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In reply to the discussion: What did you do as a teen/kid that parents today would have a fit if they knew you did it. Mine---sliding down huge [View all]MyMission
(2,010 posts)132. I played in traffic
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!
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What did you do as a teen/kid that parents today would have a fit if they knew you did it. Mine---sliding down huge [View all]
debm55
Jan 2024
OP
Sorry about your eye surgery. Hope everything was alright. We had them too up in the woods. and played Tarzan. It was
debm55
Jan 2024
#31
Thank you for that funny post. Believe me I tried to get it as you got to stay home from school No such luck.
debm55
Jan 2024
#53
My brother and I, along with the kids down the street, would do this too, but without the cardboard body armor.
LudwigPastorius
Jan 2024
#73
The slag pile was next to the steel mill in my town. They would dump the slag and it would semi harden. We didn't go on
debm55
Jan 2024
#10
They don't loook huge from the road, walking in a train yard like you did and next to a moving train like I did was
debm55
Jan 2024
#35
Or the construction sights that were later found to have blasting caps all over.
LakeArenal
Jan 2024
#103
Went way deep into the forest all alone and climbed to the tops of the tallest trees.
Mister Ed
Jan 2024
#8
My childhood was the same. Summers you were on your own. The most dangerous think we did was to walk into the next town.
debm55
Jan 2024
#13
I like Free Range Kids. Do you think it was because our parents came from large families? And their mothers didn't want
debm55
Jan 2024
#30
Perfect post, Ocelot II . The school guard told on me. I never learned until later why I was not allowed to take candy
debm55
Jan 2024
#36
Thank you Jilly_in_VA. Yes we rode our bikes all over too. Love the feeling of the find in my hair,
debm55
Jan 2024
#58
Thanks ProfessorGAC, besides the walking on the train tracks, the bulls, the slag hills. I led a "peaceful life"
debm55
Jan 2024
#80
Also, back then, parents NEVER backed their own kids against a complaint from a neighbor or teacher.
LakeArenal
Jan 2024
#106
definitely, or a teacher either. We had to really prove we were in the right, too. nt
yellowdogintexas
Jan 2024
#136
I never wore a helmet. I don;t think we had them . At 5, I walked to Kindergarten across town by myself.My mom didn't
debm55
Jan 2024
#18
Making a fort with hay bales in a barn loft; closing off the exit with a bale, and lighting candles inside.
NBachers
Jan 2024
#20
I love your list. I am going to save those---Wait until your father get; s home.
debm55
Jan 2024
#38
In my family, it was: "Yer gonnna end up digging ditches for the restofyerlife!"
NBachers
Jan 2024
#62
I never lived on a farm. Going to the farm to play would be like a kid today, going to the mall.
Chainfire
Jan 2024
#86
Thank you for stating that. It sounds fun but can be quit dangerous too. Sorry for the kids.
debm55
Jan 2024
#137
If you were lucky someone, somewhere had a washer/dryer or refrigerator box and pile your group in and go down the hill.
debm55
Jan 2024
#40
Going to the lake with my best friend. We'd cut through a farmer's corn fields,
Liberty Belle
Jan 2024
#29
You were lucky, because they started they would rattle back and forth. It must have been great time. Did you live near
debm55
Jan 2024
#42
I lived until 9th grade in Duquesne.) My late dad was born in Turtle Creek. the whole area was great for sledding and
debm55
Jan 2024
#54
No I got almost to the top and I took a picture, I must've been around 11 or 12. I disguised as a science experiment
Walleye
Jan 2024
#57
Greet post, moose65. Yes, that is how things were. No i-phones. hell I didn;t have a watch until I got my Timex watch in
debm55
Jan 2024
#46
That would scare the heck out of me. Glad you lived through that to tell us about it. Me, I am afraid of heights.
debm55
Jan 2024
#47
Having spin out races on our bikes. First you would find an area with small gravel. Bikers lined up one at a time. You
debm55
Jan 2024
#61
Growing up in an Erie Canal town in Western New York, we had it all- The canal, the railroad tracks, the crick, gravel
NBachers
Jan 2024
#64
We would speed ride our bikes down a steep road and fly right through the stop
cornball 24
Jan 2024
#65
Niagara, I had a post on here about going skinny dipping. I was ashamed of my body until I got married. We jounied a
debm55
Jan 2024
#83
HAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHHAH That's why we haven't gone since son was born. 33 years ago.
debm55
Jan 2024
#117
Thank you, OldBaldy1701E, as we grow we learn. You learned which is part of life. Congratulations on stopping the
debm55
Jan 2024
#88
We took a case of beer from the church. Back in the day the Catholic churches all
doc03
Jan 2024
#76
I never heard of that before. Maybe because they threw ash from the mill down on the roads so the car had traction. I
debm55
Jan 2024
#78
There are good pictures in the link but this is a much better explanation
bottomofthehill
Jan 2024
#90
One thing that I did as a kid, that I wouldn't let my own kids to was playing with fireworks.
Chainfire
Jan 2024
#92
Playing chicken with the neighbor's bull. And later, drag racing on unopened I-71.
sinkingfeeling
Jan 2024
#108
My group had a run in with a bull also. I thought it was tame. It was just standing there. I went over to pet it, the
debm55
Jan 2024
#143
We would swim to a privately owned island in the middle of the Allegheny River, walk to a beach on the other side,
appleannie1
Jan 2024
#116
Your from Pittsburgh area aren't you?There are undercurrents in both the Allegheny and Monongalia Rivers, Glad you were
debm55
Jan 2024
#118
I was from Duquesne, We moved out after 8th grade,I drove through there at Christmas, It is a very bad shape. I wanted
debm55
Jan 2024
#145
Did you ride on your back wheel? Could never figure out how kids did that. TY Mr. Bill
debm55
Jan 2024
#148
Wow, I hate to sound like a parent but you were lucky. We walked to the neighboring town on the Jersey Barrier they
debm55
Jan 2024
#150
liberal N proud I think you left us with alot of hair raising experiences. Geewiz, you were a brave soul.
debm55
Jan 2024
#157
😄 oh, man, some of youse were crazeee! I don't think I did anything beyond...
electric_blue68
Jan 2024
#161
Maybe take into account that some of us may have had a quite different background in our youth, some had parents that
debm55
Jan 2024
#164
Oh, dear... I think I was misunderstood, or not clear, nuanced enough. y Apologies! Wasn't laughing "at" you & other....
electric_blue68
Jan 2024
#173
I am sorry too. I took your post the wrong way. I understand how one could. But it"s life and some of us lead a
debm55
Jan 2024
#175
We lifted a stripped Volkswagen bug on to the roof of our High School Auditorium.
NNadir
Jan 2024
#168
Yes you are. Did you ever get caught. Or are you spilling the beans here on DU?
debm55
Jan 2024
#171
Yes, I never swam in the rivers here --Youghagany and Monogahalia too many undercurrents. Lots of kids and adults have
debm55
Jan 2024
#178
You remind me of another my friends did that I didn't do was walking across the railroad trestle. Living in a steel
debm55
Jan 2024
#179