Stupidest thing you ever did as a kid?

[Sonikku]

Told the old man to leave the Ragnarok magicite as it is instead of forging it into a badass sword that would pave the way towards my acquiring Illumina, the greatest sword of all time. And even then, I could still have learned Ultima from the Paladin shield.

I could have had both... :'(

 

[Fritzo]

I tried connecting big house speakers up to one of those little portable cassette players (not the walkmans). I cut the power cord instead of the speaker wire while it was plugged in and there was a very big bang, sparks and I was deaf for about 10 mins. I only change light bulbs now, no other electrical work in my house.

Was this you?

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Wow. The single stupidest thing? Have to pick just one? One that comes to mind is trying to run over neighborhood bully with my dirt bike. He side-stepped me like a charging bull, clothes lined me off the bike, and took it. Took me a couple weeks to steal it back. Burned down their barn in the process. Never could pin it on me cause he would have had to fess up to stealing my bike. That feud hit a whole new level and didn't end till we moved out of town.

 

[jagec]

Too many to list, but I remember me and a friend were screwing around with the ol' hairspray flamethrower around a city park. There was a bunch of dried-up grass around that had just enough moisture that it would burn, but go out before the fire spread. We burned a bunch of patches for fun, and it was all going fine...until we hit the patch on the hill. The fire started to spread, and as we're sitting there freaking out a bunch of people start coming out of nowhere and help us beat down the flames. After the fire was out, they ask us what happened...and my friend smoothly and easily spins a lie about a firework going off wrong. They just shook their heads and told us to be more careful.

I guess there was also my first time on a dirt bike. I was wearing swimming shorts and a T-shirt, 2-up. The other guy had no idea how inexperienced I was. Sure enough, I dumped the bike in a muddy section and a pointed rock took a good gouge out of my knee.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Was this you?

LOL no I wish. That would've pretty damn awesome. I just got the belt on my ass a few times.

 

[akugami]

16 years old, working in a factory in Indiana. Decided I needed to use the forklift to move a rack so I could paint something (I didn't). Asked for and got the key. Managed to turn it over on sloping asphalt outside. Mashed my right hand pretty badly, and got three guys fired: the guy who gave me the key, and his two immediate supervisors. It took five years and five or six operations to get the hand working again. In 1980 I received a settlement of $6k. Blew it all on beer, pot, and a $400 motorcycle.

/thread?

Quality of story 6/10.

Points deducted because the following categories were missing: Hookers, Blow, Guns




When I was a teen, me and my buddies built a raft and went out in the river...none of us could swim. Coulda killed myself.

I also used the hairspray torch thing and nearly burned the house down.

 

[mmntech]

Was this you?

Whoa, rock and roll.

 

[Iron Woode]

I did a number of stupid things when I was a kid.

I attempted to jump the creek with my 10 speed bicycle. The creek was about 10 feet or so wide and I got started on a small hill. I made a ramp out of some large smooth rocks. I started at the top of the hill and hit the ramp at a pretty decent clip. I made it across but, like most kids, I didn't really think the whole landing on the other side part through. I ended up on the other bank and with only 2 feet of ground, I ended up hanging upside down in a bunch of nasty thorny bushes. Of course my friends thought it was cool. I had wished I never did it.

One day I was out with my friend and I decided to break a pop bottle against a large tree. Well, when it hit the tree it slipped out of my hand and hit my friend in the face just below his eye.

I remember falling off a high bank by the river. I ended up 10 feet or so down and thought I was ok. Turned out I had landed on a broken bottle and sliced my right knee open. My dad had to take me to the hospital and my mom was a nurse at the hospital and she got mad at me for being stupid.

I also did the hand on the burner thing when I was 5 or 6 years old.

 

[SandEagle]

I'm just thinking back to a few stupid things I did as a kid.

#1: I had a bb/pellet gun as a kid. I remember my parents going out for the day and my dad telling me to not touch the gun. Well I took it out because I wanted to play around. I aimed it at our brand new tv set, and bam! I put a nice hole in the screen. I got scared and put the gun away. I saw my dad walking towards the house and I ran into the bathroom. When he walked in I remember walking out of the bathroom and asking him how was his trip. He grabbed my arm and asked me what happened to the tv. I shrugged my shoulders and said "I don't know." He then proceeded to whip my ass pretty hard.

If you have children what type of punishment would you dish out if he/she put a hole in your tv set with a bb gun? Just curious.

#2: I found a bullet. I then took it out back and started to bang on the end with a sharp rock. Luckily it didn't go off or else I'd probably be dead now.

Stupidest thing you ever did as a kid?

if my kid did that, i wouldn't have beat him. crap happens. i'd make him watch cartoons on the broken tv though for a few years

dumbest thing i did was in 10th grade when i took a couple ninja stars to school. i was showing off and threw one at high speed at the chalkboard. it just whizzed past some kid's head and became embedded in the board. i could have killed that sucka

 

[solsa]

See how long I could keep my hand on the coal stove.

 

[Imported]

I chased after a brown/grizzly bear and her cubs at Yellowstone cause they were cuddly cute. Fortunately, they ran faster than me.

 

[Markbnj]

sounds like a pretty rad life man! well, except for the excruciating pain and lack of working hand. hmm...actually the only cool part is the beer, pot, and bike.

Yeah that pretty much sums it up, although I did eventually get a hand that works very well.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

I saw this weird/worrying guy, who looked completely untrustworthy, and I failed to follow my hunches. They came up to me and asked to borrow the forklift truck (to get some paint, or something), and in a moment of madness, I agreed. I got sacked/fired for it. If I ever catch up with that person who told tales, well . . . .

EDIT: I remember that day well, it was the same day I crashed the car, because some idiots had put bowling pins on the highway exit, and I ended up smashing the car up, against a TV, which had been left at the side of the road, because it had a hole in the middle of the screen.

 

[waggy]

When i was 10-11 me and a buddy were building a fort in the basement. being idiots we used darts to hold stuff in place.

i took the tip of the dart off (looked like these and had it in my mouth while putting another of the fort up. while standing on a chair..

I slipped and swallowed the dart tip (yes the pointy part). I was scared. we even had dinner.

I asked my dad what would happen if you swallowed it. he said you can't. i asked again so he said something like "you would die". i busted out crying and he took me to the ER. where they did a X-ray and yep. you can see it.

I still have them. i will see if i can find them.

They kept me in the hospital until i passed it. i was lucky that the tip part was facing up.

for years after that my dad called me "dart vader"

 

[Mark R]

I was doing some work with my dad when I was about 15. He had a small workshop with a business partner where they revamped tube bending machines.

We needed to move a machine, so that it was ready to be picked up for delivery to a customer.

These are long, unbalanced and heavy machines. Pic, so the three of us were trying to work out how to get it onto a pallet jack; in case you haven't already worked it out, a pallet jack is not the way to move a 20 foot long machine like this. I suggested that maybe we could get one fork of the forklift under the body of the machine, and then someone can get a crowbar and lever the machine onto the jack.

I got a fork under it, and lifted. Unbalanced by the 700 pound bending arm on the front of the machine, the machine promptly rolled over with a huge crash, smashing the bend arm, and spilling the best part of 100 gallons of hydraulic oil all over the floor (this was a 1970s vintage machine - why bother with an oil cooler, when you can just make the chassis one giant oil tank and put so much oil in that you'll never get it hot. The workshop was small and it was filled nearly 1" deep in hydraulic oil.

We now had 2 problems. The machine was now upside down, and obstructing the pallet jack and the fork lift. And the workshop was underwater in oil, which was now forming a mini river out the front door.

We decided the oil was the more pressing problem. I scooped up as much as I could in some old oil drums, and dumped it down a nearby storm drain, only to get caught by a cop asking why I had an oil drum and why was I pouring its contents into a storm drain. Incredibly, he bought my story that it was rainwater and left.

I decided that I'd better avoid the drains, so I stole about 200 pounds of sawdust and shavings from a nearby furniture workshop. I soaked up the oil and ended up filling 2 full barrels with oily sawdust. Obviously, the thing to do was burn it, but it wouldn't light. In the end I got it going with a gallon of gasoline. It produced thick, black smoke that smelled terrible. The barrels burned for 7 days straight.

 

[boomerang]

Where do I start? I was a bit of a firebug until I got cured of it.

Around the 4th of July I was messing around with some snakes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6RYzUoak5w and thought it would be cool to put one in a hole in the Celotex in the garage and watch it come out the hole. It fell into the hole and caught the wall of the garage on fire. I had grabbed the hose in an attempt to put out the fire but the fire department had to come out. I was the talk of the neighborhood.

When bored, I liked to unwrap Estes model rocket engines, crush them and light them up. The made a huge flash. One day when it was windy and I was trying to shield it to light it, I had my face too close when it ignited. Burned off my eyebrows, eyelashes and burned my hairline back. Second degree burns that required a visit to the hospital. Did a really great job of clearing up my acne though.

We used to ride our dirt bikes in the area because it was mostly undeveloped. Somehow I managed to put the kickstand down going over a jump. I had put my foot out to help catch me on the landing and turn the bike and the kickstand went right though my boot. In the top and out the bottom. It went in between my toes and I suffered no major injury. Got lucky on that one. This was really a freak thing, not something stupid I did.

My folks were really nervous about me having a road bike but relented. In HS, at lunch one day I decided to go for a ride. I turned the corner at an intersection and an older lady crossed the main road right in front of me leaving me the choice of laying down the bike or being vaulted over her car. I chose to lay it down. I had no injuries and the bike was a little scraped up. I lied to my folks and told them the kickstand sunk into the asphalt and the bike was laying on its side when I got out of school. Once again, not stupid just a story.

A friend and I used to watch the motorcycle ice races on a nearby lake. A lot of people used to drive their cars out onto the lake. I had my dad's new Mustang and he told me under no circumstances to take it out on the lake. I did take it out several times but it never fell through or even came close. So, nothing regretfully stupid but still really stupid. I can only imagine if it had fallen through.

I was a new driver having just turned 16. My girlfriends sister needed a ride back to College on a Sunday evening and my girlfriends folks asked me if I wanted to drive her there in their car. My father told me emphatically no. I did it anyway. I got really, really lost on the way home (duh, new drivers aren't very familiar with the roads) and although I should have been home by 9 PM, I had to call from a payphone and wake my Dad up at midnight to fess up and ask for directions home. He was pretty cool about it because he knew I was really, upset about the whole thing myself. I was about 70 miles from where I should have been.

 

[ElFenix]

probably storm drain spelunking.

 

[boomerang]

When i was 10-11 me and a buddy were building a fort in the basement. being idiots we used darts to hold stuff in place.

i took the tip of the dart off (looked like these and had it in my mouth while putting another of the fort up. while standing on a chair..

I slipped and swallowed the dart tip (yes the pointy part). I was scared. we even had dinner.

I asked my dad what would happen if you swallowed it. he said you can't. i asked again so he said something like "you would die". i busted out crying and he took me to the ER. where they did a X-ray and yep. you can see it.

I still have them. i will see if i can find them.

They kept me in the hospital until i passed it. i was lucky that the tip part was facing up.

for years after that my dad called me "dart vader"

It's amazing that it passed through with no repercussions.

 

[Brian Stirling]

Rolled tires down our neighborhood streets at night when cars where coming up the hill.

There was an apartment complex a half mile away and at the south east corner of the complex the place looked down over a country road about 50 feet below. The hillside was steep, probably close to 60 degrees and at the bottom, just before the roadway, was a ditch.

As luck would have it they also had a junk pile very near that with a bunch of used tires so....

We waited until we heard cars coming then rolled tires, many of them, down the hill. The first tire reached the bottom, hit the ditch, then launched itself across the road a second or so before the car got there. There was a terrific sound of tires screeching but with about 3 more tires on the way the best was yet to come. Two flew over the hood and one kissed of the roof.

We took off and the guy never knew what hit him.


Brian

 

[Brian Stirling]

I nearly electrocuted my dad turning on a light switch while he was working on fixing the ceiling lamp. Serves him right though for not turning it off at the breaker, and not watching me. I think I was like four.

I had my little niece do something similar...

I built an Estes rocket and had the kids over to let them experience the fun. I showed them how I hooked up the electric fuse/igniter with an old camcorder battery so they would know how it all worked then set about getting things ready. I setup the launch pad with rod, slid the rocket down over the rod, and began to connect the alligator clips to the igniter, but as soon as I touched the second clip to the igniter the rocket took off right in my face.

Turns out my 5 year old niece figured it was her job to hook up the battery seeing as I'd shown her how to do it and since I had my back to her I didn't see she'd already made the connection. My sister and her kids laughed there ass off over that one...


Brian

 

[Brian Stirling]

I tried connecting big house speakers up to one of those little portable cassette players (not the walkmans). I cut the power cord instead of the speaker wire while it was plugged in and there was a very big bang, sparks and I was deaf for about 10 mins. I only change light bulbs now, no other electrical work in my house.

You don't mind me asking ... are you Jewish?


Brian

 

[Imp]

If we're talking early 20s, which was essentially still childhood for me, I learned to ride a motorcycle on a closed course with trainers. That was completely stupid. Blew close to a grand on the course and gear, dumped the bike near the end of the first day doing 10 km/h cause I overreacted to someone riding across my path a good distance away from me -- I panicked and chose to lay it down instead of braking. Nice road rash on both knees, never went back, could have been way worse because I didn't buckle my helmet most of the day and couldn't hack it.

Why stupid?

Because I hadn't ridden a bicycle in over a decade, had zero balance, took me most of the morning just to get that back. Couldn't drive yet either. Then I barely slept the night before, course was at 7 or 8 am, so tired as hell. And it was a 30+ C day under the sun with a black padded motorcycle jacket and helmet plus jeans -- nice way to dehydrate and get heatstroke. Then I skipped lunch because I didn't bring anything and couldn't find anything nearby -- turns out the back of the building across the street was a fully stocked and open supermarket with the door and parking lot on the opposite side. Oh, and my entire family was shitting on me for weeks for trying something so dangerous in a controlled environment.

Holy crap, what a difference a few years makes...

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Let's just say there's a reason the FBI has had a file on me since I was 14.
In hs I was voted "most likely to ..."

 

[Coulrophobia]

I was pretty stupid as a kid... I am surprised I lived really. Messed with firearms, explosives, home made napalm, chemicals, vandalism, etc...

 

[crab]

Many, many things that ultimately ended in a spinal cord injury and C6 Quadriplegia.