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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsWhat did you do as a teen/kid that parents today would have a fit if they knew you did it. Mine---sliding down huge
slag piles on boxes. Can you name a thing you did?
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gab13by13
(32,238 posts)At the bottom, lie down, and fly under a barb wire fence.
Younger than teen though.
debm55
(60,423 posts)
happybird
(5,391 posts)After going under the barbed wire you had to execute a slick, turning stop before hitting the creek.
MiHale
(13,005 posts)We had cardboard bullet vests, run around shooting at each other on the playground whoever had the least bb’s stuck in the cardboard vest was the winner…man the 50’s were fun!
Precursor to laser tag.
debm55
(60,423 posts)
MiHale
(13,005 posts)debm55
(60,423 posts)
Chainfire
(17,757 posts)The "rule" was below the shoulder. I planted one on my best friends forehead and he responded in kind. (just a little lower)
Where I live, wild grape vines are prolific on the woods lines. The grew so thickly that you could climb them like a net, 30 to 40 feet high. Nobody ever got hurt falling through. We would also play Tarzan on those vineds.
debm55
(60,423 posts)fun. Thank you.
MiHale
(13,005 posts)We had no idea what kind of vine we found, it was just there inviting us … had tons of fun …little later some of the others were complaining of being itchy…poison ivy vines are really good for playing Tarzan.
Luckily I’m not allergic to poison ivy.
debm55
(60,423 posts)
MiHale
(13,005 posts)Short. Some people don’t believe you can NOT have an allergy to P.I. Some believe it. My oldest son bought his new home in a heavily wooded area. Cleaning up he was just dragging and pulling down vines without any regard to exactly what they were. Later in the evening, covered in lotion he exclaimed “Dad’s not allergic”. My lovely daughter in law looked him in the eyes…”You’re not your Dad”
We still roll on the floor bout that. Jeez he was a mess.
debm55
(60,423 posts)
LudwigPastorius
(14,689 posts)We used pump air rifles, and the rules were you couldn't pump them up more than a couple of times (although I've still got a BB in my calf from somebody who didn't abide by the rules)
Lucky nobody lost an eye.
debm55
(60,423 posts) 
Captain Zero
(8,896 posts)during bb gun wars.
Dirt clods were 'hand grenades'.
debm55
(60,423 posts) 
CanonRay
(16,164 posts)I grew up next to the Proviso Yards in Chicago, at the lime the largest in the world. Hopping on boxcars, etc. Got chased by Railroad cops and even shot at once (a shotgun...I presume loaded with salt and not buckshot, but he missed so who knows.) I can't believe I made it to 20. 
debm55
(60,423 posts)Last edited Fri Jan 26, 2024, 01:23 PM - Edit history (1)
trains but walk the train lines. When a train came, we would put our faces to the sides.as rocks and gravel from the train would kick off. When it passed we would continue our walk. Always took a packed lunch.
CanonRay
(16,164 posts)Used to hear switching engines and boxcars banging all night!
debm55
(60,423 posts) debm55
(60,423 posts)scary as a child. The guy in the caboose would throw us wrapped candy. I was so glad when it passed.
LakeArenal
(29,949 posts)debm55
(60,423 posts) 
Mister Ed
(6,923 posts)At the tops of the tall pines, where the trunk had tapered to only wrist-thick, the wind would sometimes toss me back and forth but I could see for miles. Quite exhilarating to an eight or nine year old kid.
I'm not sure my parents would have objected if they knew, though. We were free-range children back then.
debm55
(60,423 posts) 
Ocelot II
(130,465 posts)the only rule was to be back by supper time. After that we'd go out again and return when it got dark. Parents never knew what we got up to. Usually we were just running through the neighborhood in various backyards, but we'd sometimes find a pond or a swamp to mess around in - this was before the whole area within bicycling distance got built up. We'd go out on our bikes, fall off them, come home with skinned knees, get a few band-aids and go out again. Sometimes we'd build fires or try to blow stuff up with firecrackers. My brother and I once made a still and brewed alcohol on the kitchen stove when our parents were out; another time we experimented with household chemicals and mixed bleach with marine algae remover, which released chlorine (we ran that mess outside as fast as we could). At my grandmother's place in Wisconsin there was a big woods where I and my brothers, cousins and neighbor kids would play for hours unsupervised. We'd catch garter snakes, climb trees and get poison ivy. Are modern parents too cautious or were ours negligent?
debm55
(60,423 posts)on a street called Bull Run. And yes they had bulls on the land. We climbed the fence got in and went to pet the bull. I 'll never forget the one I decided to pet had a ring through his nose, You have never seen a group of ten years run so fast when he charged us. and we jumped over the fence. We crossed it off of our places to visit list. I know I never broke the vow to return. Don't know about the others.
CanonRay
(16,164 posts)Parents never knew where we were or 1/10th the stuff we did.
debm55
(60,423 posts)
debm55
(60,423 posts)six or seven kids in the house? We were told not to get in cars or take candy from strangers (I did and had my Baby front teeth knocked out.) But kids today want to stay in the house. I have three neighbors with large above ground pools that only the parents use. In my house, we call them marshmallows because they are afraid to go out in the sun.
Ocelot II
(130,465 posts)Most families had only 2-3 kids; I don't remember any larger than that. Until I was 11 I had only the one brother. I think the difference now is greater awareness of some of the crazy stuff kids can get up to and the hazards that exist in normal day-to-day activities. We didn't have bike helmets or seat belts in cars, for example, because nobody was keeping track of the injuries related to the lack of such things, or the dangers of some ordinary products, until about the '60s. I think more pervasive news coverage, and especially through the Internet, has brought attention to dangers we never really thought about. We knew not to talk to strangers but we didn't really know why not; but now, having become aware that they exist, parents are scared to death that every stranger is a child molester and every toy is a safety hazard. So now kids are watched over constantly when they're outside, or else they're in their rooms texting their friends or playing video games.
debm55
(60,423 posts)Last edited Fri Jan 26, 2024, 02:25 PM - Edit history (1)
from a stranger. I got two missing front baby teeth from that incident but still didn't get the connection. Now that I think about it , what the hell was a 5 year old walking across town by herself. Someone could have easily pulled me into the car.
Jilly_in_VA
(14,344 posts)but there were 40 kids in a a 2 block radius, all ages, and in the summer we got out and played together, especially in the evenings. In the daytime we could walk or ride our bikes to the city park that was nearly a mile away and our parents didn't think anything of it. I rode my bike to the nearest library all the time, that was more than a mile away. When I got older I took the bus downtown to the big library and sometimes I'd stay all afternoon. I'd get my books, and then, even though I wasn't allowed to take books out of the adult section (you had to be 14) I'd go off into the stacks and read stuff there all afternoon.
debm55
(60,423 posts) 
ProfessorGAC
(76,643 posts)We had a couple families in the catholic school I went to that had 5 or 6 kids. Those families were unusual.
Even 4 kids was uncommon.
Nearly everyone I hung around with had zero, 1 or 2 siblings.
The first dangerous thing I recall making the news was lawn darts. Of course, that's late 60s to early 70s & data was being collected more copiously.
I had to jump on to your post, because I couldn't really answer Deb. I was never a thrill seeker or danger-boy.
Ocelot II
(130,465 posts)which we thought was really peculiar. Didn't actually know them, though.
debm55
(60,423 posts) LakeArenal
(29,949 posts)We got our puppy from the guy down the street. We could go door to door selling Girl Scout cookies or in our case, selling pick your own strawberries every June.
We all went to school together. It’s not like that anymore
debm55
(60,423 posts)
LakeArenal
(29,949 posts)If an adult had a problem with any kid, that kid was in trouble.
debm55
(60,423 posts) 
yellowdogintexas
(23,693 posts)yellowdogintexas
(23,693 posts)We roamed around town all day. There were 4 girls all the same age and we just sort of floated from house to house. I had to check in when I changed locations but that was no trouble.
My sister was more outdoorsy than I was; she and her best bud would take these long bike rides out one of the country roads; ride down to the creek and go wading.
debm55
(60,423 posts) MiHale
(13,005 posts)Maybe that’s why we taste so good.🤪
zanana1
(6,486 posts)debm55
(60,423 posts) zanana1
(6,486 posts)Going halfway down the hill, I thought to myself "This is dangerous". I wasn't all that bright.
debm55
(60,423 posts)
Mz Pip
(28,442 posts)Except on roller skates. He called it downhill skating. He was a daredevil. Never broke a bone though.
Now he’s a kindergarten teacher. He’s great with kids. He still has a lot of kid in him.
Aristus
(72,134 posts)I would tend to disagree that we lived our kid lives utterly without restrictions. When I was living in Texas, my parents told me never to go further from the house four doors down with the honeysuckle hedge without one of them with me. That honeysuckle hedge was the boundary of the known world to me. Beyond was "Hyre Ther Bee Dragons".
Granted, I was, like, five at the time.
debm55
(60,423 posts)work outside the house., but she did care for my brother.who was three. Now I see parent of HS kids waiting in cars at the Bus Stop to pick their kids up and they only live 3 houses away.
Ocelot II
(130,465 posts)on the other side of the pedestrian tunnel into the park, about three blocks away. There was also a railroad track on the other side of a large open lot behind our house, and that was absolutely verboten. I got in a whole lot of trouble as a delinquent four-year-old when I ran through that lot and climbed up the embankment to the tracks. Never went there again. But once I was old enough for a bicycle all bets were off...
debm55
(60,423 posts)
NBachers
(19,424 posts)I can imagine the small-town tragedy news stories:
"Authorities became alarmed when they spotted three bicycles on the ground outside the remnants of the burnt-down barn."
Our parents used to get annoyed when we didn't go out and get lost for the day - "FER CHRISSAKES DON'T YOU KIDS HAVE ANYTHING TO DO OUTSIDE?"
debm55
(60,423 posts)
gopiscrap
(24,720 posts)Ocelot II
(130,465 posts)I think that was included in the Parents' Phrasebook, along with:
"If you don't stop that right now I'm going to pull this car over..."
"If all your friends jumped off a cliff would you do it too?"
"Close the door, we're not going to heat the whole neighborhood!"
"Because I said so!"
"Do your homework or you'll end up working at Woolworth's for the rest of your life!"
debm55
(60,423 posts) MiHale
(13,005 posts)debm55
(60,423 posts) NBachers
(19,424 posts)And, during my many ditch-digging jobs, I heard that ringing in my ears.
Edited to add: They'd draw this very graphic mental picture of stopping the car and all us kids lined up by the side of the road, each one getting spanked one after the other, to our ultimate shame while all the other cars drove by and saw us getting punished.
debm55
(60,423 posts)
Chainfire
(17,757 posts)Of course most of the eggs remained unfound and unhatched. We used to collect up the rotton ones and have egg wars. You knew you had good ones because you could shake them and tell they were liquid on the inside. Sometimes, if the eggs were old enough, when you gave them the shake test, they would implode, and the smell was something to write home about.
We also used to play tackle football, no gear, anyone from 50 to 250 pounds played, no holds barred, and we played in an active cow pasture, with the eventual happening at least once a game. (Fresh patties) This same field had an electric fence on one side to keep the hogs out. One kid went out for a long pass, forgot where he was and got tangled up in it. Everytime the little red light flashed on at the barn, the kid would scream. (cycling on and off about a second at the time) Everybody was laughing so hard, it took a couple of minutes to get the fence unplugged. Boy was he pissed when he got out of the fence....That has been nearly 55 years, and I bet he hasn't forgiven us yet.
If you have never experienced an electric fence, let me tell you, it hurts like hell. I have heard the old stories, but no one that I knew was stupid to piss on one...
It was really rare in our community that a kid got hurt bad enough to go to the doctor, we must have been tough...
We had no where to go, nothing to do, so we got creative with entertainment.
debm55
(60,423 posts) Chainfire
(17,757 posts)debm55
(60,423 posts) yellowdogintexas
(23,693 posts)Farm machinery is incredibly dangerous, silos full of grain, climbing up in the rafters of a barn to hang tobacco, I knew two kids which were killed by hay baling equipment.
Modern tractors and combines are not as dangerous as they once were but
debm55
(60,423 posts)
yellowdogintexas
(23,693 posts)they can shock you that is for certain
Mz Pip
(28,442 posts)We flattened boxes and would go to a high overpass over the train tracks. Hella fun.
debm55
(60,423 posts)Those big boxes were not flattened--to valuable. Everyone would pile in and we would rock it until it tipped over and went down the slag pile, Of course, some kids fell out along the way. But we would carry it back up and do again. This is the first time I am tell this . I have kept in my memories of good times.
debm55
(60,423 posts)
Liberty Belle
(9,706 posts)cross a stream and go over the ridges when each parents thought we were visiting the other's home. There was a hiking trail around the lake.
It was great fun, back before the area became developed with apartment buildings.
debm55
(60,423 posts)
livetohike
(24,267 posts)never knew that my friends and I would hop onto slow moving trains. We wouldn’t ride very far and would jump off before it sped up. I would never try that today. Fearless when I was young 🙂.
debm55
(60,423 posts)a mill?
livetohike
(24,267 posts)and my parents bought a house in Monroeville. There was a slag pile a few blocks from her house. Dad worked at ET (Edgar Thomson) mill in Braddock. My paternal grandparents lived up the hill from the mill and two houses from the railroad tracks .
debm55
(60,423 posts)slagging. and biking.
Walleye
(44,729 posts)debm55
(60,423 posts)Last edited Sat Jan 27, 2024, 09:29 PM - Edit history (1)
Walleye
(44,729 posts)I don’t think I told my mom about it until it was way too late to do anything. My neighbor, a boy my age kept it as a secret for a little while. My real adventure I’m proud is, my brother, I guess when he was about 14, decided he would swim across the bay with his best friend. Indian river bay where we rented a cottage in the summer. It was about 3 miles of open water and I was assigned to row beside them in a little 8 foot skiff and bring them back. Just saw my brother’s friend recently, and he admitted that it was really me that did all the work. My grandmother was deathly afraid of the water. It wasn’t a very nice thing to do to her
debm55
(60,423 posts) Walleye
(44,729 posts) 
moose65
(3,454 posts)I was a kid in the mid-70s. I can remember getting home from school at about 3:30 in the afternoon. My dad didn't get home till around 4, and my mom got home a bit after 5 (Grandparents were our neighbors so they "watched" us). On warm days, I would go bike-riding with a friend of mine from "down the road."
We didn't wear helmets or use any kind of equipment, of course. We would ride on these little country roads that were paved but were not high traffic areas, and we would usually end up at a little store that was probably 3 or 4 miles away. My parents and grandparents had no idea where I was on those afternoons.
In the summer, we would play softball and go wading in the local creek, but again with no parents around. I can remember hiking through the woods and up on the "mountain" as we called it - foothills really! Nobody's parents really knew what we were doing or where we were, really. It's not that they were "bad parents" or anything. It was just a different time, and they didn't have a GPS attached to us at every moment!
I can also remember when we went to the "city." Our city was Winston-Salem, where my dad worked in a factory. It was about 45 minutes away. Sometimes we would go pick him up at work (he rode in a carpool) and then we would go to Hanes Mall for the evening, and they would turn me loose and I would roam around for a couple of hours on my own. That was fun, and my parents had no way to contact me to tell me they were ready to leave. We just arranged a meeting time and a place! I remember feeling like I was independent while roaming the mall!
debm55
(60,423 posts)third grade. Life was different then, and more fun.
Bobstandard
(2,291 posts)They were building the Ilikia, one of the first truly high rise buildings in Waikiki. My pals and I hung out at a section of the beach nearby. One Sunday when the construction crew was gone we climbed the fire escape stairway to the top of the building. We got out on the roof, and sat with our legs dangling over the edge, taking in the view from 26 stories up. I still get the willies thinking about when the guy next to me grabbed me by the shoulder and mock-pushed, yelling, “don’t fall!”
debm55
(60,423 posts) debm55
(60,423 posts)would go full speed and then hit the brakes (feet) Designated measuring person would measure the skid. and mark on the ground with claystone. Next person would go. There were no prizes or award. We did it for the shear fun of it.
NBachers
(19,424 posts)pits, construction projects where we could get wood left-overs for tree & ground forts; apple trees for apple wars; deep snow for snow forts; a car dealer where we could get their junk parts and take them apart, fishing, bicycles with our dogs running alongside like a pack; an ice cream factory; ruined houses and buildings; forests; pastures with cow pies and barb wire to crawl through; the Variety Store in the village where you could walk in with 19¢ and walk out with a finely-curated pocket full of goodies; Lake Ontario was visible in the distance and bikeable; canal bridges and waste gates to jump off of; digging out fossils & trilobites where the crick eroded down into the shale; putting coins on the tracks and letting the trains run over 'em; we'd start rolling an old oil drum down the field hill in the late fall to prep it for a sledding hill when the snow came, and get the sled jumps ready; endless possibilities for kids.
My friend and I took some old Radio Flyer wheels and wood planks and designed our own downhill racer. Painted it red and called it The Red Devil and pimped it out with cast-off auto trim pieces from the junkyard. We'd push it and race it down the big hill street in our neighborhood and then push it back up. In no time, the other kids in the neighborhood built their own bizarro versions of The Red Devil, and the races were on. We took a clump of dirt and traced a starting line at the top of the hill. No helmets, of course. The lady at the bottom of the hill started calling the cops on us. They showed up and told us the story of the kid in "the next town over" who got into an accident with one just like ours and was now Paralyzed for Life! That meant that we had to stage Flash Mob races where we raced down the hill and then vanished into the neighborhood before the cops could get there.
debm55
(60,423 posts)
cornball 24
(1,578 posts)sign and across the intersecting street. We had bike wars crashing into each other and as mine was an old, old bike, I was a menace. Girls and boys played tackle football on a vacant lot.
NBachers
(19,424 posts)debm55
(60,423 posts)
womanofthehills
(10,988 posts)Playing in the woods, walking the RR tracks & riding our bikes to the next town to rent out row boats in the bay. Our rowboat started drifting away & luckily a speed boat saw us & pulled us to shore. Boy were we free!! Of course we put pennies on the RR tracks too.
Now the kids spend their lives on their phones playing games.
debm55
(60,423 posts) 
Niagara
(11,814 posts)There were very few times that I attempted dangerous expeditions.
I remember once I started doing backflips off the diving board and that stopped quickly when I scraped the inside of my arm from being so close to the diving board. I'm lucky that I didn't hit my head and drown in the pool.
What really would have had my parents flip their wig was my nudist ways, it started when I was young. Then it became an issue for some people during my teenage years.
My friends and I would go skinny dipping in the lake. We would jumped off lake piers during the day and night.
I had a short term boyfriend and he got mad at me because I stripped down on a 93F humid and sunny day and jumped into the lake. He was mad because he said that I was showing off my goods in front of his male cousin. I said well maybe you should have invited us inside to your grandma's air conditioned house where you were instead of leaving us unshaded and outside. I broke up with him later that day.
You know the dreams where you show up to high school naked? Didn't bother me at all, I wasn't looking for a place to hide and I totally strutted my stuff during that dream.
It didn't bother me that we had open showers at school either.
I don't walk around nude or strip down in front of people on extremely hot days in my older age, but that's because I have an old mom's body with built in tiger stripes now. 🐯
I just wanted to be honest about my younger self nudist lifestyle.
debm55
(60,423 posts)nudist/naturalist camp around here and went every weekend. Would I do it now, No. to old. I loved the complete freedom. Went up to Cape Cod and part of the cape is for nudists,
Niagara
(11,814 posts)during my youth.
Yes, I feel that I'm too old for that now, plus I don't want anyone losing their lunch. 
debm55
(60,423 posts) LudwigPastorius
(14,689 posts)doing "stunts" on my skateboard or bike with my buddy. That usually entailed, riding in dangerous terrain or into traffic. I lost a lot of skin, but no broken bones and I didn't kill myself...by sheer luck.
Later as a teen, skipping class to drink beer/get high with my friends, or sneaking out of the house at night to meet up with a girl I knew. If her dad had caught her going out with me after they went to sleep, he probably would have had me arrested.
debm55
(60,423 posts) LudwigPastorius
(14,689 posts) debm55
(60,423 posts) 
Emile
(42,205 posts)debm55
(60,423 posts) Emile
(42,205 posts)debm55
(60,423 posts)
OldBaldy1701E
(11,089 posts)'Should' I name things I did? Probably not. I will give you one example.
When I was 13, four or five of us used to go out in the deep woods on my father's farm with a twelve pack and 4-10 shotguns and drink and have ballistic wars. Meaning, everyone had about five minutes to find a spot to hold as a 'fort', then you wait until you see movement to determine where someone was, then you basically calculate the angle to fire into the air and make the pellets rain down on the other person. (This was at a distance, we were not near each other.) Whenever one heard a blast, everyone would start running in case the shot was intended for them.
(See what I mean? I know some people right this moment are reading this and freaking out. Well, all I can say was that we were kids back then. As someone who quit drinking whiskey at age 16, things were different.)
debm55
(60,423 posts)whiskey at 16,
OldBaldy1701E
(11,089 posts)I knew to always learn and grow. I just wish the rest of the family (with a few exceptions) had done so. Oh well.
debm55
(60,423 posts) doc03
(39,075 posts)had summer festivals. We snuck through the woods behind where the beer truck was parked and
took a case of Black Label. From there we went to our friend's farm and "camped out".
debm55
(60,423 posts)
doc03
(39,075 posts)Last edited Sat Jan 27, 2024, 10:26 PM - Edit history (2)
debm55
(60,423 posts) doc03
(39,075 posts)camping out.
debm55
(60,423 posts) 
bottomofthehill
(9,386 posts)We called it sketching or bumper skiing, there are probably other regional names but during snow storms we would wait at intersections and when a car would stop, grab on to the bumper and let it pull you along. Some people would stay crouched down and others would stand as the car for moving. It would suck when the car got going too fast, or worse you hit a bare spot.
debm55
(60,423 posts)Last edited Mon Jan 29, 2024, 06:38 PM - Edit history (1)
wouldn;t want to do it but it sounds like fun.
bottomofthehill
(9,386 posts)The first two pictures(it’s actually the same picture twice) basically sums it up. The picture is apparently in New Bedford, which makes sense as I we did the same thing Boston. I say google it as I have never gotten the hold of how to post pictures here. It is a great 80’s era picture.
bottomofthehill
(9,386 posts)Back in the day most residential streets were not plowed and the snow packed streets would get icy. A favorite activity was hitching or skitching a ride by grabbing the bumper of a car and sliding behind the car on the icy street.
You snuck up on the car and grabbed the bumper without the driver knowing. Sometimes the driver would become aware of you and swing out to get you off the car, or to give you more fun, or both.
You could just do this with your shoes, or wear skates. We also did it with bikes which was harder. And now the kids do it with skates or skateboards.
Sometimes our fathers or older brothers would let us hitch a ride. Lots of fun - not very safe - but fun.
https://empehi.blogspot.com/2016/12/hitching-or-skitching-ride.html?m=1
debm55
(60,423 posts)
Conjuay
(3,058 posts)Best would be the city bus- man, the whole neighbor hood could pile on. But someone figured out how to unlatch the motor cover and would flood the engine.
I think that annoyed the drivers more than anything, especially that the flooded engine would take some time to restart.
A friend went to a technical High School years later and said someone would occasionally bring a crescent wrench on board, and as they were exiting the bus would take the seat with them.
Kids…
debm55
(60,423 posts) Conjuay
(3,058 posts)Best would be the city bus- man, the whole neighbor hood could pile on. But someone figured out how to unlatch the motor cover and would flood the engine.
I think that annoyed the drivers more than anything, especially that the flooded engine would take some time to restart.
A friend went to a technical High School years later and said someone would occasionally bring a crescent wrench on board, and as they were exiting the bus would take the seat with them.
Kids…
debm55
(60,423 posts) Demobrat
(10,297 posts)I don’t recall anyone getting hurt but I’m sure it happened
debm55
(60,423 posts) 
csziggy
(34,189 posts)Kids would climb to the top of Sand Mountain with pieces of cardboard and slide down. At one point, water skiers from Cypress Gardens skied down the Mountain as a publicity stunt. Thousands of kids went down Sand Mountain on cardboard for years. So my parents didn't have a problem with that. More on Sand Mountain below.
What they did have fits about was me riding my bicycle miles out some of the back roads outside our town by myself when I was 11-12. Later on, I did the same thing on horseback - road miles alone down lonely roads. I was a solitary kid and few of my contemporaries wanted to go out that far so I did what I wanted by myself.
Sand Mountain - my grandfather and father were mining engineers in the phosphate industry in Central Florida. With the process that my grandfather helped develop (his name is on the patent) one of the principal waste products is nearly clean sand. They pretty much ran out of places to put the sand, so Grandfather came up with the idea they should just pile it up. By the late 1950s the pile was the highest point in peninsular Florida, higher than the natural Iron Mountain where Bok Tower sits.
In the 1960s when phosphate was at a high price, my father improved on his father's process, making it more efficient and therefore cost effective to reprocess that sand, getting the rest of the phosphate out of it. (There were also trace amounts of radioactive materials in it. Dad was consulted by the Atomic Energy Commission to see if those could be recovered but it was not practical or cost effective)
Sand Mountain was processed and the processed sand sold to make concrete blocks used to build houses. Years later, there was a big kerfluffle when it was discovered that those houses had slightly higher radioactive levels than normal back ground, but it was determined the levels were not high enough to affect people's health. Dad was amused at the outrage since he had been the one to originally measure the levels before the sand had been sold for use in buildings.
So my Grandfather built Sand Mountain and my Dad tore it down.
debm55
(60,423 posts)
Chainfire
(17,757 posts)The "good stuff" that could blow fingers off was cheap and readily available around Christmas time. As a little boy, I loved blowing things up! I still like watching explosive demolition of buildings. Now, that is fireworks!
Associated with that, is by about 14 years old, I would go hunting by myself, and that same year, I bought a motorcycle to run a paper route. The hunting phase did not last long, I felt too guilty when I shot and killed game; my heart was bigger than my stomach. We weren't more mature in those days, our parents just thought we were.
debm55
(60,423 posts) LakeArenal
(29,949 posts)Edit to add; My brother was one of those kids that would ride his bike behind the DDT truck sprayer.
I never got into that.
debm55
(60,423 posts) LakeArenal
(29,949 posts)He’s very arty and used to spend hours meticulously making and painting model cars. They were beautiful. Now they would be worth money.
As soon as he got done with them, he’d blow them up with fire crackers.
debm55
(60,423 posts) happybird
(5,391 posts)We ran wild and free on our bikes until it got dark. The adventures we had!
It wasn’t uncommon to be purposely locked out of the house by parents if the weather was nice, lol!
Neighborhood parents had no qualms about disciplining any kid who was out of line (not physically, just yelling and lecturing and confiscating items. And worst of all, threatening to tell your parents)
The biggest thing that parents would probably freak out about these days is the vehicle stuff: riding in the back of a pickup with the tailgate down (you can fit most of a soccer team in the bed of a pickup!) and Mr. Cook giving rides on his Harley. No helmets, usually no shoes since the Cooks had a trampoline and the Connors next door had a pool, and he’d usually had a couple beers. We also drove too young. My best friend’s Mom would let us take her Grand Am when we we in middle school as long as we stayed on back roads. Back then, the county was 75% back roads so we could be gone for hours visiting friends and just cruising. Seatbelts? What’s a seatbelt?
When we were of age to get our Learners Permits (15/16) my softball coach, one hell of a character, would be our adult passenger. He could put away a 12 pack while “supervising” our skills and wasn’t shy about sharing a beer or two. We called it lowriding, it was the #1 pastime in western end of the county back in those days: sipping beers and smoking weed while cruising the back roads.
debm55
(60,423 posts) 
sinkingfeeling
(57,795 posts)debm55
(60,423 posts)started snorting and kicking, I'll never forget the ring in his nose. Alot of people had bulls in the area-hence the name Bull Run.
That was first and last encounter with a bull.
kimbutgar
(27,238 posts)And I’m surprised I never broke a body part or put a hole in the wall! But the last time I did it I had a bad landing.
debm55
(60,423 posts)
EverHopeful
(690 posts)I see my "exciting" childhood secret that would give parents fits seems awfully tame.
When staying with Grandma during the summer, she'd let me sleep out on the fire escape on really hot nights. I have fond memories of the city sounds.
Grandma never said don't tell the parents but I think she knew I wouldn't because we both knew they'd put a stop to it.
Occasionally, on hot nights, I'll look out at the fire escape, then come to my senses and turn on the fan.
appleannie1
(5,455 posts)Cavort around all afternoon and then swim back to where the car was parked. None of us were really good swimmers. I would flip over and float on my back when my arms would get tired from fighting the current. We usually ended up south of the spot where there was a path up to where the car was parked. I was about 15/16 at the time.
debm55
(60,423 posts)safe, Sounds like a lovely time on the island
appleannie1
(5,455 posts)We never locked our doors. In fact, we would prop the front door open in the summer to get a breeze in the house. I cry every time I have to be down that way now. However, there are attempts at trying it make it at least livable now.
debm55
(60,423 posts)to see my childhood home --it was gone,
Mr.Bill
(24,906 posts)long before helmets or any protective gear was common.
In my later teens, I did a little street racing on deserted roads, never got caught.
debm55
(60,423 posts) Mr.Bill
(24,906 posts)I was all about speed. I would get on downhill roads and just go as fast as I could, with no thought whatsoever of what would happen if something on the bike broke, or I lost control.
I did the same on a skateboard and had a broken wrist to show for that.
MyMission
(2,010 posts)As a city kid, we used to run across the street when a car was coming.
We thought it was fun to watch cars stop or swerve. I stopped after I caused a car to swerve and hit a parked car.
It was a city joke for some parents to say "go play in traffic" perhaps because many of us did.
Years later, the next generation in the neighborhood rolled across the street on dolly's!
debm55
(60,423 posts)had up. I get nervous even thinking about it.
Demobrat
(10,297 posts)Which was what we called hanging on to the back bumper of a truck and being dragged on our heels. Of course skitching could only be done when the streets were icy.
You hid between cars and when a slow moving truck went by jumped out and grabbed on.
debm55
(60,423 posts) 
applegrove
(132,102 posts)our cottages. There was a rock bluff at the top that overlooked the lake. There was a cross there nobody knew about made out of wood. It was put up by the Oblate monks years before. Being 7 and 8, the two boys got on their knees and prayed. We then made it as families an annual trek. Gorgeous.
debm55
(60,423 posts) Golden Raisin
(4,755 posts)4 towns away (about 6 miles one way!) My parents never knew.
One thing I remember from playing outside in the 1950s/1960s is if you got in trouble or needed something (like a bandaid, etc.) but were not near your own house, you could stop at any friend's home and Mrs. Manfre or Mrs. Williams (or Mrs. fill in the blank) would help you out.
debm55
(60,423 posts) 
liberal N proud
(61,194 posts)Swimming in an abandoned gravel pit.
Riding rail cars is an abandon factory
Riding dirt bikes on an active railway
I could go on all night.
debm55
(60,423 posts) gopiscrap
(24,720 posts)One, when it snowed we found and old fridge with it's door off and roe it down the busiest hill, largest hill in town.
Two: at railroad crossings, me and a friend would challange each other. When the train went by, the crossing arms stopping cars would go up. Each of us would old onto an arm as it went up, daring the other to drop to the ground first. I once brok an ankle, but won the bet all of the equivalent of two dollars.
debm55
(60,423 posts) gopiscrap
(24,720 posts)the neighbors squealed to my mom and my mom me told if riding the fridge doesn't kill me first, she was gonna kill me. She told me quite often I was was going to be lucky to making it to adulthood.
I was adhd and seriously hyper. The only reason I didn't get kicked out the Catholic school I enrolled in was because I could sing like crazy. When I was 11 I sang for the Vatican for a year as a soloist boy chorister so I knew when I got back to that school I could get away with a ton of stuff.
debm55
(60,423 posts) gopiscrap
(24,720 posts)I never charge to sing for funerals, but do charge for weddings and baptisms. Church music has been my life. I have directed several choirs including a refugee choir. In fact the only reason why I didn't get kicked out of the Catholic school in Germany was because I could sing like crazy by the time I was 11. Otrherwise I would have been gone. I was a wild, off the wall crazy ADHD child.
electric_blue68
(26,835 posts)as a kid/tween/teen then riding a bike without a helmet in the two suburban towns that two sets of different cousin's lived in. I learned there, not at home.
Not near train yards. We never walked down to the one train track (still a mainstay) that we take to get there and walk to their house.
Your varied woods walks reminded me - we did walk a bit west and north of our cousin's house to get into the woods.
Not much - barely a creek, and a pond. One time we did go all the way over into a field w chest high dry-ish grasses.
We climbed trees. I loved doing it but, I wasn't as good bc I didn't have much strength in my upper arms. I had a strong grip to hang on with, strong legs to boost me, but not enough pulling up power. My cousins were always twice as high up as me.
The biggest tree - a ?fir actually was in their yard! Around 5+ stories high? So they knew where we were for the biggest one!
We sledded by the big hill of the HS. We have to be careful not to go down the second smaller hill would led to the street. Very rarely happened.
At our other cousin's we once piled three of us (I in the middle) on one sled to slide down the snowy golf course (but they knew we were there). We hit something 3/4's down and went tumbling. No injuries!
Back in the city in our local park we had this one set of rocks behind a built up sitting area with a great view.
I remember it being tricky to cross from one section to another. I don't anyone slipped and fell (1 story?)
ETA. We smoked grass mid-late teens (early '70') this was with my sister and her friends. We didn't w our cousins. We heard one of their friends bc came a heroine addict. Otoh most of them tried LSD. If my cousin had any bad trips she didn't tell me.
And once my cousin gave me a pill bottle's worth of marijuana seeds to hid. He never asked for them back!
So I had a quite fun, but fairly mild mannered by your (collective) standards child/tween/early mid teenhood! 😄
debm55
(60,423 posts)Last edited Sun Jan 28, 2024, 11:32 PM - Edit history (2)
may not have cared , or didn't have community parks and activity centers. Maybe some of us had homes to get away from with our adventures. I could continue the list, Some of us did have have the guidance. to know was acceptable or not. Life was different back then. many of us learned and as adults we have changed. I did not have helicopter parents.-not saying you did. but children have all kinds of background. Count yourself lucky in a way. My parents didn't give a crap about me. My BABA sexually abused me every Saturday while giving me and my cousins a bath. And damn it I did play on the slag piles, and try to touch bulls. I followed the railroad tracks into the next town. But I (since this post was address to me) am a survivor. I finished HS with a 30th out of 700 kids in my class and got a one year scholarship at Penn State. then worked 30 hrs a week supporting the rest of the time I was getting my BS in Art Ed, my two M.ED in Elementary and Special ED and was 2 credits away from my PhD in Art Therapy. I married a man who was the first in my life to say he loves me and cares about me. He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering. We talk about the things that we did as kids --his thing start as fireworks went to explosives in his teen years . He worked for the Bureau of Mines testing explosives used in mines He tested tunnels for their safety capacities in chemicals that are explosives and wrote up the current standards for the transportation of high grade chemicals He has two patents and there are write ups on him as he was named Federal Employee of the Year. His picture is on display at the Buhl Science Center in Pittsburgh. I may have read your message the wrong way. We did ,things and we learned. Luckly, no one got seriously hurt. I agree. But some of us were Free Range not of choice. You are blessed not to be forced to be Free Range. Thank you. There is a saying When I was a child, I talked like a child, and acted like a child. Now that I am an adult I have put aside my childish ways.
PS My husband would go out to woods around Boston and light fireworks as a kid.. At 16 , he and his friends got arrested crossing the Canadian border with dynamite. that they somehow bought.
electric_blue68
(26,835 posts)posters! I was laughing more in like "woah!" kind of way in reading about these experiences (not just your posts, but others) which in the term [might be a Brooklynese slang] "youse" is plural) appearing to me as wild, crazy, different, or things taken to the enth degree but not in a judgemental way. Would I be ________ to have tried that.
Other environs, or experiences were just not around us (my cousins and I, or friends back in NYC) to present the opportunity, or necessities
to think, or act like that.
I am/was more familiar with issues of Urban Poverty. Even though we lived a mostly middle middle, some times lower middle class, originally probably closer to upper middle class briefly when I was very young - the apt building we lived in when I was 7 - 17 proper services were often quite lax after the first year or two we were there. The equivalent every winter of a month's worth of no heat, sometimes no hot water. An elevator that would be out for days at a time - while only on the second floor respiratory, or cardiac issues became worrisome!
There were many fires in the basement for 2 summers of in a row. There were worrisome electrical issues (my dad was an electrical engineer) in the basement and my dad had me take photos (w the camera I'd gotten for HS graduation) to document those and other violations which the tenant's sent off but to no avail.
We found a much better kept place. Some years later that previous landlord made the famously known amongst Urbanites (and independent newspapers) The Village Voice's "10 Worst Landlords of The Year" List.
Now our building had a fair share of frustrating, upsetting, and at times scary to dangerous problems BUT he also had buildings in "the ghettos" that were in quite worse conditions.
By my mid thirties I'd gotten to meet more people from The Mid West in particular. Had already met some people from California, The South West, getting more familiar with different regions, where, how people lived. Other cities, other towns, and a bit more rural for one person, I think. And not just by those people coming to live and "make it" here in NYC, but being blessed enough to have very skilled commercial art training that for a while gave me the opportunities by saving up money to travel across the USA twice in my late 20s.
My parents were not helicopter parents. From the time I was about 5
my mom (who'd unfortunately been at least a 1 pk/day smoker) especially the first several yrs went from being this vibrant woman to having severe asthma fighting for breath for hours, hunched over her side of the bed coughing away after the first of 3 in a row winters '57- '59 flu pandemic years. She got terribly ill in some when early in '58. Horrific.
It got better with the suitcase size 😄 super duper nebulizer back then beyond the little hand held inhalers. Even better in '70 after she returned from a 6 month stay at famous hospital, and rehab place for respitory ailments. But we still walked around on eggshells anytime any of us got a cold, or flu, while being more relaxed at other times than we'd previously had been.
Those first several years we had ?au pars to help mom (I have 1 four yrs younger sister) when my sister was a baby/toddler etc, and I too young to be left yet at home, or after school. And her mom (who'd had a heart attack 20 yrs earlier - thus worries re the broken elevator) also sometimes lived with us and helped. And dad had work he'd bring home, too after the 9 to 5.
For them (my folks, and us) it was the opposite - they'd send us off for 5 - 9 days to my mom's sister, and our favorite cousin, aunt & uncle in the 'burb I mentioned so they could have a break from us!
--------------------------------
(and yes, I had read about the heneious, hideous experiences you endured from others. I'm glad you found someone to recognize the worthy person you were/are)
I hope this clears things up
debm55
(60,423 posts)a different life.. In summer, life was different for the Free Rangers. I am sorry if I read your post the wrong way.Very sorry. 
electric_blue68
(26,835 posts)electric_blue68
(26,835 posts)This is back in the very late '20s, or very early 1930ish: NYC, Manhattan Burrough)
So they at that time lived in what's called Hell's Kitchen. They were a few blocks above Times Sqaure on Eighth Ave (Eastern border of HK).
The time honored admonishment of my yia-yia (Greek grandmother) to my mom and 2 brothers, and a sister:
"Don't cross the street!".
At this time the A Train part of NYC's Independent Subway Line was being built on Eighth Ave. The Cut (the street, build the track line, and stations then) And Cover it up into a tunnel Method - was used.
The construction was currently open to the air, but had barriers in place. Apparently not so barrieristic since my mom's brothers (maybe her, and her sister) were able pry, and get their way in there! 😂
Thus, while not crossing street they cavorted down in the A Train station, tunnel areas for about
4 blocks down and back to the juncture of their quite youthful tresspasing. With their parents - never the wiser!
Kaleva
(40,347 posts)The house got shot to hell but nobody was injured.
debm55
(60,423 posts) Kaleva
(40,347 posts)How we all made it to adulthood is beyond me.
And this is just one example of the crazy shit we did
Some of the guys I partied with are gone now. Having drank themselves to death
debm55
(60,423 posts)
NNadir
(37,987 posts)I was merely a participant, hardly the organizer.
debm55
(60,423 posts) NNadir
(37,987 posts)debm55
(60,423 posts)
NNadir
(37,987 posts)It was a very long time ago.
debm55
(60,423 posts) NNadir
(37,987 posts)...maybe even candidates for the Guinness World Book of Records.
I'm not sure they'd recall the Volkswagen on the roof or be very much interested in the now well aged miscreants.
Prairie_Seagull
(4,677 posts)First let me say, I love the 'free rage kids thing' I was certainly one. When the time was right. "take an apple, back by dinner" my mom would say and off we would go on our bikes. Large groups of feral kids on bikes. I wanted to be Johnny Quest and I wasn't the only one. I was the one with the right hair though. haha
My favorite thing to do was swim the width of the American river near Sacramento. I was the best swimmer of the bunch and little did I know that peer pressure would damn near cost a kid his life. We were taking turns, we usually swam it one at a time, not this time. I was in the middle of my swim across and I heard the yelling. I saw that this kid was in trouble but the current was so fast that I had to finish my swim and run upriver to be able to make it to him and time the river right to not float right by. I got him and he was fine in 10 minutes or so.
Sounds like most of us did some pretty dangerous shit and like most I am surprised I made it through. I know one kid who I didn't see much anymore. He was shook. I did see him at our apartment pool so he still swam, just not in the river. So many other stories. If my writing was better I would write a book. My daughters, both teachers say I should but they would buy the only copies sold. A personal memoir maybe. Fun and scary to think about those times.
debm55
(60,423 posts)died, /you can still post some of your Free Range adventures. If you read though the thread you see the similiar and different things kids did.
yardwork
(69,347 posts)I grew up right next to a college that was doubling in size. My friends and I played in the buildings that were under construction. I mean, we played tag on the girders over deep pits. We climbed 10-story staircases that had no railings or barriers - just 10 stories of cement steps open to the air.
We also climbed existing buildings - Collegiate Gothic buildings have flying buttresses that allow one to climb exterior walls and tap on the windows on the 4th floor. (It is a very small town so the secretaries knew us. "Yardwork, get down immediately or I'll call your mother!"
Um, what else... everything. Jumping off the railroad trestle into a shallow river below. Just walking on the railroad trestle. Trains ran regularly.
Totally unsupervised. Barefoot summer and winter. I'm so sorry my kids didn't have this freedom.
debm55
(60,423 posts)mill town . I knew those trains went across regularly, When a train came, you had no choice but to jump in the river. I didn.t do it as you also had to walk back. If you ever saw the movie Stand By Me , you can't outrun the train, That movie scene gives me chills every time I see it, Did the secretaries ever call the police on you. That would be interesting to explore one of those buildings . TY
TexasBushwhacker
(21,196 posts)It wasn't hard at all. It's not very steep. They have guards on the concrete base to keep you from doing it now.
debm55
(60,423 posts)hurt.
TexasBushwhacker
(21,196 posts)Free concerts and other performances. Tickets for the seats under the roof are free. You pick them up the day of the performance.
debm55
(60,423 posts) JoseBalow
(9,451 posts)From the time I was about 11-12 years old. Some places were just too far to ride a bike to, and the folks weren't always available to give a ride.
I understand that it's a practice that's frowned upon nowadays in some circles
debm55
(60,423 posts)hair and tried to look like a guy. No buses road during the time. I was scared silly every time I got into a car but I made good money doing the late shift at the factory. I would get a ride home shower and get dressed for classed.