Dangerous things you did as a kid

[JimmyConwayNW]

Was chatting with a mate recently and talking about when we were younger we used to play a lot with fireworks, starting fires and a lot of time spent on building sites for new build developments.

What sort of dangerous stuff did you used to get up to that when you think back now you wouldn't dream of or want to find your own kids doing.

[Garemberg]

Christ, I swear i'd end up on a watchlist these days! Fires, digging holes into cliff banks to make tunnels, spending literally all day out with an air rifle and often all night hunting rabbit. The grumpy neighbour my Dad hated complaining about the holes in his keep out private land placard.

[Discendo Discimus]

You've posted this in the TV, Film, Streaming and Radio section of the forum.

We used to drink alcohol on the roof of my mates house, build fire pits to jump our bikes over, built MTB trails and never considered wearing a helmet when riding them flat out, played with fireworks, walked on frozen lakes and laughed when someone fell in... all stupid stuff that could've had terrible outcomes had things gone wrong.

[vixen1700]

Going to the deathtrap adventure playground in Leytonstone around 1977/78.

Great big wooden slide made of wood that you went down kneeling in plastic bread crates with nails and splinters all over it.

Another slide made from steel rollers that you went down on a wooden plank.

High wire slides using steel handlebar type things.

No protection or any kind of H&S concerns at all on these or any of the other rides that would never see the light of day, these days.

[brake fader]

Massive jumps on motocross bikes ,BMX's and crazy dissents on trials bikes, hanging onto the back of the icecream van until the next village, goading older lads.,garden hopping, swimming in lakes,ponds etc, sledging down very dangerous slops , wagging school to play on rope swings are just a few it's amazing we reached 18 looking back.

[T_S_M]

Used to make bonfires in the woods at the back of our house, then chuck deodorant cans on it and wait for them to go pop. One day, a particularly large can of anti-perspirant went bang and nailed the tree I was hiding behind, dead level with where my head was. Probably would have itched a bit if the tree wasn't there

[Drawweight]

Playing in a farm with the farmers son as my pal, so almost everything.

Standing on the back of trailers or on tractor drawbars. Standing in grain silos pushing grain into the auger. Shooting at each other with air rifles. Climbing stacks of bales.

[andySC]

Plenty of fire lighting. Exploring old buildings, climbed to the top of a very high old landmark in Doncaster just prior to its demolition (Hanley’s flour mill). Air rifles, GAT guns & the legendary Black Widow catapult were always somewhere in circulation. We’d make arrows out of bamboo, stick a nail in the end & fashion some flights, we’d launch these with a length of rope with a knot on the end…
Dark Darts was also a thing, slightly pissed teenagers in my mates bedroom in the pitch black throwing darts about & trying to hit your mates & not get hit. I ended up with a few holes but thankfully no vitals punctured. Bloody crackers.

[The Rotrex Kid]

I remember being stood on a frozen floodgate quarry with my best mate, we were throwing stones at an icicle that was dangling off a ledge above us, it was about 6 feet long and if it had come down, it would have likely cracked the ice and we’d have gone in. Incredible how we never even considered that as kids…..

[Macneil]

Up a drainpipe to the toilet window on the third floor of the Cinema to get in, I pass it occasionally now and shudder at the stretch across from the pipe to the window.

[21TonyK]

Many, many things we used to do back in the 70's and even 80's would prompt an anti-terrorist or at least an armed response team nowadays. Probably resulting in custodial sentences!

But back then it was innocent and stupid kids messing about and no-one actually died.

Now nicking cars, gangs, drugs, guns and knives.

[Portofino]

When I was at uni, three of us went roughly 60/80 metres out to sea on some large concrete groynes on a stormy night.

As far as we could with waves licking our ankles…

Still think to this day how stupid that was, & how different things may have been.

[jules_s]

Several things that really make me shudder

Climbed a mature giant Redwood in the school grounds with a couple of mates, right to the top. I was about 10 at the time and after googling it's height I'm now twitching! it was swaying so much I could barely hang on

Tried at length and succeeded to roll boulders off the local quarry (sheer) edge - it would have been very very easy to follow said boulder off the edge (deepest quarry in Europe at the time iirc)

Various one way trips into semi collapsed storm water culverts.

[8-P]

T_S_M said:

Used to make bonfires in the woods at the back of our house, then chuck deodorant cans on it and wait for them to go pop. One day, a particularly large can of anti-perspirant went bang and nailed the tree I was hiding behind, dead level with where my head was. Probably would have itched a bit if the tree wasn't there

We did this in scouts. Deodorant can, tins of beans etc. They used to travel some distance too. Great fun.

[spikeyhead]

jam jar, fertilizer, sugar, running away being chased by bloke who'd run from nearby houses disturbed by the massive bang

[ukwill]

We used to have races over the steel railway bridge over the Thames at Windsor (when I was around 13/14). There are 3 horizontal semi circular steel girders that are iirc, about 3ft wide that span the bridge. If you were running and a train passed over the bridge you had to lay down and hold on tightly. Fun times

[tangerine_sedge]

I almost drowned when I was 9 in a dirty overgrown canal, a passer-by had to jump in and get me out. My dad got a bking from my mum for that one as he was supposed to be looking after me during the summer holidays.

Climbing trees and riding my bike too fast down steep hills with sharp bends on bikes with bald tyres and stty brakes was pretty standard.

Going to the local woods with air guns, and sharp axes/knives was a secial treat when we needed some excitement...

[paul.deitch]

Making sodium chlorate "bombs". used on the cliffs, school and own garden. That's when the trouble started haha! Neighbours called the police and fire brigade.
Nearly hanging myself on a very high tree
Twice got into trouble swimming in rough seas, but managed to rescue myself
Plucking up the courage to go and buy cigarettes under-age I parked my bike behind a truck. He reversed, crushed the bike and nearly me. Got a new bike out of that.
Trying to light a petrol soaked newspaper from the car cigarette lighter. I was damn lucky.
Rode my horse fast through woods and didn't notice the low hanging bough as I was hanging on for dear life. The bough won and it hurt.

I am now an upstanding citizen!

[Heathwood]

Oh where do I start?

Playing with matches / firefighters and building fires at sub 10 years old. I quite liked weapons, so regularly messed around with air pistols, knives and throwing stars (shot 2 friends by accident). Messing around after hours in a local quarry. Setting up jumps to do on my grifter thinking I was Eddie Kidd. No protective equipment of course (yeah, that ended badly). Chasing cows, messing around on frozen(ish) lakes. I’m sure there’s more that will come to mind.

[hammo19]

Building tunnels and camps with the hay bales on the old airfield and setting alight to them when kids were inside. Cycling over an abandoned Ford Cortina Mk1 around “the garages” only found out it wasn’t abandoned when the Police knocked on the front door.
Riding a BSA Bantam on the old airfield without brakes.
Trying to get calor gas canisters to blow up with naked flames.
Driving a Land Rover at age 11 fetching the cables from the winch at the gliding school.
Etc, etc.
I’m very risk adverse now.