stupid.

DJackson10 said:

Are you serious? Thats where I am now 

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small world. i wouldn’t want to paint it, though. go grab a cheesesteak from Westgate Pub for me!

When I was 7 or 8 I would help my grandpa completely fill his pickup with firewood (he sold it locally) and I would then sit on top of the unstable pile while he drove to each delivery.

9 or 10 just taking off on my bike to a friends across major roads

Playing football in the street with all the neighborhood kids, if you were in the street it was two hand touch, if you went into the front yards it became tackle.  Between all the trees, mailboxes, curbs... surprised no one even ended up in the ER

Uncle had a station wagon, he put a piece of plastic in the back and 3 or 4 of us would sit back there slidding around as he took corners too fast.

"car seats"

Pretty sure my mom has said she used to breastfeed my sister while driving

ProstheticRGK said:

small world. i wouldn’t want to paint it, though. go grab a cheesesteak from Westgate Pub for me!

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Was there about 4 months prior to all this happening honestly. They've spruced the place up a bit. 

Going to school until there is a vaccine and more effective txs is dangerous to all. 

I am starting to suspect we were a bit wilder than everyone else in my neighborhood.  And we were really good at hiding.

Would fix as tube TV as a kid, maybe  8 or 9 years old.  Was smart enough to unplug, but I discovered capacitance.  

Tie rope to car and pull us sliding on the packed snow on the road like we were water skiing.

Is snipe hunting still legal?

I remember seeing kids do that stupid passing out thing.  They would lean over and hyperventilate for 30 seconds and then stand up against a wall and another kid would cross his forearms over the kid's neck until he passed out.

So dumb.

When I was 8 or 9 I took a bus from Tulsa to Dallas.

I'd ride my bike across the city until I got lost just about every Saturday.

Jumped from a 3rd floor balcony into a swimming pool - almost missed.

Phil Elliott said:

Tie rope to car and pull us sliding on the packed snow on the road like we were water skiing.

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We did this at URI from 95-97 pretty much every storm.  But we did it down the street with the giant hill right next to the campus police station.  They didn't bother us once.  And we didn't tie the rope, we closed the trunk on it.  Much easier.

We would be gone for hours. Large public park across the street. Brother and I were expected to look out for another.