Lucky to be alive!

[Scully]

The catapult thread had me thinking, and not wanting to hijack it I wondered what sort of things you got up to as a kid with your mates.

We once made a swing which was attached to a scots pine on the side of the railway banking, which was already above a sandstone parapet which formed part of the banking. We made it long enough to swing right out onto the other side of the road, which was best done when there was a vehicle coming under the bridge. It was high enough to be above most vehicles, but still, timing was everything.

I had a compound bow given me by a relative, and we would play chicken by loosing an arrow vertically into the air ( where it disappeared ) and the one who ran for cover was the chicken. The arrow would bury itself at least 6 or 8 inch into the ground so god knows what it would have done to one of us.

We also had an old Austin of some description which we would race around the farm and do our best to overturn. We only managed it once and that was enough; it hurt too much and a mate broke his arm so we didn't do it again.

We would play chicken on the railway; leaving it until the last moment before rushing out across the track in front of an oncoming train. They were steam back then and going slowly as the station was just too hundred yards away. This practise stopped when the local bobby called round to tell our parents.

We built dens in barns full of bales of hay and straw, and once tunnelled quite a distance under the local railway track which served the MOD range before a mates Mother saw us disappearing into a hole in the ground like hobbits one day and the game was up and the hole filled in. We never once gave any thought to it collapsing with us inside.

We used to sneak into the local 'keepers cottage to have look at his shotguns; one of which was hung above the fireplace and another behind the door. We used to move his furniture around before leaving. Never found out what he thought as we never got caught.

My cousin pestered his Dad so much for a rifle that he eventually gave in and brought home with him one day a .303 SMLE, complete with ammo! Never got to get a go with it and have no idea what happened to it.

We would have fights with the gypsies during fair week ( didn't win many as we were always outnumbered ) and jump on and off the backs of moving vehicles going up and down the hill ( a practise with has been stopped nowadays ) and ride their horses into the river for a wash, including racing on tarmac with shod hooves...another no no.

We spent many happy hours on the local tip filling vessels full of petrol and paraffin and setting things alight.

We made bogies in summer and sledges in winter and would launch ourselves off all manner of things for the buzz. Did I tell you of the time I nearly drowned in pig ****? ! Great times.

 

[rich1984]

Happy days Scully ! And no mention of a playstation or xbox or facetube... Can't imagine getting away with it nowadays can you ? Shame really, i always think things you get up to as a youngster shape who you are in later life.

[old'un]

You had a sheltered life as a child then!

[Budice]

Love it, kids are far too sheltered these days

[figgy]

We used to do much the same with Tarzan swings over the road from big trees in a local cemetery. The biggest and most terrifying Tarzan swing went over a gill from a huge overhanging tree the rope was an old ships hawser frayed and creaking when you swung on it,the swing was that far the rope hummed in the air but woe betide you if you didn't get off on the backswing as it was a long climb up the rope and along the branch over a hundred foot up. Makes me cringe thinking about it now.

 

We would climb on decrepit piers swim in the sea knowing their was undercurrents race the tide along the beach if caught out would almost be certain drowning as it was all cliffs and caves along the coast Davyo will know the stretch of coast.

 

Playing in derelict rotting houses and flats before they got flattened. Climbing down the new concrete sewer pipes on new housing estates and seeing how far you could get.

Riding scrambler bikes flat out along railway lines,dread to think of the mess we'd have been in if we came off onto the balast under the tracks. Making gunpowder before the garden and pet supply shops got wise to us. Doing all manner of stupid things with fireworks. Hitting Hilti caps found on building sites with bricks rocks wheel races anything to get the bang. Rolling big rounds of straw down farmers fields then jumping on them to see how long you could run on top of them before falling off and being overrun getting winded as they were quite heavy.

 

Shoot eachother with catapults bows and crossbows with homemade arrows air rifles at distance and thinking it was fun untill someone got hurt. Thinking you were invincible on your bmx and could ride off the side earth works on building sites without falling off and loosing lots of skin. Daring eachother to do more stupid stunts.

Making rafts and setting sail on them,going to sea in a blow up dinghy and swimming ashore when it burst.

 

Hanging on the back of buses and crapping yourself when your grip started to slip and praying for the next bus stop. Making Boagy,s and finding the biggest steepest bank to ride down.

Setting fire to anything that burned and watching it,privet hedges stuffed with newspaper were a favourite. Starting and driving the dumpers and JCB,s on new housing developments untill they built a compound.

Daring eachother to jump on horses bareback in local fields and see how long you could hang on.

 

How we ever made it to adulthood is beyond me but I know why when the oldies used to say that will give you some jip when you older they were right.

Edited May 22, 2016 by figgy

[felly100]

One that springs to mind was the donkey jacket challenge.

One of us would don said coat and have to run across a gap between a hedge while the others fired their air guns.

How no one was injured I'll never know.

Don't try this at home kids.

[figgy]

Come on fess up too many lads I knew got up to these things for you lot on here not to have done same or similar.

 

Another thing we done was dogs used to roam around when I was a lad so when a big or known nasty dog was happened upon, the dog was goaded and provoked untill it gave chase pity the slowest runner grew up on first name terms with the local A&E hospital a tetanus was as good as a good whupping with a belt. A concussion to me was a doctors term for he fell of a swing or out of a tree of off his bike again and banged his head.

Edited May 22, 2016 by figgy

[ditchman]

We had a local tip as well..........there were trees big ones in it and we swung out on long creepers of the pit full of jagged metal and stuff...make molotoff cocktails from milk bottles and chuck em down the pit.....we used to eat with the gypsies when they encamped near the pit............

 

the village we lived in was a hamlet...and Jeffery Bernard lived there with his first wife Jill when he was working for Harpers Bazarr...and he used to get us drunk on whisky...and then take pot shots at Mrs Petches dog next door that used to poo on his garden, with an air rifle.....the Kray Twins had a hideway in the next village and we used to chat to them outside the pub The Holly Bush...they were more interested in what we were up to...........

 

years later when i was working in london i would visit the Coach and horses and drink pink gins with a one legged jeff and his drinking buddy peter o'toole...always got back home slaughtered.............

[rimfire4969]

We used to have flights with fireworks, length of copper tube blocked at one end then chuck a lit smaller size rocket down the pipe and hold like a bazooka.

[MrM]

One that springs to mind was the donkey jacket challenge.

One of us would don said coat and have to run across a gap between a hedge while the others fired their air guns.

How no one was injured I'll never know.

Don't try this at home kids.

My brother used to shoot me with an air rifle (.177 I think) whilst I rode round the garden on a bicycle. Luckily it wants a particular powerful one! Had many colourful bruises on my legs.

[islandgun]

fire, ice, water, tunnels and trees as a lad, it was only later in life that the really stupid things happend but then we got paid, I would rather a near death than as some, a near life experience. mind you I wouldn't want my kids doing what we did. how our parents must have suffered, unless they were worse

[old'un]

Just waiting for someone to cut and paste the script from Monty Python's Four Yorkshire men.

[Bladerunnertoo]

Yep ,done a lot of things like the bow one (up in the air) an yes they do disappear,( wonder how high it has to go to disappear) but the lad shooting it only did it the once as far as i know, i don`t think he enjoyed pulling it out of his shoulder (good job he was wearing a donkey jacket) ,then there was the time my mate found a .303 bullet in his cellar ,This ended up on a bonfire we built (up the lane) christ when that went off, one of the ends went flying through the trees .Yes, lucky to be alive An then there was the mundane stuff ,like chicken on old motorbikes, ect,ect.

[Chris Bb]

Sweet memories! All most of the above plus a few.

 

Bomb sites, the playgrounds of the East End.

 

Slipstreaming London buses down the Arterial Road, on bikes with 1950/60's brakes!

 

And the knowledge that the clip round the ear from the Bobby eventually lead to a very sore rear end from Dad when he found out!

[bear-uk]

Yes that lot brings back many memories. Although I wasn't quite as crazy as Skully

[bear-uk]

Just remembered the day I climbed out of my bedroom window (Terrace House) and hit the lower cill and bounced off. Landed on my tricycle and shot off down the path. Had my chin hit that cill then the world would have been one Plonker less.

[flynny]

We used to have flights with fireworks, length of copper tube blocked at one end then chuck a lit smaller size rocket down the pipe and hold like a bazooka.

10p rockets from the paper shop and copper tube, we had some great/ dangerous fun with those,

 

I won't write any more as I'll be here all night, but all the above posts have been there and worn the tee shirt, except for the old bomb sites, I'm not old enough to have played in them,

 

I honestly think that's a part of why we all shoot/ roam around the woods and fields etc , it takes us back to those happy days doing what we wanted when we wanted without the constraints of grown up life,

 

In my eyes Your not a bloke/ been a lad if you haven't done what's in the above posts as a kid, I've the scars all over me to this day, I was in hospital at least 3 times a year getting stitched up lol lol, my mom still shudders when she tells the stories

 

Atb

 

Flynny

Edited May 22, 2016 by flynny

[ditchman]

Yes that lot brings back many memories. Although I wasn't quite as crazy as Skully

 

 

skully and Figgy are awesome/mental................

[islandgun]

10p rockets from the paper shop and copper tube, we had some great/ dangerous fun with those,

 

I won't write any more as I'll be here all night, but all the above posts have been there and worn the tee shirt, except for the old bomb sites, I'm not old enough to have played in them,

 

I honestly think that's a part of why we all shoot/ roam around the woods and fields etc , it takes us back to those happy days doing what we wanted when we wanted without the constraints of grown up life,

 

In my eyes Your not a bloke/ been a lad if you haven't done what's in the above posts as a kid

 

Atb

 

Flynny

Good point and I think your right , but how do you explain why some try so hard to comply, dress code, etiquette, matched purdeys etc, must be why i smooch about after dark in the mud

[flynny]

Good point and I think your right , but how do you explain why some try so hard to comply, dress code, etiquette, matched purdeys etc, must be why i smooch about after dark in the mud

I suppose it all evolves mate, if you get into driven game shooting you end up wearing the traditional attire for the day, I'm with you though, but each to there own

 

Tab

 

Flynny

[scobydog]

Remember building bikes with smaller front wheels than back so consequently no front brake, went down road on one and had forgotten to tighten front wheel nuts, pulled a wheelie wheel fell off , forks into tarmac and goodbye facial skin, spent hours in a+e hurt for weeks afterwards. Also climbing trees to get branchers, really high trees, building dens in bonfires and staying in until just before they got lit. Turned over a Austin 1800 on the farm I lived on, about a month later did the same with a 2.0 Capri , had to be cut out of that one. But wouldn't have missed it for anything.

 

 

S

Good point and I think your right , but how do you explain why some try so hard to comply, dress code, etiquette, matched purdeys etc, must be why i smooch about after dark in the mud

Nothing wrong with mooching in the mud after dark.

 

S

[JimLondon]

Well where do I start, growing up on a council estate we managed to open the doors to the lift shaft and ride and control the lifts from the top of the lift that got boring so we'd go to the 18th floor and leave someone on a ledge go to the ground and back up to get them.

 

Later in life and much more sensible I managed to touch an overhead cable with a lofting pole and got an 11000 volt shock.

 

And my last lucky escape was in the fire service where I fell through a fire weakened floor into a basement which was alight only to land by the stairs leading out of said basement, which I ascended rather rapidly.

[Scully]

There were many who were a lot dafter than me, and suffered the injuries to prove it.

We made some Kung Fu stars in metal work at school but the craze was short lived after someone was caned by the headmaster when one narrowly missed the rural studies teacher who just happened to open the caretakers shed door as one stuck in. They had no idea he was inside and he had come out to see what the noise was.

I only got caned twice; the second time for throwing a javelin at someone! It's not as bad as it seems, honestly.....there was a group of us on the sports field and we were using a shirt for a target. When the owner of the shirt realised the shirt was his and went to retrieve it, we all lobbed our javelins at him, but had given him the heads first and he was well out of range. He was laughing as much as us. Anyhow, we got caned for it.

Did any of you do that knock yourself out thingy? I wont explain how it's done cos I may get into trouble, but the police were called when that was all the rage in the playground.

The almost drowning in pig poop was no brave thing on my part as I was pushed. Mates dad had a pig farm and the slurry pit was almost so hard you could walk on it. We were playing dare as we often did ( there was no shame in chickening out, it was just a laugh ) and I was about to step onto the crust when mate pushed me. I went right under and couldn't swim ( we were primary school age ) and can't recall how I got out but I went home in mates clothes and he got a severe flogging off his mam. Happy days. We were just discussing it at a relatives funeral a month or so ago.

[Banger123]

Likewise nearly all of the above + hammers nails n grandpas 12g cartridges, one really stupid one a 7.62 nato blank, very glad it only caught my fingers as it left the vice heading up into the sky.

[scobydog]

Perhaps the most dangerous thing was getting off with the local nutcases girlfriend, heard he was looking for me for months afterwards, he ended up inside for shooting someone , think it might have been his dad he did in , ended up topping himself in Risley yoi. Didn't even know she was his girl !!

 

S