The things we did as kids would get us a trip to a shelter by social services for our parents letting us do too many dangerous things. I am surprised none of us ever broke an arm or leg...
And no, nothing ever involved alcohol, drugs, smoking, fast driving, etc.
During the summer I was a construction engineer in building dams. There was a field tile that would drain a 1/4" stream of water and I would build a large dam to hold the water. Never did get it right. Worked at it couple years until I was old enough to work for the farmers driving tractors for 35 cents per hour for 16 hrs a day. This was in the mid to late 1950's.
There was a steep, rutted out downhill trail in between two streets, through a vacant lot, that had a big hump on the downhill side. We used to catch air off it on our bikes as kids, I biffed it several times over the years, and had the wind knocked out my sails...laughing and dying at the same time, lol!
I walked by there Yesterday, vacant lot is still there, but the trail is completely grown over. Sort of tells the sad story!
It's easy to get nostalgic. My kids are not nearly as adventurous as I was but, then, I could have killed myself a dozen times over before I was 20. That's nothing upon which to fondly reflect. That stated, yes, we have a crisis of vigor in our kids. Helicopter moms, effete dads, estrogen heavy foods, changing social morays, limitless media options, carbohydrate dense diets and a complete lack of discernment have all manifested in physically inactive kids.
In the 60's Stop signs had 3 inch galvanized pipe, well the older guys would use torn down pipes prop them on rocks and put a dime ball in the pipe... then they would put an m80 at the bottom and send that rubber ball
flying 2 blocks into our play ground where us little guys would try to hit incoming with baseball bats! Man, what great memories! We learned that from Cronkite when he filmed our Vietnam Troops on the news.
Hold on there professor. Now these words may be elementary to many and may not rise in complexity to the Institutions of a Princeton, MIT or a Stanford but you have purposely thrown the proverbial wrench of verbiage into our campfire here of which you continue will not be welcomed. Spot 1, get him!
Spot 1. Please tell this man the rules of engagement on this site as penned in the "communication etiquette manual" as was told in harsh terms to me when sitting around a campfire. Spot 1. My post was not to demean or chastise Owl in any way for the words he had chosen to describe his "thoughts". I realize you may struggle mightily but that is fine. What is good for the goose .....so I would expect Owl to take cover from your ire..... Correct?...being the fair man that you profess.
Rocky, I've taken plenty of grief for my vocabulary over the years. Of course, I also try to be as brief and clear as possible because the hallmark of good prose is economical profundity. In properly structured sentences, the writer's word choice infers he values the reader's time and treats it with respect. People inherently respond favorably to that effort. That is true for everyone - even in disagreement.
Owl, I appreciate your efforts because you appear to be comfortable in that writing style. I respect that. I also respect a "I ain't and I dunno". Unless particular care is taken I disagree with a "properly structured sentence". Provoking thought has always paid dividends, the percentage retained to some much higher than others. Mike in CT. is a polished orator of words which I believe sheds light upon his past educational commitment and care that bleeds into his writing style. After reading some of his best posts I feel as though his greatest post has yet to be written. At the end of the day it is all the same. Say it as you feel it. I am awaiting Spot 1 and his estimation which I highly regard.
yeah..... did stuff in my youth that coulda been hurt bad or killed. Great adventures. Used to beg to go on trips to the dump..... sometimes come home with more than what we left with..... I think I had 4 or 5 bicycles at the farm made out of dump parts. it was a sad day when they shut down the dump for "safety reasons". I figured somebody new that moved up from city whined about it......
Had to add this after......... let my shortest post stand on it's own for a while.....
Scentman’s post about shooting things out of the pipe reminded me. We used to shoot tennis balls out of the can they came in using lighter fluid. Then one day my dad brought home a pair of asbestos mitts from work. My older brother being the genius he was decided we needed to soak tennis balls in gasoline and light one and play catch in the alley. Only problem was my mom could see us. Oh and the whole asbestos/mesothelioma thing was taking off. The gloves disappeared soon thereafter.
Then I went to college and played rugby in Wisconsin and then in France... and it wasn't a good day if I wasn't bleeding.
Risk, risk assessment, injury and recovery are part of life. It all prepares you for real challenges. Sitting in a basement with video games do not.
My kids have no video games.
They've slept in the bottom of a canoe as toddlers. They've encountered black bears. They handle bows, firearms and knives
Some parents here think that my kids are exposed to too many hazards. They've never watched 28 episodes of a TV show in four days. I hope they never will.
TD, you have no trouble communicating effectively. You are one the sharper knives in the drawer.
As for the thread, my brother and I had dirt clog wars almost daily. It is amazing we did not blind or kill each other in the ensuing fist fights that inevitably followed.
One of our favorite winter pass times was to go as far out on frozen Lake Erie as we dared. Until Francis O'Hara fell through the ice and his body was not recovered for several months. Yes, this and other stuff has convinced me we all have a date and time, so enjoy life to the fullest.
We did all kinds of fun stuff, including starting a campfire in the woods by siphoning gas out of an abandoned pickup in the woods and starting a campfire with gun powder. Lucky we all have fingers still!
We would go play ball or go fishing... ride our bikes where ever. It was awesome. A bunch of us worked for a whole summer on the local cucumber farm, picking cukes and saving the cash in a communal effort (literally all the boys in my class, so like 8 kids) to buy all the wood we would need to make a cool ramp for bikes and skateboards. Mind you we lived in a tiny New England town where cow's outnumbered people and the common was (still is) a post card... so a "skate park" was something that if we wanted, we had to build. One kid's dad volunteered the space in the yard, and we went to the local (Home Depot etc didnt exist) lumber yard, and bought all the wood we would need, the screws etc... My dad felt we ought to have plans so he bought us a book on building ramps. Then you had the 8 of us out there for a week, borrowing tools, and trying to figure out how to build this thing. We figured it out, and had what had to be the only "half pipe" for 3 miles in any direction at the time. Mind you, you took your life in your hands just to try it and no inspector would have passed it... But we built it, and were proud as hell!
Cool when kids get a chance to mess up. Very cool.
