Even though the modern world isn’t any more dangerous than it was thirty or forty years ago, it feels like a more perilous place. Or, more accurately, we inhabit the world today in a way that’s much more risk averse; for a variety of very interesting and nuanced reasons, our tolerance for risk, especially concerning our children’s safety, has steadily declined.
So we remove jungle gyms from playgrounds, ban football at recess, prohibit knives (even the butter variety) at school, and would rather have our kids playing with an iPad than rummaging through the garage or roaming around the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, as we discussed in-depth earlier this year, when you control for one set of risks, another simply arises in its place. In this case, in trying to prevent some bruises and broken bones, we also inhibit our children’s development of autonomy, competence, confidence, and resilience. In pulling them back from firsthand experiences, from handling tangible materials and demonstrating concrete efficacy, we ensconce them in a life of abstraction rather than action. By insisting on doing everything ourselves, because we can do things better and more safely, we deprive kids of the chance to make and test observations, to experiment and tinker, to fail and bounce back. In treating everything like a major risk, we prevent kids from learning how to judge the truly dangerous, from the simply unfamiliar.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
Fortunately, we can restore the positive traits that have been smothered by overprotective parenting, by restoring some of the “dangerous” activities that have lately gone missing from childhood. The suggestions below on this score were taken both from 50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do), as well as memories from my own more “free range” childhood. If you grew up a few decades back, these activities may seem “obvious” to you, but they’re less a part of kids’ lives today, and hopefully these reminders can help spark their revival.
While each contains a element of danger and chance of injury, these risks can be thoroughly mitigated and managed by you, the parent: Permit or disallow activities based on your child’s individual age, maturity level, and abilities. Take necessary precautions (which are common sense and which I’m not going to entirely spell out for you; you’re a grown-up, not a moron). Teach and demonstrate correct principles, and supervise some practice runs. Once you’ve created this scaffolding of safety, however, try to step back and give your child some independence. Step in only when a real danger exists, or when your adult strength/dexterity/know-how is absolutely necessary. And don’t be afraid to let your kids fail. That’s how they learn and become more resilient.
In return for letting your children grapple with a little bit of healthy risk, the activities below teach motor skills, develop confidence, and get kids acquainted with the use of tools and some of the basic principles of science. Outside any educational justification, however, they’re just plain fun — something we’ve forgotten can be a worthy childhood pursuit in and of itself!
Play With Fireworks
Playing with fireworks is not only a fun way to celebrate freedom, it teaches your kids how to responsibly handle fire and to have a healthy respect for exploding objects. Unfortunately, thanks to stringent fireworks laws and parents freaked out from viral stories of children losing eyeballs while lighting Roman candles, many kids today have never experienced the pure excitement and joy of igniting a fuse and waiting for the impending explosion.
Introduce your 3-5 year olds to the world of fireworks with “pop-pops” — those little paper-wrapped tadpole-like things you throw on the ground. They’re safe and the kids can have fun with them without injuring themselves or anybody else. You can also get them acquainted with sparklers. These preparatory “fireworks” offer a chance for children to learn general principles of safety: not to throw lit objects at others, touch people with a hot sparkler, handle a dud, etc.
When your kids hit age 6, you can start letting them light innocuous fireworks like snakes and smoke bombs. These don’t explode and will teach your kids how to light a fuse safely and to be aware of others as they use firecrackers.
By age 9 or 10, your kid should be ready to fire off pretty much anything you can find at a fireworks stand. You should continue to supervise their pyrotechnics until they’re teens, though.
Hammer a Nail
Hammering a nail is a basic life skill every person should master, but many parents don’t let their kids attempt this task out of fear of them smashing their fingers. Yes, little children are uncoordinated, but the only way they’ll ever become coordinated is if they gain hands-on experience in using tools. Start letting your 3-year-old practice hammering nails with a ball peen hammer. They’re lighter than the traditional claw variety and thus easier to handle. As your child’s dexterity and strength improve, upgrade him to a full-sized claw hammer, lay out a 2×4 and a box of nails, and let him go to town.
Talk about cheap entertainment.
Stick Your Arm Out a Car Window
Sticking their arm out the window of a moving car and letting their hand ride the wind is a great way for kids to get acquainted with the basic principles of aerodynamics — it’s like a personal wind tunnel. Encourage your child to play with different positions — moving the angle of her hand, closing and opening her fingers — to observe how these variations affect lift and drag.
Yes, an arm could be severed if it hit an object alongside the road, but objects are very, very rarely positioned close enough to cause a collision. And if they are, your kid’s got eyes, doesn’t she?
Jump Off a Cliff
When you jump from a cliff 20 feet high, you’ll hit the water at 25 miles an hour. That’s enough force to do some serious bodily damage. But making such jumps, and even those which are higher, is certainly doable, even for small kids, as long as you take precautions and teach them proper technique.
Make sure the water is deep enough; for a jump of 20 feet, the water should be at least 8 feet deep. Then add 2 feet of water depth for every additional 10 feet of jump height. Ensure the landing spot is free from underwater obstacles like rocks. And teach your child to jump in a pencil dive: body straight, arms overhead, back slightly arched to avoid rotating forward. For little ones who aren’t strong swimmers, put them in a life jacket before they Geronimo! into the water.
Use a Bow and Arrow
After watching a Robin Hood flick or reading The Hunger Games, your kids will probably want to shoot a bow and arrow. Instead of getting him (or her) the wimpy Nerf variety, let them use the real thing. A youth archery set can be found for less than $50, will provide hours of entertainment, and will teach your kids how to be responsible with potentially dangerous objects. They’ll also pick up skills like judging distance and how to aim.
Cook a Meal
Cooking might not seem that dangerous, but once your kids start wanting to help make dinner, you begin noticing how many tasks prompt a “Whoa, be careful there!” response. Sharp knives, stove fire, and hot pans present hazards. I remember when I was five, I decided to nuke a bowl of milk by myself; when I took the bowl out of the microwave, I spilled its scalding hot contents all over my arm. At first I hid from my mom, but as a huge blister formed, I had to confess and get it tended to by a doctor.
Despite such potential mishaps, it’s worth not only letting your children assist you in the kitchen, but allowing them to try cooking on their own too. More so than any other activity on this list, it’ll teach them a valuable skill towards grown-up self-sufficiency.
Climb a Tree
Few activities feel more liberating than climbing a tree. It’s thrilling to leave the ground and test your physical deftness, as well as your daring as you decide just how high up you’ll go. The air seems fresher among the branches. The most classic of classic childhood activities, hopefully tree climbing will continue on for another millennia.
Roughhouse
Roughhousing may just look like a primitive-level melee of potentially injury-causing wrestling and hair pulling, but it actually has a bunch of high-level benefits. Whether children are mixing it up with Dad, or with each other, research has shown that good old fashioned horseplay develops kids’ resilience, intelligence, and even empathy — it teaches them how to negotiate the dynamics of aggression, cooperation, and fair play. So suplex your children more often, and don’t break up the good natured battle royales they put on between themselves.
Go Sledding
Yes, it’s hard to believe this needs to be mentioned — that sledding isn’t an intrinsic part of every childhood (at least for those who live in colder climes). But I’ve met an alarming number of kids who grew up where there was at least occasional snow, and yet never went sledding. It’s hard to know if this is because parents are worried about the danger of the activity, or are just too lazy to leave their toasty, climate-controlled home to take the kids to a local hill. Either way, while sledding invariably comes with some bumps and bruises, as well as environmental discomforts, there’s hardly a more fun and memorable childhood activity. Especially when mitten-molded snow ramps are involved.
Drive a Car
Not by themselves, mind you. Or on public streets, of course, which would be illegal. But in a big parking lot, largely free of obstacles, positioned on Dad’s lap, who can work the pedals and grab the steering wheel if needs be. From this position, a kid can experience the thrill of learning how to steer a 2-ton hunk of metal in relative safety.
Burn Things With a Magnifying Glass
There are many fun and interesting ways to start a fire without matches, but using a magnifying glass is one of the most versatile. It provides you with a focused beam of heat that cannot only burn paper and leaves, but melt plastic. A kid can even use it to burn a symbol or his name into a piece of wood.
Walk or Ride a Bike to School
According to one study in the U.K., while 80% of third-graders were allowed to walk to school in 1971, that number had dropped to just 9% in 1990, and is even lower today. Parents started prohibiting their children from walking or riding their bike to and from school by themselves out of the fear that they might be kidnapped along the way. Yet abductions are exceedingly rare, and no more common now than they were several decades ago. Further, a child has a 40X greater risk of dying as a passenger in a car than being kidnapped or killed by a stranger.
If letting your kid walk to school (or even the bus stop) still fills you with dread, work up to it gradually: 1) Walk together with your child to school a few times, pointing out any dangers from traffic and reviewing how to deal with strangers, then 2) walk halfway to school with your child, watching her walk the rest of the way alone, and finally 3) let her walk all the way by herself, without you watching.
Shoot a Gun
Guns and kids is an understandably sensitive topic, but we’d make the case that proactively teaching your kids how to safely use firearms is the best way to teach a healthy respect for them. When they’re 7 or so, introduce them to a pellet gun and begin teaching proper gun safety rules like keeping their finger off the trigger until they’re ready to shoot and treating every weapon as if it were loaded. Set up a a target (tin cans are fun) in your backyard and let them plink away while you watch. As they get a little older, they can tote around their BB gun by themselves. Don’t worry about them shooting their eye out!
When they reach about age 10 or 11, you can introduce them to a .22 caliber rifle or pistol. Again, this should be done under your supervision and you should reinforce good gun safety principles the entire time.
Stand on the Roof
What kid hasn’t wanted to get a bird’s eye view of the neighborhood? Standing on the roof of your home is one of the more risky activities in this list, naturally, so supervise this vertical venture and take the necessary precautions: Only allow your child to attempt if your roof isn’t overly steep and is in good condition, without loose shingles and other potential hazards. Have your kid walk straight up and down the roof, standing with one foot on either side of its peak for stability, as they survey the landscape below.
Squash a Penny on a Railroad Track
Kate did this once in Vermont as a kid. At the exact moment she placed the penny on the track, a car in an adjacent parking lot happened to honk its horn; thinking it was the sound of an oncoming train, she jumped 10 feet in the air. Her family still laughs about it.
You do want to stay aware as you put your penny on a railroad track to be sure a train isn’t coming. If you’re going to wait for the train to come by and smoosh your coin, you also want to stand back at least 30 feet, as it could hypothetically come flying off and hit you. You don’t have to wait around for the train, though. If you decide to come back in a few hours or the next day to see what became of your penny, mark the spot with a stick before you leave for easy finding later on.
There’s a myth that a penny can derail a train, but that’s not true. You don’t want to put anything larger than a penny on the track, though.
Sword Fight With Sticks
Parents are wary of anything involving sharp objects, sticks included. But letting your kid engage in some improvised swashbuckling is too fun an opportunity to pass up because of a negligible risk of injury.
Shoot a Slingshot
In a time not too long ago, the archetypical boy had a handmade slingshot dangling from the back of his pocket. Today, most boys have never touched one. Which is a shame because slingshots can provide hours of fun and they’re a great way to introduce firearm safety to your young ones (e.g., only point at what you plan on hitting).
Yes, you could just buy your kid a fancy manufactured slingshot on Amazon, but how about exposing them to even more positive danger by letting them make their own? (You can find instructions here.) They’ll learn how to handle a saw safely and get to practice some knife wielding skills to boot.
Explore a Construction Site
While I was growing up, the subdivision I lived in was still under construction, so there were always plenty of partially-built houses to explore. After the construction workers left for the day, my boyhood pals and I would cruise down the street on our bikes to check out their work and poke around the skeletal structures rising from the muddy lots. The ones that were the most fun to explore were the two-story houses. You’d have to climb up the railing-less, unfinished stairs and when you got to the top, you were able to walk to the edge of the second story’s framing and throw stuff down on your buds.
It’s a hard way to beat spending an afternoon.
Use a Pocket Knife
In Home Grown, author and homesteader Ben Hewitt describes how he gave his sons their first pocket knives at age four. Hewitt admits that he was worried that they would constantly slice open their pudgy toddler fingers with these sharp implements, but much to his surprise, his young boys rarely injured themselves. “There was something in the seriousness of the blade and the responsibility granted that transformed our son[s],” he notes. By giving them the responsibility of using a knife safely, Hewitt’s kids became responsible.
While you don’t have to give your toddler a pocket knife, consider letting them handle this trusty, handy tool sooner rather than later. It’s the only way they’ll learn how to handle sharp things safely and deftly, and doing so will open up new activities to them — from whittling to mumbley peg.
Climb a Rope
Many schools have banned certain physical activities from recess and P.E. class due to their being too “dangerous.” Football, dodgeball, tag…even all balls of any kind and running itself have gotten the boot in some places. Ropes have also been removed from many school gyms, due to the perceived risk of a child falling from the top — and probably also because of the risk of injury to the self-esteem of the kid who can’t even make it halfway up.
Climbing is one of the crucial physical skills everyone should develop, however, so if schools don’t provide the opportunity for its practice, then parents ought to, perhaps putting up a rope of their own in the backyard.
Ride Your Bike Off a Ramp
As a kid, taking your bike off a ramp is the closest you’ll get to flying without being on a plane. Back when I was a boy, my neighborhood posse and I built a big ol’ ramp out of a pile of dirt. We’d spend hours flying off that thing. For some reason, my favorite thing was to let go of my bike in midair and watch it continue to fly while I hit the dirt.
Building and riding off ramps will teach your kids some basic physics and even some construction skills. They’ll also learn, just as Napoleon Dynamite did, that if you’re not careful, taking your bike off sweet jumps can be hazardous to your junk.
Make a Fire
There’s a primal connection between man and fire. Nurture that connection with your kids while they’re young. Let them play with matches and light candles when they’re pre-school age (with your supervision). They’ll learn that fire indeed burns, but from a flame so small it won’t hurt too much if it glances their skin. When they get to be about 8 or 9, let them build a fire all by themselves (still with your supervision, of course).
Explore a Tunnel
When my father-in-law was a boy in the early 1960s, the post-WWII housing boom was still in full swing, and a huge neighborhood was being built about a mile away from his home. Once the land was cleared, workers laid out gigantic sewer pipes so high he could walk through them without bending down, and so long they became pitch black once you advanced several yards from the openings. Though exploring the tunnels was a favorite activity of the neighborhood boys, my father-in-law recalls being a little terrified by these expeditions. Yet they still became an indelible memory!
Modern explorers should avoid tunnels filled with sewage and unsavory critters or humans, stay away from storm drains after rain, wear gloves, and bring along a flashlight — as well as a heaping helping of courage!
Great list! Brings back some memories. I’d include- go fishing! This incorporates learning how to paddle and steer a boat, and learning how to fish.
The biggest thing about doing these activities and others is “DON”T TELL MOM OR DAD”. Dad’s sometimes helped in these endeavors so they knew but other things like jumping out of the high pine trees and spreading your arms so you did not hit the ground too hard not so much. I often got restricted from playing in the woods because of bruises and bumps but it usually did not last more than a week, at least that is what Mom thought.
Mom and Dad’s of yesteryear would be almost as protective as todays parents if they knew what the kids were doing. The cell phone has stopped lots of childhood fun.
At age 6 My son and I stopped at a little grass strip airfield and went for a ride in a Cessna 150. Prolly about 1999. We flew over our house and back about 20 minutes. He was amazed and not even a little scared.
On the way home I explained that we just did ” guy stuff ” and that there was no reason to tell the momma.
Yup. That shit lasted 2 seconds. Mommy mommy we went for an airplane ride!
You had a son when you were six? Very advanced.
About age nine we had a neighbor in MT that had a small single engine Cessna. Me and and another kid made an awesome flight over the Bob Marshall Wilderness area in the northern Rockies on a pristine day. The pilot did several acrobatic maneuvers and then introduced me to several barf bags. We were even allowed to “take the controls” for a few turns. That still ranks as one of the best days in my life.
Looks like the kid with the knife is playing mumblypeg. I wonder how many of your readers remember that game…………………..
we played it but i can’t even remember the rules–
One of my favorite ‘dangerous thing’ was dumpster diving. We built a great tree house with salvaged wood and metal. My son was 9 when he discovered dumpsters and built his soapbox derby racer out of dumpster debris. (He came in third).
24) hunt for crayfish
25) have a pet raccoon
26) innertube rafting
27) cut your own Xmas tree from the forest not the Xmas tree farm
28) gallop on horseback
29) throw rocks at beehive
How many of you guys used to have bb gun fights?
bb gun fights were pretty common in our neighborhood.We would get on our roofs across the street from each other and have at it.I can’t imagine the kind of insane all out swat response that would provoke today.
And without eye protection too….
yep-till one of the guys got popped in the eye-gossipy moms got to talking back and forth and the guns disappeared for a month or so-and that’s about how long the lesson lasted also-
Take stuff apart then plug it in, running thru a cornfield, rid’n in back of pa’s truck, sneaking in to the drive inn then laying on the roof of the station wagon to watch, catching toads and fireflies, jumping off the garage into piles of grass or branches, “N” knocking, camping in the back yard, raiding all the neighborhood gardens, climbing up on to the school, egging and soaping …and yea BB gun fights, kick the can in street, playing smear the queer.
Was listening to this driving home from work Friday night. First country band I ever saw in concert. Brings back a lot of memories from my youth – we did lots of crazy shit – more things than I can remember. Spent lots of time in the river fishin in the dark too… those were good times.
anon- Your list was pretty close to mine but I would have to add riding our bikes across the narrow train trestle and hoping a train won’t come. Also got into trouble for egging.
That makes me remember my time in Scouting. (1970’s) It let you experience many of those things and more. We had a lot of fun but mostly it let us experience what worked and didn’t work as well as giving us curiosity and self reliance. At Scout camp we picked up the food and made out own meals and had to clean up too. Now they are treated like pussies and eat in a dinning hall on plastic disposable plates.
We did so many crazy things and they were all learning experiences. The merit badges encouraged you to learn about other topics. We built structures, we learned how to live with limited materials and be creative with out resources.
It challenged us to be innovative, creative and it built character and gave you a sense of right and wrong. I have the impression scouting started dying in the 80’s but maye that is just my personal prejudice.
You could place much more trust and confidence in an Eagle Scout to do the right thing than with an MBA.
It would be interesting to know what politicians and Business leaders are former Eagle Scouts. I only remember Gerald Ford being an eagle scout. The moral principles taught in Scouting end bringing you into conflict later in your life with “right and wrong” decisions. A “good” Scout cannot in good conscience make many the decisions needed to be a successful “game player” in the business world. A guy who plays by the rules ends up behind because the successful many times do not play by the rules or they just change them.
Scouting builds character and so many people do not have that.
Three Eagle scouts in Trump’s cabinet that I am aware of, Rex Tillerson, Rick Perry, and Jeff Sessions
Reckon I’d add a few. Throw rocks at mad bastard dogs on chains. Shoot drivers through their open car windows with your sling shot, not easy at 50 mph. Run across the exposed part of the harbor breakwater in between massive waves pouring over it on huge storm days. Fly a kite in a wind storm. Try to get the old cannons in the public park working. Fire bottle rockets at the old folk playing lawn bowls in the park. Start fires in peoples back yards, then ambush the firefighters with bottle rockets. Spend half the day pushing your old clunker of a bicycle up a mountainside, then come tearing down it out of control, a race to the bottom, years before mountain bikes were invented. Poke venomous snakes with sticks. That was growing up in Australia, in the 60’s.
Worth mentioning, I think, that on summer weekends when half the town was at the beach, kids would disappear, drowned, in the lagoon opening at one end of the beach. When it happened, you’d see a couple of volunteer lifeguards run down to the other end of the beach and speak to people down there. The men would get up and start walking towards the lagoon. As they passed, every single man on that beach would stand up and join them, a wave of men standing and walking with purpose. They would spend the afternoon searching for the dead kid. Not a uniform to be seen. When they found the body, they’d bring it back, wrapped up in a beach towel on their shoulders. Again, not a uniform to be seen.
When the bushfires threatened town, the call would go out for volunteers. The whole town would turn up. A handful of uniforms, the pros, directing things, and hundreds of ordinary citizens fighting the flames with wet sacks and shovels. After closing time of the pubs was the favored time, with a skinful of beer nothing beats fighting a bushfire to the death.
The childhood traditional pursuits were training for what you had to do as an adult. Now adults don’t do shit, only the uniforms do. So a childhood spent watching TV and playing video games is sufficient.
Man! I did all those things and a thousand more. Suffered quite a few injuries along the way. Broken bones, lots of stitches were SOP. The only lasting injury I suffered at play was losing the sight in my right eye at age two when a neighbor kid threw a mudball with rocks and glass it in. My uncle was pulling me in my red flyer wagon when it happened.
That still never stopped me from engaging in sword fights, rock fights, some very irresponsible behavior with fireworks and fighting. We experimented for a time with sheets, blankets and bath towels as parachutes while jumping off of roofs. Used to play chicken with lawn darts. Used to throw regular darts at each other. Played wall ball with golf balls instead of tennis balls. Smear the queer. Played football on asphalt. Played hooky bob with our feet on ice, those warm manhole covers were a bitch. We played hooky bob with just about every wheeled device we could find. In SC we had to chase the water moccasins out of our swimming hole and bail when they came back.
That was all when we were playing nice. When we “got up to no good” we became “the kids your parents warned you about”. The Boy Scouts were awesome. I learned a surprising number of criminal behaviors in the Boy Scouts. I still wonder if one or two of those guys had criminal records.
The gravest warning my father ever gave had to do with pointing guns at another person so I never got into any BB gun fights. I had to skedaddle from many a BB gun fight that broke out though. That made me the pussy of course but that was better than my father finding out or catching me in the act.
I grew up as a military brat so we moved a lot but kids were the same everywhere we lived. My childhood was a blast! I’d love to do it all over again.
I think over protectiveness took hold some 25 years ago. Back then I was a scout master who incorporated creative adventures for my troop. One activity was camping at a farm and allowing the older boys to shoot pigeons with a shotgun. The boys then were shown how to breast the dead pigeons and cook them over a campfire. A few of the mothers were mortified and complained, but when I run into these boys now, nearly all of them remember and recount our adventures with pride.
All the best lessons and memories of my childhood were wrapped up in doing things ourselves- both the good and the bad. It may be the only way we ever really learn anything.
Imagine allowing children to experience life for themselves.
There’s a business in that article- a camp for gentrified twenty-something Brooklynites that specializes in offering them the experiences they never had as a kid.
Chucking snowballs at cars and getting chased by the crazy sumbitches who jumped out of them.
I did that a lot with a buddy, Dennis. He was the son of a preacher and just as much a troublemaker as I was. Once, an enraged driver jumped out of his car after I nailed it with an iceball, chased us for over two miles through farmland and woods, and yelled threats the whole way. Scared the shit out of us, but he finally ran out of gas and gave up.
At 10 years old, we moved to the sticks. There were only a dozen or so houses on a three mile stretch of road. Pitched hay, milked cows, had rotten egg fights. Rafted a river. Made a go-cart and rode up and down the streets(rarely traffic). Threw eggs at passing cars and green grapes too. Built a log cabin in the woods, with electricity. 2 floors and a root cellar where we made and stored home-made root beer. Camped there overnight in the summers. Built zip lines in the trees. Played tree tag., where you climbed to the top of thin trees and rocked back and forth trying to tag someone in a nearby tree. Cut two miles of roads through the woods and had two old cars and a pickup truck. Made a racetrack and tied an old wagon seat with a mattress on it to the back of the truck and raced around the track while kids tried to jump on the mattress and get a ride. Played “Untouchables” in the woods, chasing cars and truck and throwing mudballs as gunfights. Wired the cabin door with a cow fence electric pulsator to keep the little kids out. Raided local gardens, stole butter and salt and cooked massive amounts of corn on the cob. Made our own ice-cream. Before fireworks, we blew up CO2 cartridges, When we could get fireworks, we used cherry bombs and M-80s to blow up mailboxes and would even stuff mailboxes with cucumbers and then blow them up. Had mortar fights with cherry bombs using tennis rackets to lob the cherry bombs. Played baseball and basketball and lived for summers. In all those years, nary a broken bone by any of us. A few run-ins with the police.
Sledding on truck tire inner tubes down big, icy, steep hills. Two or three kids per tube. There was always a big crash before we made it to the bottom. Bodies bounced every which way. An occasional concussion resulted, fortunately not for me.
Help your dog when he’s out-numbered in a dog fight. Still carry the scars and still proud of them.
Mother could only shake her head as she cleaned my wounds. My first experience of Brothers in Arms. Best days ever.
Trying to shoot the neighbors holstein bull in the balls with our slingshots. Playing in the swamps in the winter and coming home with a soaker was the most dangerous thing we could do but we couldn’t resist testing the ice. Our parents were so paranoid over losing everything if we got Pneumonia. Living through the depression made them paranoid.
In the liberal college town I live in you don’t even hear the delighted squeals of kids playing in the back yards. All play is structured and supervised by man hating dykes and male castrati. Grown men out for a casual bike ride wearing faggy little Obama Helmets, what chance is there of their kids ever playing with matches.
flea,
we used to shoot the bulls in the balls with our bb guns-
we used to have most of our bb gun fights in the swamps-
there was a farmer whose property backed up to ours-he had his hog pen back there as that was where the swamp was and the hogs could wallow in the mud-we used to egg each other on and see who was brave enough to get into the enclosure and sneak up and shoot the boar in the balls–
Red.
nobody around us used to have bb guns. We went from slings to .22’s with shorts and whatever cheap shotgun we could beg. Those were the only happy times as kids being kids out in those swamps. Muskrat trapping and hoping our baited traps would net us a fox or mink or weasel. Weasels had 10.00 bounty and fox 3.00 due to all the chicken farms. We caught a weasel on a shared trap with kids next to us and felt like the beverly hillbilly’s.
One time while in the bull pen taunting them and running I thought I might show off a bit and I stopped to kick the foam block out in the center, well I think the bull stopped chasing me cause he was laughing so hard. Sometime later I was told about salt licks.
I miss Mischief Night (aka Devil’s Night or the night before Halloween). Toilet paper, soap, eggs and shaving cream were the tools of the trade. They all washed off and no one got hurt. Then some jerks had to start using spray paint and ruin it for everyone, with the town then setting curfews and generally increasing the potential for negative outcomes (i.e., police involvement).
While all of these things to do are generally regarded as “boy” activities, as one who only has 2 daughters, I am doing my best to ensure that they also have experiences like these.