| Author | Message | ||
     Slaughter |
We have prevented our children from learning LIFE by eliminating risk, eliminating danger. Gever Telley gives the reasons why you MUST give kids a sense of danger for them to be truly safe in the real world. 10 minutes well spent. Spoilers (but listen to his logical defense of all these): * Walk to school. * Climb trees. * Burn things with a magnifying glass. * Make a bomb in a bag. * Superglue your fingers together. | ||
| 86129squids |
When I was a kid, some cool guys that worked with my Mom built me the coolest tree house. Had SO much fun there. Kept a weather journal, shot fireworks and bottle rockets from there, hung out in the winter, I even had plans to build a 2nd story on top... didn't get around to that. Sometimes I think back, wonder how I survived, and how impossible it'd be to grow up "me" in today's world. | ||
| Jaimec |
I'd replace "Super glue your fingers together" with "Ride mini bikes" but that's just me. | ||
| Sifo |
I would add "learn to fall"! Falling without getting hurt is a universal skill IMO. It's served me well! | ||
| Ourdee |
I was taught that if you yelled Geronimo when jumping out of a hay loft, you would not get hurt. It always worked for me. Even worked from the 22nd rung in the corn silo. | ||
| Torquehd |
Thanks for sharing, glad I watched the video, but I disagree about the stranger/danger issue. While the number of children dying due to abduction may be small, it only takes one time to tip the scales beyond repair. On a regular basis, if you watch local news, you will see/hear child abduction stories. I know a couple of people who have been either abducted or raped as minors, so while it may not make the top 10 list of ways for children to die, it's still a legitimate concern. On the other side of the coin, when I was a kid I had a treehouse (~15'AGL) made from a 2x6, a 2x4, and half a sheet of plywood. I made a light out of a D battery, a flashlight bulb, and some speaker wire. Twist the wire together to turn it on. My brother and I made a "rope" swing - standing in the treehouse you grab the "rope", leap out, and you pendulum out and around the tree to the ground. You hit the ground FAST so you had to try and run, or just tuck and roll. Thing is, the "rope" was a garden hose, and it kept breaking and getting shorter and shorter. Grew up in a small town, would ride my bike to summer school, and to work at the local swimming pool, and to the creek to catch crawdads. My kids will have a treehouse (when I move back to Washington here soon). But they won't be allowed to ride their bikes all over town like I was. You never heard of abductions or rape in my town. Now, if you watch local news, it happens all the time. Times have changed. And the heart of man is evil. I guess my point is there's a difference between safety and security. Safety is a thing you can generally learn by trial and error - you'll only touch a hot stove once. Security is a matter of prevention. You don't let your children be easy targets for the evil sickos that are a fact of life no matter how much you'd like to believe in a democratic, socialist, gender-neutral, testosterone-free, gun-free, green-peace utopia. | ||
| Ducbsa |
A substantial portion of the abductions were child custody grabs, not by perverts. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Tuck and roll... How about - swimming in the ocean. Not some calm bay, but open ocean with a good strong current. Sand dune jumping. Pismo or Glamis style... not some little slope at your local beach. Wading in a swift river. Free climbing rocks, cliffs, shale bluffs, quarries. Make your own BMX track with a busted shovel and a bunch of pilfered materials from a lumber yard... pulled behind the bike on a makeshift trailer all the way out in BFE where "no cops can find us" The list goes on. Kids who do these things will not end up at some commie conference getting triggered by gender pronouns. Get a cut, rub some dirt on it. If your toes are burning, piss on them. | ||
| Ratbuell |
I built a BMX ramp in front of my house when I was a kid. 2x6 scrap from a project dad was working on, about 4' long IIRC, and an assortment of bricks, cinderblocks, and 4x4 scraps for setting the "height". I learned: taller isn't always better. Sure, it makes tabletops easier and you can get more airtime, but if you're going for distance... speed can help with distance, but giving a good pull on the bars - the right amount of pull at the right time - works wonders front brakes suck when landing on gravel doing any of this where mom can see you...is a poor idea. I also spent summers in WV camping. kayaking. whitewater canoeing. spelunking. climbing fire towers (see: Keeney's Knob, WV). hiking. rock climbing. rappeling. archery. riflery. Fortunately (for both of us), all well out of sight of mom - she'd have had multiple heart attacks if she saw what I did! And yet...I've survived this long...and done a pretty good job of it too. Bag the whole "protective bubble" thing. Get out, bleed, ache, heal...and LEARN. | ||
| Sifo |
Dodgeball! Canton 10-year-old charged with assault following schoolyard injury | ||
| Griffmeister |
What was the name of that survival camp for kids that started about 40 or 50 years ago? Was it something that sounded like “outward bound” or similar? If that’s still around I think that could help a lot of kids out today. | ||
| Pwnzor |
I came home from a local mischief hangout called simply "the hill" one day after having shattered my elbow. I tried to hide it from my parents... yes a shattered elbow... I made it all the way to dinner time, and my arm was purple and yellow from 6 inches above my wrist to about 6 inches from my shoulder. Dad said, "what the hell is wrong with your arm", because I had pulled on a heavy long sleeve shirt to try and hide it. Of course it was about 95 degrees outside, and the pain was written all over my face. Dinner went back in the oven and we took yet another trip to the ER as a family. I had a hell of a time mowing lawns and washing cars all the rest of that summer. | ||
| Ratbuell |
I had a hell of a time mowing lawns and washing cars all the rest of that summer. But you DID it - and that puts you 1,000% ahead of kids today. | ||
| Ourdee |
Dodgeball! We would sneak upstairs in the gym at lunch time and play it with basketballs. pan$$ee$ | ||
| Etennuly |
I pushed a 20 inch Craftsman two cycle mower all over town making about 50 cents an hour from 8 to 12 years of age. Dad's mower,of course, he taught me just how much quakerstate 10w 30 had to be mixed into the pint gas tank when I filled it up. Then he showed me how much easier it pushed when he oiled the wheels. Quakerstate 10w 30 there too,! Joe, me and my older brother decided to do a local county fair to raise money. I was 9 he 11. He thought a stunt show was in order to attract more kids. So we set up the 8 foot plywood ramp on empty 5 gallon metal roofing tar buckets. He went first, crowd of at least four non believers. He found, through intense hurried study, that riding a boys 20 inch banana bike over what was literally a 3 foot high jump, you MUST maintain footing on the pedals. All of the other kids helped me tear down and put away the fair stuff before my parents got home from work. My brother was busy going to the hospital with a neighbor's mom for his severely bruised and swollen boy parts with gut pain. Some times you gotta learn from watching. | ||
| Aesquire |
My parents would be arrested today for the stuff I did as a kid no one blinked at. Shot rats at the City Dump. @13. In a City in New York state. Jumping off garages with a kite on each arm. ( fail ) Much later the school gym, home made paraglider. ( success ) Built masts and sails for bicycles to sail S. Dakota roads for insane miles. Took rubbings from gravestones. Mini bikes, go karts, ice racers, mutant powered bicycles, model airplanes, rockets... By high school a home made wind tunnel and hang gliders, but that was not kid stuff anymore. | ||
| Bandm |
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| Glitch |
There's old game we'd play when were were kids. "Swing the Biscuit" While my sister was spinning me around by the arm, she let go as she hit maximum speed. As any good biscuit swinger would do. Before I could catch my balance, I went head long into the storm door. Made it half way through the door. I got 5 stitches in my shoulder, and 60 in my left arm. Don't play Swing the Biscuit with my sister. Dirt bikes and go-karts were/are the best to grow up with, they made me what I am today. | ||
| Ourdee |
I followed my dad who had just went out the storm door on a windy day. I straight armed the glass on the wind powered storm door. Don't have a stitch count for my pass through the glass. | ||
| 86129squids |
My dad got me a go-kart. I raced it around the yard all the time- once I clipped the corner, flipped it, kart landed on top of me. Laid in bed the rest of the day with a severe asthma attack. It was a 2 seater- once my dad and I were hauling A around the neighborhood together, he wanted to show me how to reach back and grab the throttle spring to defeat the governor. I reached back and grabbed the spark plug. | ||
| Ourdee |
I bought a $25 go-kart with 2 engines. Neither one ran. When I got it running, the next Saturday Mom and Step Dad had the insurance man out to the house. They took all the life insurance off my sisters and doubled down on me. I have always been such a disappointment. LOL | ||
| Mnscrounger |
I bought a 25 dollar go kart when I was 16 just because I had 25 bucks on me. I ended up shearing the front wheel kingpin mounts right off the frame rail trying to go over things bigger than the karts capability (did it twice just to make sure 1st time wasn't a fluke) That was my first( and second) welding lesson. Still it was a fun toy until beater cars became the mechanical demand that they are for a sixteen year old. | ||
| 86129squids |
THIS could be the best thread EVAAR on BW. All the insane things we've done before riding a Buell. One of my earliest cheats of death- rolling WFO on my TS125 into a decreasing radius right turn. My buddy and I passed an oncoming car on its right hand side. My best buddy had a prime hooligan for a brother, taught us all how to ride. We went and did a little petty theft at the usual place, then big brother decided to go home on the main highway, riding a Suzuki RM125. I knew it was a bad idea. A cop started chasing us- I ran off the road , lowsided, got taken home, grounded for a week.  | ||
| 86129squids |
Then there was Springmont Hill. They had begun development of a new subdivision, but all us kids/punks had found this hill. Easy 5 stories high, 40% grade or better. I did it easily on my 125. I talked a buddy into letting me try it on his XR80- he said "Don't shift past 3rd, go WFO". I shifted into 5th on the way up. Made it to the top, lost traction. My last memory was all my buddies rushing forward to grab the handlebars... I became a ragdoll. Arai makes a good helmet. What's even cooler- some of my buddies would jump DOWN it, simply beautiful/scary to see. Same neighborhood, we'd have MC spit wars. Running WFO, if you saw someone coming at you, spit a loogie at their head. In the winter, there was a great sledding hill. We'd have "rat races"- start at the top of this giant hill, running, dive onto the sled, then race everyone- if you got close to someone, shove them into the ditch or under a car. Sledding "snakes" was cool too. Last guy was on a short sled. The head would slalom enough to whip the tail, sometimes past the head. Am I Beavis, or Butthead??? | ||
| Ourdee |
In the sixth grade I went to McPheeters bend elementary school in East Tennessee. When a snow flake fell they closed school immediately because of the mountain roads. So it snowed all night. The next day the sun came out just enough to turn the mountain roads into glass ice. The next morning all us little hill jacks turned up with steel runner sleds and started riding the roads. One kids went to the hospital after riding through a barb wire fence. I don't know how they got him there. | ||
| Ebutch |
The Low-Jump https://youtu.be/Ed9KRab_2_Q | ||
| 86129squids |
I've still got my sled. Somehow I haven't destroyed it yet. Fastest and most well built sled ever. If we get the right kind of winter precip down, I'm the King Of The Road! Otherwise, the best, fastest and craziest way down a snow covered hill is a restaurant sheet tray. | ||
| Chauly |
https://www.outwardbound.org/ | ||
| Court |
Closest for me . . . . fueled by alcohol...... parachuting from the roof of a speeding Buick Vista Cruiser. For the record . . . and sane folks would know this . . . it does not work. But . . . jumping off a station wagon roof at 35mph and passing a wooden utility pole in the air gives one a keen sense of how fast 35mph is. Moral of the story: When you break your leg and have to crawl up the steps coming home . . . don't claim you were working at McDonald's and slipped. The Attorneys will sort it out pretty damn quickly. | ||
| Ourdee |
Throttle stuck open on that go-kart and I ran over a wood pile causing me to run over my own leg while still seated in the kart. |
