Topic: What Dangerous thing did you do as a Child (Read 23516 times)

Tug-Kenny RIP · « **on:** June 16, 2012, 11:32:54 am »

This thread has come about because joppyuk1 has started a thread on building a boat as if it were in the 1940's

I commented that my memory of that period was cutting a mains lead with a pair of scissors. I did survive but actually still remember that jolt my body took, and forever treated electricity with respect. A very salutary lesson to one that was to go into Electronic engineering.

Have you any Dangerous escapades that you survived out of pure ignorance that you live to tell the tale ??? Tree climbing. Slug gun battles. Diving of bridges ?????

Lets be hearing from you.

ken

gingyer · « **Reply #1 on:** June 16, 2012, 11:43:15 am »

Running jump off Millport pier while the waverley was trying to berth on the other side
It gives quite a lot of wash......

Also put guitar stings between the live and neutral points in sockets then stand back and switch on
Interesting results

But nothing as dangerous as giving my dad some lip

Martin (Admin) · « **Reply #2 on:** June 16, 2012, 12:21:45 pm »

As a teenager, replacing a main socket.
Looking intently at the wiring terminals when the screwdriver slipped - very bright flash six inches from my nose.

.... I was damned sure I turned off the fuse box!

Neil · « **Reply #3 on:** June 16, 2012, 12:27:41 pm »

made cannon out of a copper pipe flattened and rolled over at one end and then ************ then we'd shoot he** out of a nice airfix kit on the lake...............
now adays we'd be charged with terorism.................
gawd help us.

either that or made arrows out of dowel, with flites from seagul feathers, and a notch close to the flites for taking the notted string for launching the b****y things...........King Harold.............eat yer heart out...............

DON'T TRY THESE ONES AT HOME KIDS............NOT ALLOWED ANY MORE

Sorry Neil but we have to stop the Formula's appearing on a Family Forum.

ken

Paxton · « **Reply #4 on:** June 16, 2012, 12:33:25 pm »

As an army brat in the late 50's, I lived in Kingston, Ontario right adjacent to "Old" Fort Henry. The road from the back gate was (and is) quite steep with a wide curve at the bottom. We used to get two or three of us into a kid's wagon (radio flyer or whatever) and launch from the top of the hill. Why we weren't killed or maimed is still a mystery to me today as we must have been doing 40 mph or so. I have been back since and would not do that today!

armc40 · « **Reply #5 on:** June 16, 2012, 12:36:23 pm »

We made 'throwin arrers' too....could have been lethal....**** knows what the H & S police would make of 'em today !

DickyD · « **Reply #6 on:** June 16, 2012, 12:37:29 pm »

Plugging a 12 volt motor into the mains socket.

Very interesting

richald · « **Reply #7 on:** June 16, 2012, 12:49:08 pm »

Deciding one day to wander off and find my dad who was ploughing...

Out of the farmhouse and up the lane, didn't find my dad but 2 hours
later and 3/4 mile away the farmer from an adjacent farm found me,
stood next to the main Leeds to Harrogate road!

scared the sh*t out of my Mother and Grandmother until the farmer
rang to say he'd rescued me.

Well I was only four at the time!

Richard

meechingman · « **Reply #8 on:** June 16, 2012, 01:00:28 pm »

Ignoring the 'Beware - Dangerous Waves Can Occur When Ships Are Leaving And Entering' signs at the local beach and jumping in those waves BECAUSE they were big!

Climbing down a slippery vertical metal ladder at low tide to get on board my Dad's tug, usually crossing the barges and dredger (no hand rails), then clambering up on a tyre fender and over the tug's bulwarks.

Jerry C · « **Reply #9 on:** June 16, 2012, 01:28:16 pm »

Putting mum's knitting needles on the red bits on the electric fire then cutting them in half on the grill. To stop me my father demonstrated the power of an electric shock by wiring me up to an impulse magneto and flipping it over. He held the wire in the HT socket with match sticks. I am reminded of the lesson every time I see a box of swan vestas! It did work though.
Jerry.

davidm1945 · « **Reply #10 on:** June 16, 2012, 02:22:54 pm »

Many years ago I had an old Lee Enfield bolt action rifle converted to fire 4.10 shotgun cartridges - I used to open the cartridge and pour out the lead shot and replace it with a suitably sized ball bearing.
How the darned thing never blew up in my face I will never know. Ah, the innocence of youth!

Dave.

mikearace · « **Reply #11 on:** June 16, 2012, 02:52:17 pm »

Dangling over the top of Eppleton quarry with a 100ft straight drop to the bottom with my mates mothers washing line round my waist and him holding onto me with the end only secured by one metal pole pushes into the ground to climb down to a Kestrels nest. Never thought twice about it and actually did it three or four times over a 6 week period. But Kes was all the rage and we all wanted a Kestrel to train.

And regularly made small pipe 'bombs' from sugar and fertiliser each time seeing how loud we could make the bang.

bikerdude999 · « **Reply #12 on:** June 16, 2012, 02:58:04 pm »

That copper pipe cannon sounds brilliant!

I used to enjoy getting motors (that my uncle gave me from some old boat projects of his) attaching different things to the shaft, wire it up to the transformer box from my train set and then see what I could cut through. Metal cogs made very good cutting tools.

Then at my mates bike workshop, we used to get a screwdriver, wheel bearing and air gun (as in air gun connected to a compressor, not a rifle lol) put the screwdriver through the centre of the wheel bearing, get the air gun and use it to spin up the bearing to very high speed, then quickly whip the screwdriver out and watch the bearing bounce off up the workshop and embed/shatter in the end wall.

Modified

ken

big_bri · « **Reply #13 on:** June 16, 2012, 03:05:59 pm »

Riding an old BSA Bantam on the frozen Forth and Clyde canal and playing on a rope swing that went out over a very busy railway cutting.
Ahhhh....Those were the days, young , free and not a care in the world.
Not much common sense either

armc40 · « **Reply #14 on:** June 16, 2012, 03:09:19 pm »

Nicking my sister's knicker elastic to use on my radio control escapement...wasn't dangerous until Mam found out, then it was nigh on fatal !

rmaddock · « **Reply #15 on:** June 16, 2012, 03:13:07 pm »

Good grief! I must have been a boring child.

big_bri · « **Reply #16 on:** June 16, 2012, 03:21:22 pm »

Another exciting episode, was riding a bogie as we call then in Glasgow (soap cart) down a very steep hill, across the main road and try to guide it through our garden gate.
Ended up in hospital with that one...got run over by a taxi!
I`m sure that guy was`nt looking where he was going

Tried it again a couple of weeks later and got a bulls eye...as I said, no common sense

Jerry C · « **Reply #17 on:** June 16, 2012, 03:22:44 pm »

I learned about "Dutch arrows"!while visiting relatives in Wigan.

roycv · « **Reply #18 on:** June 16, 2012, 03:52:49 pm »

I've just gone awfully cold and don't want to recall the details, I am going to play Freecell til' the memories go.
Roy

malcolmfrary · « **Reply #19 on:** June 16, 2012, 04:11:11 pm »

Playing paratroopers off a park swing. Limping home. Tried again after a couple of weeks. No improvement in technique. Limped home again. Age about 9 or 10.
Few years on, took a liking to having a day out on our bikes, planning a route covering roads with double arrows in the right direction, seeing just how fast it was possible to go downhill. For those with the right maps, Jeffrey Hill and the Trough of Bowland were favourites.

mikearace · « **Reply #20 on:** June 16, 2012, 04:35:59 pm »

Shooting flat lead slugs each at others bare legs with an old Diawa Air Pistol to see who could get the biggest bruise.

Artistmike · « **Reply #21 on:** June 16, 2012, 04:48:13 pm »

Two ten year old boys one cold winters afternoon, after school, on a raft made over the previous week of oil-drums, driftwood and bits of rope from the foreshore; push off from the shore on their maiden voyage on the estuary of the River Medway as darkness falls and the tide ebbs........... ...................... .......... it was a very long scary night

.....

Ghost in the shell · « **Reply #22 on:** June 16, 2012, 04:59:19 pm »

go from Stoke on Trent to Uttoxeter down the A50 dual carriageway, (no hard shoulder on that road) on a bicycle. yes trucks, cars vans flying by at 60mph and upwards! then I cycled back THE SAME WAY

That was done when I was in Highschool, was around 15 at the time.

fast forward a few years to 2006, I cycled to JCB to work the same way, even cutting through the (no cycles allowed) Meir tunnel instead of going over the top SCREW THAT idea!

richald · « **Reply #23 on:** June 16, 2012, 06:09:18 pm »

Reading all the crazy things that we did as kids (and got away with!)
just reminds me that todays kids aere missing out on an awful lot of
life experiences because of over-protective parents and the health and
safety 'police'

Sad!

Richard

boatmadman · « **Reply #24 on:** June 16, 2012, 06:28:06 pm »

Very similar to Neil, ****** and weedkiller mix, but for me it was in a can buried in the ground with a fuse - **** what a bang!

And, dutch arrows, cane with cardboard flights and no control over where they went!

Set fire to a holly bush, man that scared the poo out of me, it went up big time!

Used to play on a sunken wreck lying on the shores of Coniston, how I didnt drown is beyond me.

No formulas on an open Forum please

ken

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