Stupid things you did as a child...

[larsssnowpharter]

Age 5: Made a parachute out of an old tarpaulin. Jumped out of tree. Ended in years.

Age 8: Made an aircraft! Old tricycle with big wheels. Scaffolding plank strapped across handlebars. Tail section made of packing case nailed to broom handle. Raised onto flat roofed garage. Cycled off over the door. Ended in tears and stitches.

At school.

Age 13. Persuaded buddies to bungee launch me in Primary Trainer down the hill overlooking the City of Bath. Ditched in shallow lake. Glider recovered. Amazingly, no adults found out!

Age 16: tried to manufacture TNT in the lab by nitrating toluene. Didn't work.

Age 16: Made miniature Kipp's apparatus for the production of H2S. Worked. Language block evacuated. Threatened with expulsion. Letter to parents.

Age 17: Tried to make LSD. Tasted foul. Didn't work. Not caught. Not expelled.

[Pontius Navigator]

Air Cdre 45, filled Regiment HQ with tear gas.

Boss complained to stn cdr. Stn Cdr (Air Cdre) dismissed complaint.

Some never grow up.

[11Fan]

13 year old genius (your storyteller for this event) spies a Gopher (rodent) hole in the rear yard and decides to flood the buggers out.

Takes the brand new garden hose, opens the valve full blast and sticks the hose in the hole.

Thought crosses mind, keep pushing the hose down the hole as it widens from the rush of water.

After half of the hose is in the hole, decided that was enough. Unfortunately, despite an hour of pulling, hose would not come back out of the hole.

Final score, after cutting the hose in two.

Gophers: Half of the hose
13 year old genius: The other half

[Pontius Navigator]

11F, that is a classic 'did anyone see you? No, deny all knowledge'

[G-CPTN]

After half of the hose is in the hole, decided that was enough.
Unfortunately, despite an hour of pulling, hose would not come back out of the hole.

Should've left the water on . . .

[11Fan]

After half of the hose is in the hole, decided that was enough.
Unfortunately, despite an hour of pulling, hose would not come back out of the hole.

Should've left the water on . . .

G-CPTN, Good advice, albeit 52 years too late.

PN, What hose?

[PHXPhlyer]

Sounds like a good thing that none of us got together back then.
A little collaboration might have been too much!

PP

[EA01]

13 year old genius (your storyteller for this event) spies a Gopher (rodent) hole in the rear yard and decides to flood the buggers out.

Takes the brand new garden hose, opens the valve full blast and sticks the hose in the hole.

Thought crosses mind, keep pushing the hose down the hole as it widens from the rush of water.

After half of the hose is in the hole, decided that was enough. Unfortunately, despite an hour of pulling, hose would not come back out of the hole.

Final score, after cutting the hose in two.

Gophers: Half of the hose
13 year old genius: The other half

Hey! That happened to me too!!, I was a little younger than 13 I think, no gophers involved, just wanted to see how far underground I could get the hose, think I was trying to get under a brick fence.

[4mastacker]

Me grandad used to wear a bow tie when he was on British Legion duties - it was one of those on an elastic band. Very quickly found out that he wasn't amused by grandson pulling the tie and letting go - only done it once!!

[CremeEgg]

Stupid but two with an aviation theme.

Lived close to the closed Croydon Airport when a nipper, some of it redeveloped into a Council housing estate of typical 60’s design with plenty of reinforced concrete panels – made on site to very variable tolerances. So a huge building site to play in especially at the weekends.

Many old brick built buildings around the perimeter of the old airport mostly of WW2 vintage. So many days with friends spent filling up one of these single storey buildings with expanded polystyrene insulation that had been liberated from the building site. Once building was full add several gallons of red diesel liberated from the assorted diggers on site. Place both in building. Add flame and retire. One enormous conflagration with the thickest darkest smoke you’ve ever seen visible for miles around. Yours truly and several others retreat at speed into the long grass and bushes around the old perimeter track as sirens were heard. Took the fire brigade some hours to resolve and quite an impressive (to a 10 year old ) Police search never did find us.

Later on in the build an 11 storey tower block was erected. We used to carry our bikes on our shoulders and climb up the partially complete stairwells then scaffolding to get onto the roof. We’d then cycle around the roof 11 storeys up with no more than a foot high parapet to stop us from certain death.

[Pontius Navigator]

Ah, building sites, the new council estate just up the hill and very fine houses too, no garages or parking spaces as there was a Corporation bus service. The builders wore wellies with the tops turned down so we did too.

Still remember this big pot - canvas and rope - full of quick lime. Amazing the knowledge and authority of the street rates with whom I mixed. Put you hand in that and it would instantly burn all the flesh off your hand. No idea if any of that was true but I never felt the need to check

[CharlieOneSix]

Probably about 11 - mates wanted me to go with them as they were going to feed the seagulls soaring on a Bournemouth cliff top with bread laced with carbide out of batteries. Apparently the seagulls blew up when it mixed with stomach acid. I wanted to be a Vet at that stage so I declined, couldn't stand cruelty to any living thing. They never told me if it worked. An urban myth?

[G-CPTN]

A cat fed carbide had a set o' lean kittens.

[ian16th]

Building sites?

We played on bomb sites!

[Pontius Navigator]

Iab5, didn't we all?

[reddo]

Ooh. I've got a few stories about stupid things done as an adult.

As a child? Torching the cubby house because of the spiders. Burnt it to the ground and half the neighbour's fence. Oh well. The logic was sound but it did get away from us.

[TheGreenGoblin]

The stupidest thing I did at the age of 7 was to kiss Wendy Hood, the first female, I had actually thought about kissing , unlike my mom who used to kiss me out of sheer blind maternal love. Wendy was a red head (and I kept this kink because my first wife was one too). Wendy was in my class and in some strange subliminal pre-pubescent way I found her attractive and was pleased when I was invited to come and play and have lunch at her house in Park Town North. Her mom picked us up, alongside her knowing 13 year old sister, up at St Theresa's Convent School (they dealt with boys up to the age of 7). Lunch went swimmingly and then come home time Wendy demanded that I kiss her. As a good Catholic, and still basically a bloke, I was torn between desire, not least for male respect, and the horror of eternal Catholic damnation, I kissed her, a chaste smack on the lips, and blushed a deep red and we rushed to her mom's car so her mom could drive me home to Parkhurst. I noticed that that her older, a far more nubile creature, she had breasts, 13 year old sister made a point of sitting next next to me in the back seat and said "I saw what you did to my sister, I am going to tell my mom".

I had been set up...

It has been downhill ever since...

Adam and the Apple...

[Hydromet]

Probably about 11 - mates wanted me to go with them as they were going to feed the seagulls soaring on a Bournemouth cliff top with bread laced with carbide out of batteries. Apparently the seagulls blew up when it mixed with stomach acid. I wanted to be a Vet at that stage so I declined, couldn't stand cruelty to any living thing. They never told me if it worked. An urban myth?

Probably true. My dad told me of killing crocodiles in Qld by shooting a wild goat, putting a dose of carbide wrapped in greaseproof paper inside it and leaving it where a croc would take it. A couple of days later, the croc's bloated body would appear.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Probably about 11 - mates wanted me to go with them as they were going to feed the seagulls soaring on a Bournemouth cliff top with bread laced with carbide out of batteries. Apparently the seagulls blew up when it mixed with stomach acid. I wanted to be a Vet at that stage so I declined, couldn't stand cruelty to any living thing. They never told me if it worked. An urban myth?

Probably true. My dad told me of killing crocodiles in Qld by shooting a wild goat, putting a dose of carbide wrapped in greaseproof paper inside it and leaving it where a croc would take it. A couple of days later, the croc's bloated body would appear.

You brute...

[llondel]

I remember having fun with fire and paraffin, right up to the point where I accidentally poured it over my hand.

I once tried connecting my Lego motor to the mains because the batteries were flat. I was shocked by the results. That's probably what started my career in electronics.