Naughtiest things you did as a child
Discussion
Lying in a strange bed last night unable to get to sleep, my thoughts weirdly turned to Theresa May's admission that the naughtiest thing she ever did was run through a wheat field ( I know this was ages ago, that's why it was weird )
This led me to remember some of the things I got up to with my gang growing up in a village.
In no particular order we :-
Dammed a stream which caused a road to flood. Council workers had to unblock it.
Set fire to a rival gangs tree camp. Fire brigade called.
Made a camp out of stolen hay bales which rival gang set alight in retribution. Fire brigade again attended.
Made many scrumping raids on gardens and orchards.
Rode motorbikes around the farmer's fields leading to a kick in the shins from said farmer when he managed to catch us.
Covered the local strange man's house in clay balls fired from pug sticks ( a long whippy stick, you stuck a ball of clay on the end, then flicked it and it had a surprising range )
That's some of my naughties performed between the ages of about 10 to 14 when I discovered girls and a different type of naughtiness.
Now, what did you lot get up to at that sort of age.
This led me to remember some of the things I got up to with my gang growing up in a village.
In no particular order we :-
Dammed a stream which caused a road to flood. Council workers had to unblock it.
Set fire to a rival gangs tree camp. Fire brigade called.
Made a camp out of stolen hay bales which rival gang set alight in retribution. Fire brigade again attended.
Made many scrumping raids on gardens and orchards.
Rode motorbikes around the farmer's fields leading to a kick in the shins from said farmer when he managed to catch us.
Covered the local strange man's house in clay balls fired from pug sticks ( a long whippy stick, you stuck a ball of clay on the end, then flicked it and it had a surprising range )
That's some of my naughties performed between the ages of about 10 to 14 when I discovered girls and a different type of naughtiness.
Now, what did you lot get up to at that sort of age.
Threw some batteries on a coal fire in the sitting room, they exploded and one wall was covered in black soot.
Put some potassium permangenate in a bath of water and it sent the bath purple, my mother couldnt tell me off because she had bought me the chemistry set and dad said it would end in trouble.
When I was 7, my sister was 17, I told a 18 year old boy that she wanted his baby, they had never even spoken.
Rode a push bike with three of us on it through the centre of York, copper stopped us and told us to go to the circus.
Got all the kids together to see which of the girls could do a handstand the longest, I was 8 years old.
Tied some wool around my leg so tight that my foot went blue.
Got stuck in a stream with steep sides, because there was a football at the bottom that I wanted, couldnt get out because my feet and legs were covered in mud, by sheer luck, a man dressed as a cowboy rode past, with a western saddle and he had a rope, the horse pulled me out. Dad had to hose me down in the garden.
Put some potassium permangenate in a bath of water and it sent the bath purple, my mother couldnt tell me off because she had bought me the chemistry set and dad said it would end in trouble.
When I was 7, my sister was 17, I told a 18 year old boy that she wanted his baby, they had never even spoken.
Rode a push bike with three of us on it through the centre of York, copper stopped us and told us to go to the circus.
Got all the kids together to see which of the girls could do a handstand the longest, I was 8 years old.
Tied some wool around my leg so tight that my foot went blue.
Got stuck in a stream with steep sides, because there was a football at the bottom that I wanted, couldnt get out because my feet and legs were covered in mud, by sheer luck, a man dressed as a cowboy rode past, with a western saddle and he had a rope, the horse pulled me out. Dad had to hose me down in the garden.
Edited by Robbo 27 on Thursday 17th August 18:54
I was about five or six, and riding my trike up and down the pavement near home in Ilford when I decided to visit my auntie, who lived on a farm in Hainault, about five miles away. How I managed it I will never understand. The first thing mum knew of it was auntie ringing up to tell her of my arrival.
My form class at school was located in the chemistry department, and I would receive detentions on a fairly frequent basis. I decided I would help myself to some Sodium after watching a class experiment; the "heist" took place a few days later during a detention, where I removed some of the sodium from its oil container in the lab and pushed it into a small oil filled shock absorber I had removed from my Tamiya Falcon.
I bumped into a friend from the village we grew up in yesterday; I haven't seen him in many years and we were reminiscing on the capers we used to get involved in, which included (but not limited to) setting fire to things, experimenting with Molotov cocktails, fireworks, breaking into the local smiddy to procure ingredients to make gunpowder etc. Growing up in a village/countryside was great fun - happy days.
I bumped into a friend from the village we grew up in yesterday; I haven't seen him in many years and we were reminiscing on the capers we used to get involved in, which included (but not limited to) setting fire to things, experimenting with Molotov cocktails, fireworks, breaking into the local smiddy to procure ingredients to make gunpowder etc. Growing up in a village/countryside was great fun - happy days.
Set fire to many things including climbing frames, tress and other things... Also set fire to my friends whole garden that was surrounded with tall hedges. Fire brigade had to come to that and it took a fair few years fr the new bushes to grow back.
I was also one of the statistics that contributed to BB guns now having to be brightly coloured and as un-realistic as possible!
I was also one of the statistics that contributed to BB guns now having to be brightly coloured and as un-realistic as possible!
Edited by ashleyman on Thursday 17th August 20:15
Dressed a log up as a child in shorts. Left it in the road on a blind bend.... hid in a barn to watch the carnage.
Thankfully there was never an accident or any damage to any cars..... it was the summer holidays and I would have been maybe 12/13 and this was in very rural Devon on a country lane.
Thankfully there was never an accident or any damage to any cars..... it was the summer holidays and I would have been maybe 12/13 and this was in very rural Devon on a country lane.
Lots of japes with black widow catapults and paint balls, BB guns, fireworks, homemade molotovs (some pathetic, some awesome)
When 'M' reg cars were released we sat in a bush near a Nissan dealership and as new owners (of mainly micra's) were driving out of the dealership we fired at their wing mirrors with the catapult - actually took wing mirrors off a couple
Oh and the usual excessive weekend binge drinking in parks and local rural areas with girls from the local all girls school who really knew how to have a good time
haha
When 'M' reg cars were released we sat in a bush near a Nissan dealership and as new owners (of mainly micra's) were driving out of the dealership we fired at their wing mirrors with the catapult - actually took wing mirrors off a couple
Oh and the usual excessive weekend binge drinking in parks and local rural areas with girls from the local all girls school who really knew how to have a good time
hahaI was a good boy........then a mate got copies of the jolly Rogers anacist cook book, worst I ever did with it was learn to make home made napalm and set most if the garden on fire that required the local fire brigade to use a foam extinguisher to finally put it out.
Used to also sneak into a local guys land to fish on his lake.
Used to also sneak into a local guys land to fish on his lake.
Removing three of the four wheel nuts from travellers caravans.
Joy riding peat harvesting tractors and machines as they all started with a lucas key
Turned over my fathers two year old car at 15 while he was in work
Tying a length of baling twine across a road and "clotheslineing" cyclists
Ball bearings in black widows
Setting fire to wheelie bins
Joy riding peat harvesting tractors and machines as they all started with a lucas key
Turned over my fathers two year old car at 15 while he was in work
Tying a length of baling twine across a road and "clotheslineing" cyclists
Ball bearings in black widows
Setting fire to wheelie bins
Not me (honest) 
Some young urchins decided to walk up the Totley rail tunnel (2 mile long rail tunnel to the south of Sheffield) during the school holidays.
It was long and dark. Trains came and went, but there were plenty of alcoves to escape into.
Emerging at the other end, a disused and empty British Railways toolshed was found. It was decided that someone should set it on fire....
Nothing more was heard until after the hols, when the teacher came out with the old favourite : "Write about what you did during the school holidays".
The usual 'Went To Cornwall/The Zoo/Not Much' essays were submitted....apart from one bright spark
who wrote about 'The day we walked up the Totley Rail Tunnel and set fire to a British Rail Toolshed'......
"Is this true?" enquired Teach.
"Yes," replied Bright Spark.
"Good. Off to the headmaster and give him the names of the the others" intoned Teach.
Cue detentions, parental intervention and a visit from British Transport Police
who lectured & showed the entire school a video about 'what happens to promising young footballers who dick about on the railway'.... 
In between all this, a repeat journey was made up the tunnel where workman were observed starting demolition work on the burnt remains of the toolshed. Two more journeys were made up that tunnel. 1 : to go & get sledgehammers and assorted other bits, and 2: go back and finish the job off for them.
Some young urchins decided to walk up the Totley rail tunnel (2 mile long rail tunnel to the south of Sheffield) during the school holidays.
It was long and dark. Trains came and went, but there were plenty of alcoves to escape into.
Emerging at the other end, a disused and empty British Railways toolshed was found. It was decided that someone should set it on fire....
Nothing more was heard until after the hols, when the teacher came out with the old favourite : "Write about what you did during the school holidays".
The usual 'Went To Cornwall/The Zoo/Not Much' essays were submitted....apart from one bright spark
who wrote about 'The day we walked up the Totley Rail Tunnel and set fire to a British Rail Toolshed'......"Is this true?" enquired Teach.
"Yes," replied Bright Spark.
"Good. Off to the headmaster and give him the names of the the others" intoned Teach.
Cue detentions, parental intervention and a visit from British Transport Police
who lectured & showed the entire school a video about 'what happens to promising young footballers who dick about on the railway'.... In between all this, a repeat journey was made up the tunnel where workman were observed starting demolition work on the burnt remains of the toolshed. Two more journeys were made up that tunnel. 1 : to go & get sledgehammers and assorted other bits, and 2: go back and finish the job off for them.
Didn't get up to much very naughty compared to some on here!
I did set fire to my lounge carpet once though, my dad was a smoker and was in the kitchen cooking dinner, I was setting fire to a tissue in the ashtray and blowing it out. I then had the bright idea of lighting in 2 places at once, then 3 until I coukd no longer blow it out so dropped it on the carpet and ran out of the room screaming and clutching a mildly burnt hand.
I did set fire to my lounge carpet once though, my dad was a smoker and was in the kitchen cooking dinner, I was setting fire to a tissue in the ashtray and blowing it out. I then had the bright idea of lighting in 2 places at once, then 3 until I coukd no longer blow it out so dropped it on the carpet and ran out of the room screaming and clutching a mildly burnt hand.
NordicCrankShaft said:
Somehow managed to open the top of the fridge and get to the bottle of calpol Chugged what was left, my mum found the empty bottle, I blamed my 1 year younger than me brother and we both ended up in the local hospital having our stomachs pumped, must have been about 6/7 
Are you my brother? Exact same thing here 
Not much, young me was a master of not getting caught, not too different from adult me if I am honest, it seems you can get away with literal murder nowadays provided you don't post a selfie of it on facebook.
Myself and a couple of friends decided it would be a great idea to steal a big pile of magnesium sticks from our schools chemistry dept and torch them outside the back of the school, nobody got caught but a newsletter got sent around all of the science classes so every single teacher gave every class a lecture about the dangers of burning stuff like that.
Same friends in standard grade (GCSE) chemistry happened to coincidentally spill a big beaker of ethanol and tip over a bunsen burner, teacher I had that year was retiring so he was implementing the full force of his '70s attitude to health and safety (this was the '00s), he didn't really even seem annoyed when he had to chuck the fire blanket on the blaze quickly engulfing the table, genuinely don't know how I passed that class, with a high B as well.
Being rural and 14-16 we all at little dirtbikes or quads of some sort, which had either been handmedown or purchased off of ebay for £150 for a birthday, nothing stolen, we weren't
s. We did however have a little route we used to take, we would wheel the bikes out, telling our parents we where going to a local field where we had permission to ride, of course the moment we where out of earshot the bikes got fired up and we rode the few miles down the road to aforementioned field, we then cut through the field and rode up a local hill through some forestry tracks, it was fantastic fun. We did get caught twice though, once by a farmer whos field we where cutting through prior to the track, he was actually more than reasonable about, he told us to bugger off out his field and showed us an alternative route to take through a local rambler track, occasionally the ramblers pestered us but they had neither a Hilux or a Shotgun. Second time we got a fantastic chase off of a Forestry pickup, pretty sure the young guy behind the wheel of that pickup had as much fun as we did following a group of 100-150cc dirtbikes along a winding gravel track, he chased us down the hill to a gate, which was usually open but ended up being closed on this occasion, he jumped out and gave us a bking for riding on a closed track, apparently another group had been setting fires so they where trying to clamp down on it.
I'm sure with this being PH someone will be along to tell me how many kittens I have killed in my actions, and how they would never dream of doing anything as rowdy as running through a field of wheat etc etc.
Myself and a couple of friends decided it would be a great idea to steal a big pile of magnesium sticks from our schools chemistry dept and torch them outside the back of the school, nobody got caught but a newsletter got sent around all of the science classes so every single teacher gave every class a lecture about the dangers of burning stuff like that.
Same friends in standard grade (GCSE) chemistry happened to coincidentally spill a big beaker of ethanol and tip over a bunsen burner, teacher I had that year was retiring so he was implementing the full force of his '70s attitude to health and safety (this was the '00s), he didn't really even seem annoyed when he had to chuck the fire blanket on the blaze quickly engulfing the table, genuinely don't know how I passed that class, with a high B as well
. Being rural and 14-16 we all at little dirtbikes or quads of some sort, which had either been handmedown or purchased off of ebay for £150 for a birthday, nothing stolen, we weren't
s. We did however have a little route we used to take, we would wheel the bikes out, telling our parents we where going to a local field where we had permission to ride, of course the moment we where out of earshot the bikes got fired up and we rode the few miles down the road to aforementioned field, we then cut through the field and rode up a local hill through some forestry tracks, it was fantastic fun. We did get caught twice though, once by a farmer whos field we where cutting through prior to the track, he was actually more than reasonable about, he told us to bugger off out his field and showed us an alternative route to take through a local rambler track, occasionally the ramblers pestered us but they had neither a Hilux or a Shotgun. Second time we got a fantastic chase off of a Forestry pickup, pretty sure the young guy behind the wheel of that pickup had as much fun as we did following a group of 100-150cc dirtbikes along a winding gravel track, he chased us down the hill to a gate, which was usually open but ended up being closed on this occasion, he jumped out and gave us a bking for riding on a closed track, apparently another group had been setting fires so they where trying to clamp down on it. I'm sure with this being PH someone will be along to tell me how many kittens I have killed in my actions, and how they would never dream of doing anything as rowdy as running through a field of wheat etc etc.
Shot my brother with a .22 air rifle (plastic pellet).
Pushed my brother off a bannister breaking his arm.
Local farmer had a barn full of sacks of ammonium nitrate. Homemade explosives followed. Bloody dangerous looking back, we made some big bombs.
Created a roadblock dressed like paramilitaries armed with bb guns.
Myself and several friends had French bangers ready to throw at Prince Charles on a royal visit. Don't know why as we were all pro monarchy. Fortunately we chickened out of that one.
I was in the CCF at school, and my friend and I, having watched the film If, concocted a completely plausible and workable plan to raid the school armoury taking the LSW's, a load of ammo and a couple of the number 8 rifles before setting up in the school tower. Again, glad we didn't go through with that.
My mother joined in the stupid behaviour and used to buy me petrol for my homemade flame thrower or for covering my bike wheels in so I could have a flaming bike. I also used to lie on the roof of the car and she'd drive up to the local ford before breaking hard to try and shoot me into the water.
So many more tales of idiocy, none of which I really regret, other than stealing a 9p pack of bubble gum from Normans, I still feel like a dirty thief for that. My 'care coordinator' from the mental health team reeled in horror when he asked me about what kind of stuff I got up to as a youngster
I think he was expecting Lego and football cards.
I can't help but think that today's generation are missing out on the antics of old. Stealing someone's Pokémon or hacking their Snapchat just isn't the same.
Pushed my brother off a bannister breaking his arm.
Local farmer had a barn full of sacks of ammonium nitrate. Homemade explosives followed. Bloody dangerous looking back, we made some big bombs.
Created a roadblock dressed like paramilitaries armed with bb guns.
Myself and several friends had French bangers ready to throw at Prince Charles on a royal visit. Don't know why as we were all pro monarchy. Fortunately we chickened out of that one.
I was in the CCF at school, and my friend and I, having watched the film If, concocted a completely plausible and workable plan to raid the school armoury taking the LSW's, a load of ammo and a couple of the number 8 rifles before setting up in the school tower. Again, glad we didn't go through with that.
My mother joined in the stupid behaviour and used to buy me petrol for my homemade flame thrower or for covering my bike wheels in so I could have a flaming bike. I also used to lie on the roof of the car and she'd drive up to the local ford before breaking hard to try and shoot me into the water.
So many more tales of idiocy, none of which I really regret, other than stealing a 9p pack of bubble gum from Normans, I still feel like a dirty thief for that. My 'care coordinator' from the mental health team reeled in horror when he asked me about what kind of stuff I got up to as a youngster
I think he was expecting Lego and football cards. I can't help but think that today's generation are missing out on the antics of old. Stealing someone's Pokémon or hacking their Snapchat just isn't the same.
I've not included any of the racier stuff when our mixed DoE expeditions took place. A group of 5 males and 5 females all 14/15, camping out together while our expedition leaders were holed up in the YHA ... good times tent hopping
I know my nephew (12) won't have anywhere near similar exploits as it's all about the Xbox, chatting to 'friends' online, snap and insta, never plays out - ever ... I feel sad for that, we had so much crazy fun!
I know my nephew (12) won't have anywhere near similar exploits as it's all about the Xbox, chatting to 'friends' online, snap and insta, never plays out - ever ... I feel sad for that, we had so much crazy fun!
destroyed several dog poo bins with air bomb repeaters
swapped the diversion signs around on the local multi-storey car park causing chaos
broke a fence post (by accident) but the cows got out before we could tell the farmer
put dog poo in the handle of a phone box
unwittingly provided the ignition source that lit the magnesium tape role on the bus that burnt through the floor!
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