Things you got up to
Discussion
Myself and a couple of friends pushed one of those big black bags of hale down the side of a hill once, we figured it would stop once it crashed into the hedge.
What we didn't realise is that it went through the hedge across a single track country road then through the next hedge into another hedge, thankfully there were no cars there at the time and we never did it again!
Didn't realise how much speed and power they could get up too!
IIRC it was this section of road with the hill to the right, kids do the stupidest things :/
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6425102,-4.07227...
What we didn't realise is that it went through the hedge across a single track country road then through the next hedge into another hedge, thankfully there were no cars there at the time and we never did it again!
Didn't realise how much speed and power they could get up too!
IIRC it was this section of road with the hill to the right, kids do the stupidest things :/
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6425102,-4.07227...
When asked for directions, Sending a polish HGV down a worcester one way system that culminated in a low bridge (city walls road for anyone local) - the resultant traffic made the news...
'borrowing' a wrought iron house sign that was on my way to work and keeping it in the boot of my car for 6 months. The day he replaced it with a new one, i put the old one back.
stealing a contraflow and setting up my own circular diversion in a neighbouring village
buying porn mags and delivering them through the letterbox of the same utterly randon house every wednesday night like it was a subscription (we had visions of his wife going utterly postal)
on a gnome hunting mission we moved a stone donkey from someones front garden to the front door and knock door running - i revel in the absurd and someones stone donkey wanting to come in the house tickled me...
there are LOTS of other ones that i'm not so light-hearted about that are a little dark in retrospect, but funny at the time...
'borrowing' a wrought iron house sign that was on my way to work and keeping it in the boot of my car for 6 months. The day he replaced it with a new one, i put the old one back.
stealing a contraflow and setting up my own circular diversion in a neighbouring village
buying porn mags and delivering them through the letterbox of the same utterly randon house every wednesday night like it was a subscription (we had visions of his wife going utterly postal)
on a gnome hunting mission we moved a stone donkey from someones front garden to the front door and knock door running - i revel in the absurd and someones stone donkey wanting to come in the house tickled me...
there are LOTS of other ones that i'm not so light-hearted about that are a little dark in retrospect, but funny at the time...
Greg_D said:
there are LOTS of other ones that i'm not so light-hearted about that are a little dark in retrospect, but funny at the time...
That's the thing isn't it, in hindsight some of it was either bloody dangerous or thoroughly thoughtless & ignorant.Some funny stories though, surprising how many are quite similar despite age range & geographical locations - keep 'em coming
Fire.
There seemed to be a lot of it when I was a teenager. We never damaged anything or anyone's property but there were a few petrol bombs tested and a mate bought The Anarchists Cookbook so experimenting with icing sugar/weedkiller seemed cool.
Surrounding deodorant cans with lit paper and shooting with air rifles (from a distance) seemed pretty cool at the time.
Other than that, my early teenage years were pretty normal I think!
There seemed to be a lot of it when I was a teenager. We never damaged anything or anyone's property but there were a few petrol bombs tested and a mate bought The Anarchists Cookbook so experimenting with icing sugar/weedkiller seemed cool.
Surrounding deodorant cans with lit paper and shooting with air rifles (from a distance) seemed pretty cool at the time.
Other than that, my early teenage years were pretty normal I think!
All sounds a bit familiar 
Fireworks season was always a highlight, bangers and bottle rockets from the corner shop. First time we went in there to buy the asian guy refused to sell them to us so we went outside to mope around but once his shop was empty he beckoned us back into the shop to purchase Used to hand launch the rockets i.e hold the stick, ignite, wait until it was going well and let go. Also fire them out of the cross bars of the goal posts over the park. Launch them down the storm drains which really amplified the noise. One evening in the twilight we were doing some pyrotechnics over the park when a cop car suddenly appears and comes flying across the field towards us prompting us to leg it and hurdle the brook for good measure. For some reason I dumped my fireworks in the water, really annoyed with myself after.
Odd bit of low grade arson though my friends
did have the fire engine out on one or two occasions - most memorable being a late night attack on the cardboard bins round the back of the local DIY store. Just remembered another good one, the local park had a cricket pitch in the middle complete with nylon boundary rope, that got gathered up on numerous occasions, dumped in a bin and torched. Went up so well I wasn't there for the occasion my mate inadvertently torched an entire field of crops (wheat?), he claimed he was only trying to make a small fire but it got a bit out of hand.
Also built a number of good dens on the waste ground where the BMX/motocross track and sewage works (nice) was. This area was also an excellent dumping ground for porn mags. There was also an old WW2 pill box that we used to mess around in, set fire to, etc. Managed to save enough pocket money to get a Black Widow catapult from the local fishing/knives/air rifles etc. shop, had some fun with that, we had a massive box of marbles at home, these didn't last long.
Messing around on the railway (pretty stupid looking back), putting coins on the tracks etc.
Usual underage smoking and drinking when we got a bit older though I was quite tall so got into pubs from a fairly young age.
Going "home" for lunch from school actually meaning the KFC, chippy, or amusement arcade (no lunch).
Amazing times looking back, we carried it on into our early twenties, used to prefer going over the fields with a group of mates making a fire, smoking weed, drinking cider and talking utter b
ks to going down the pub on a nice summers evening although we did plenty of that too.
Fireworks season was always a highlight, bangers and bottle rockets from the corner shop. First time we went in there to buy the asian guy refused to sell them to us so we went outside to mope around but once his shop was empty he beckoned us back into the shop to purchase
Used to hand launch the rockets i.e hold the stick, ignite, wait until it was going well and let go. Also fire them out of the cross bars of the goal posts over the park. Launch them down the storm drains which really amplified the noise. One evening in the twilight we were doing some pyrotechnics over the park when a cop car suddenly appears and comes flying across the field towards us prompting us to leg it and hurdle the brook for good measure. For some reason I dumped my fireworks in the water, really annoyed with myself after.Odd bit of low grade arson though my friends
did have the fire engine out on one or two occasions - most memorable being a late night attack on the cardboard bins round the back of the local DIY store. Just remembered another good one, the local park had a cricket pitch in the middle complete with nylon boundary rope, that got gathered up on numerous occasions, dumped in a bin and torched. Went up so well I wasn't there for the occasion my mate inadvertently torched an entire field of crops (wheat?), he claimed he was only trying to make a small fire but it got a bit out of hand. Also built a number of good dens on the waste ground where the BMX/motocross track and sewage works (nice) was. This area was also an excellent dumping ground for porn mags. There was also an old WW2 pill box that we used to mess around in, set fire to, etc. Managed to save enough pocket money to get a Black Widow catapult from the local fishing/knives/air rifles etc. shop, had some fun with that, we had a massive box of marbles at home, these didn't last long.
Messing around on the railway (pretty stupid looking back), putting coins on the tracks etc.
Usual underage smoking and drinking when we got a bit older though I was quite tall so got into pubs from a fairly young age.
Going "home" for lunch from school actually meaning the KFC, chippy, or amusement arcade (no lunch).
Amazing times looking back, we carried it on into our early twenties, used to prefer going over the fields with a group of mates making a fire, smoking weed, drinking cider and talking utter b
ks to going down the pub on a nice summers evening although we did plenty of that too. A lot the same as previous, to add some coastal ones: - racing the waves in storms, at night, fully clothed. Jumping from higher and higher up the cliffs into the sea. Swimming through blow holes, memory still makes my chest tight. Swimming as far out to sea as possible, what went through our minds...Surfing in a hurricane, inexperienced, on a pop out board with a beach break wave.
Oh the memories!
There was a burger van up the road from school, being in year 12 we were allowed out!
he was a good guy and used to sell us fags for 10p each. We went one day and he didn't have any. We were not amused! His Subaru justy was unlocked so we changed all the plug leads round. I know it's pathetic now but was funny when I was 15/16.
One of the other schools in my town, we never got on. One lunch time we lobbed a load of French bangers(you know, the good ones, none of these modern paper st ones) over the fence. It was their break time. Oh how we laughed when the teachers were rounding up the kids thinking they were being shot at!
we also used to blow up road cones/phone boxes etc with said bangers.
An office up the road from school had a big, steep Tarmac driveway up the side of the building. They also had a skip! We would find office chairs, tables, alsorts we could ride down the hill. My favourite was turning the table upside down on top of 2 skateboards. So much fun(and pain). Not an iPad or smartphone in sight.
Ah to be young and stupid again!
Edited to add
We used to go to phone boxes and ring directory enquiries as it was free and ask them stupid questions such as asking for the cure to herpes! Most of the time they laughed and went along with it, others were not so amused!
There was a burger van up the road from school, being in year 12 we were allowed out!
he was a good guy and used to sell us fags for 10p each. We went one day and he didn't have any. We were not amused! His Subaru justy was unlocked so we changed all the plug leads round. I know it's pathetic now but was funny when I was 15/16.One of the other schools in my town, we never got on. One lunch time we lobbed a load of French bangers(you know, the good ones, none of these modern paper s
t ones) over the fence. It was their break time. Oh how we laughed when the teachers were rounding up the kids thinking they were being shot at! we also used to blow up road cones/phone boxes etc with said bangers.An office up the road from school had a big, steep Tarmac driveway up the side of the building. They also had a skip! We would find office chairs, tables, alsorts we could ride down the hill. My favourite was turning the table upside down on top of 2 skateboards. So much fun(and pain). Not an iPad or smartphone in sight.
Ah to be young and stupid again!
Edited to add
We used to go to phone boxes and ring directory enquiries as it was free and ask them stupid questions such as asking for the cure to herpes! Most of the time they laughed and went along with it, others were not so amused!
Edited by AdamIndy on Thursday 28th July 17:48
So many of my activities have been mentioned but one that i imagine all of us have done i haven't seen as i read through.
British Bulldog
Even the most excessively dangerous of our unsupervised activities at nights and weekends never really hurt as many people (and as quickly) as a single game played out of site of the teachers. Full contact bulldog was war.
Me and a few friends might also be responsible for a traffic jam that caused 11hours of delays on the A30, M3, M25 and M4 but to be fair if 6 teenagers moving 1/2 a mile of cones on a diversion route can do that then there was an intrinsic fragility to the system.
British Bulldog
Even the most excessively dangerous of our unsupervised activities at nights and weekends never really hurt as many people (and as quickly) as a single game played out of site of the teachers. Full contact bulldog was war.
Me and a few friends might also be responsible for a traffic jam that caused 11hours of delays on the A30, M3, M25 and M4 but to be fair if 6 teenagers moving 1/2 a mile of cones on a diversion route can do that then there was an intrinsic fragility to the system.
All my youthful endeavours are similar to those steady posted. Mostly, we did the usual set fire to stuff, rode bikes endlessly, play in the woods/ building sites/ farms.
A memorable one was when a mates parents bought a clay chimnea for the back garden. We spent many summer school holidays setting things on fire in it.
This all came to an abrupt end when we put a full can of adidas antiperspirant in it which promptly turned the chimnea into a clay shrapnel bomb. Made a fairly loud bang which got all the neighbours out, peering over fences to see 4 teenagers, nervously laughing at the devastation and trying to figure out how best to explain the mess.
Somehow managed to not take out any of the windows on the conservatory that was <10 feet away. Still got the video on an old phone somewhere as, being 26, this took place in about 2005/6. Good times.
A memorable one was when a mates parents bought a clay chimnea for the back garden. We spent many summer school holidays setting things on fire in it.
This all came to an abrupt end when we put a full can of adidas antiperspirant in it which promptly turned the chimnea into a clay shrapnel bomb. Made a fairly loud bang which got all the neighbours out, peering over fences to see 4 teenagers, nervously laughing at the devastation and trying to figure out how best to explain the mess.
Somehow managed to not take out any of the windows on the conservatory that was <10 feet away. Still got the video on an old phone somewhere as, being 26, this took place in about 2005/6. Good times.
Putting threpenny bits on the railway line then going to find them after the train had been over them .
Taking sides in the local park , then firing Roman candles and rockets at each other as well as throwing bangers .
Like a previous post the local cricket club bonfire went up the day before it was planned to , nearly got caught with that one as well.
Buying sodium chlorate as weed killer , mix it with a bag of sugar and setting it alight in various locations , that fun ended when caught by the police.
The best one was borrowing a big jar of sodium pellets from the school chemistry class , poured about thirty of them into the local pond and watched the ensuing explosion from a distance.
All good harmless fun ....at the time.
Taking sides in the local park , then firing Roman candles and rockets at each other as well as throwing bangers .
Like a previous post the local cricket club bonfire went up the day before it was planned to , nearly got caught with that one as well.
Buying sodium chlorate as weed killer , mix it with a bag of sugar and setting it alight in various locations , that fun ended when caught by the police.
The best one was borrowing a big jar of sodium pellets from the school chemistry class , poured about thirty of them into the local pond and watched the ensuing explosion from a distance.
All good harmless fun ....at the time.
AdamIndy said:
Oh the memories!
We used to go to phone boxes and ring directory enquiries as it was free and ask them stupid questions such as asking for the cure to herpes! Most of the time they laughed and went along with it, others were not so amused!
Oh yes! We used to use the pay phone at school to call the freephone numbers from things like Nestle, Kellogs etc that they printed on their wrappers for customer service. We used to go to phone boxes and ring directory enquiries as it was free and ask them stupid questions such as asking for the cure to herpes! Most of the time they laughed and went along with it, others were not so amused!
Edited by AdamIndy on Thursday 28th July 17:48
'Why don't you make a bacon flavour cereal bar?' And 'your food tastes like crap' and that type of thing.
Also, as the mobile phone got more prevalent we could do it more.
We did used to p
s off the local radio station a bit from the school bus. Managed to get on air one morning when they had a phone in segment of 'what's the most annoying noises' so everyone had said things like 'pneumatic drills' etc etc. And I got on and the DJ asked me, I said 'Your voice is the most annoying noise in the morning!' Before getting cut off. In the later travel report they said 'I hope that school bus is in the traffic!'
A couple of mates managed to get detention for a while after buying the daily sport and holding all the pages up to show the drivers stuck behind the bus, some woman called up the bus company number of course to moan.
I could write a book, but it would probably get me into serious trouble still today.
So without incriminating myself I'll just repeat what others have said about roaming free when still at junior/primary school. Hot summers days, a back pack with some cheese sandwiches, some form of knife and a bmx that could take us miles.
I still remember borrowing ten pence from someone to call my dad as we were lost somewhere out of our town and it was getting late. However long 10p lasted it was enough to tell him some land marks for him to tell us how to find the river that we could follow back into town. Never mind picking us back up.
Oh and for all those mentioning deodorant cans making flamethrowers, what you might not know is insignia deodorant stick burns as well. Only problem being it melts as it burns, then forms a flamey puddle that will burn fk out of your mates bedroom carpet.
Oh and scrapping as well, I used to love a good scrap. In the days before you'd actually punch each other there was nothing better than a good pagger to settle your differences.
So without incriminating myself I'll just repeat what others have said about roaming free when still at junior/primary school. Hot summers days, a back pack with some cheese sandwiches, some form of knife and a bmx that could take us miles.
I still remember borrowing ten pence from someone to call my dad as we were lost somewhere out of our town and it was getting late. However long 10p lasted it was enough to tell him some land marks for him to tell us how to find the river that we could follow back into town. Never mind picking us back up.
Oh and for all those mentioning deodorant cans making flamethrowers, what you might not know is insignia deodorant stick burns as well. Only problem being it melts as it burns, then forms a flamey puddle that will burn f
k out of your mates bedroom carpet.Oh and scrapping as well, I used to love a good scrap. In the days before you'd actually punch each other there was nothing better than a good pagger to settle your differences.
The most important thing I learnt from my childhood is to lock up the petrol and shotgun cartridges so my own kids can't get to them.
We lived opposite a massive (or so I thought...) hill and used to have skid competitions on our bikes, with extra kudos for getting close to the giveway line at the bottom. That ended the day someone went straight across the b-road and into the stream the other side.
We also used to spend hours damming the same stream and trying to tickle trout.
We lived on the edge of Salisbury plain so had a ready supply of blank ammo to burn on hex stoves, but our favourite was blowing up tins of beans/spam etc in a foxhole. Pity the next squaddy to crawl in in the dark.
We lived opposite a massive (or so I thought...) hill and used to have skid competitions on our bikes, with extra kudos for getting close to the giveway line at the bottom. That ended the day someone went straight across the b-road and into the stream the other side.
We also used to spend hours damming the same stream and trying to tickle trout.
We lived on the edge of Salisbury plain so had a ready supply of blank ammo to burn on hex stoves, but our favourite was blowing up tins of beans/spam etc in a foxhole. Pity the next squaddy to crawl in in the dark.
Bulldog,
now that did put hairs on your chest. Scout Group 12th Edmonton (THE BEST!) run by Bruce Forsyths cousin Alan, had that as the first thing after roll call and inspection. We then got down to rope tying, navigation etc all the scouty stuff afterwards, well those who were still alive. Was an eye opener for those of us just up from the cubs. Great Days
And the guy who put threepenny bits on the railway line. Were you parents ric, that s nearly a weeks pocket money for sme kids!!!! ;-)
now that did put hairs on your chest. Scout Group 12th Edmonton (THE BEST!) run by Bruce Forsyths cousin Alan, had that as the first thing after roll call and inspection. We then got down to rope tying, navigation etc all the scouty stuff afterwards, well those who were still alive. Was an eye opener for those of us just up from the cubs. Great Days
And the guy who put threepenny bits on the railway line. Were you parents ric, that s nearly a weeks pocket money for sme kids!!!! ;-)
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