Looking back at what I could do as a kid and what would be unthinkable now, how did we survive?
Playing with fireworks, shooting guns,no seat belts, no helmets.
Having kids myself I would not let them do half of what I could at that age.

LOL

Lot's of silly stuff also i n my childhood, today seeing the fail movies in youtube brings back memory

We live in a virtual world. There is very little reality. FFS, we experience "reality" through TV shows.

In the US, its mostly a factor of a shrinking agricultural base and increasing urban blight. Guns have become evil weapons, instead of tools to defend yourself and put food on the table. Fertilizer is a regulated bomb making substance. Hard physical work, wtf is that? We've become fat, stupid and lazy. No child will be left behind - unless you are a above average, then you'll be drug down to mediocrity.

People are so fooking obsessed with getting high, they've resorted to eating, snorting, main lining and smoking bath salts. Bath salts! Who the fook thought that smoking bath salts was going to be a good way to get high?

I survived childhood because I LIVED through it. My parents and relatives (uncles) took part in my upbringing and constantly pointed out potential dangers. They also led by example. Here in California, I see people step off the curb nearly every day into traffic without hesitation. They expect the cars to stop for him. My poor old-fashioned dumb ass actually looks both ways to see if it's safe, then steps off the curb. That's what I was taught to do.

I started shooting when I was 5 YO. My parents, uncles and older brothers made sure I knew the dangers and how to handle a gun safely. I was never allowed to point any gun, not even a toy, at a person or animal. That may sound extreme, but that is why I'm still here.

Before motorcycles I was a pretty skilled DIY explosive specialist at the age of 14 - 17... To mention only one my forgotten hobbies which does not really fit this world

^^ bwahaha

On a smaller note as a kid looking
for something to get in trouble with..
I was grateful not to have access to Dad's bullets...
We also didn't have a source for Potassium Nitrate...
We DID try our hand at gun powder without it,.
Not with any good outcome...
Did almost burn my buds house down with Magneisum ribbon
from our chemistry sets...Never use the book on our
"experiments"
We DID use solid model rocket boosters
and model airplane fuel...
Handmade gizmos that we were able to dodge and they
DID miss the neighbors houses...
Tore up plenty of backyards with our dirt bikes..
Not quite as grand a scale as some of you...

I'm not sure I have left childhood.

One of the reasons most of us survived childhood is our parents were allowed guns??
Course there are a few that didnt survive for that same reason!!

[/quote] They've started bans and registrations. If you don't "wish" to register, you can turn your evil weapon in to the police. If you register your evil weapon, you can't sell or transfer it. If you die, you're next of kin can't inherit it. Planned obsolesce.[/quote]

Wow that's some extreme gun ownership laws for you lot

Try this...

[quote="KTM666"]Try this...

Thanks bro...think I got it when you fixed it..

This is a good question,,,,,as a kid ,, me and my bro's built many bombs,,,not a one exploded in our face's,,,started out with 500,000 match heads packed into paper towel tube's,,,,went "boom",,,,then moved "up" to unrolling seven brick's of firecracker's and packing them into paper towel tubes,,,went "BOOM",,,,did you know "HTH" pool chemicals blow up

I can recall a bunch on us laying on our backs looking at a mushroom cloud on a couple of occasions, no more eyebrows, eyelashes, and really short hair in front
Can't forget fire fights, pouring gasoline into the sand and igniting it then kicking the sand at your opponent as he does the same to you. Also Roman candle fights, how we never set farmers fields on fire is still a mystery to me.

Good times.

Still have a weather balloon that I was thinking about filling with...

There was a trick about throwing a bent hanger over the power lines. It would hit oppisite poles and sparks would fly.
I came up with the idea of using a piece much more substantial than a thin hanger. It was in the form of an old chase lounge metal strap. Sort of like banding strap from a lumber yard. We were on double sessions and had much time to kill prior to getting on the bus.
I must have thrown that strap eightytwo times, each time saying "one more try". Well one more was all I needed to light the nieghbors lawn on fire and cause the power to go off in Indian Head Village.
Brocton Edison was working on the splice as I passed them on my bike to deliver the Boston Globe, I thought they would nab me from seeing the guilt strewn all about my face.
We wont even go into the xhicken coupe episode

I once barked my shin once.... mind you, it was the one and only time they let me out of my padded cell.

In the days when cans were still made of thick walled steel, we used to take soda cans, remove the tops and bottoms and duct tape them together with the exception of the last can. We'd poke vent holes in the bottom of that can and leave the top in tact. Drop a tennis ball down the top, give the bottom a squirt of lighter fluid thru one of the vent holes, swirl it around and then touch it off with a match. It would launch a tennis ball 300+ yards. We called them Polish cannons.

We had many uses for waterproof wick as well. We made flash bombs (ground up solid rocket fuel wrapped in a piece of trash bag with a wick sticking out). We used to set them off on neighbors porches as a prank.

Then, came the black powder bombs. I'd remove the cap from an empty Crosman CO2 cartridge, fill with FFF or FFFF black powder, then stuff a piece of waterproof wick down the hole and seal it with DUCO cement. Those things would launch a metal 5 gallon bucket with a 10LB rock on top 30' into the air.

We also made some pipe bombs as well. A friend of mine went a bit overboard though. He took an 8-10" long, 1 1/2" diameter pipe and filled it with FFFF. He lit the fuse and chucked it down the master drain pipe of a house that was being built. It cracked the foundation.

Then there were the shrapnel bombs (firecrackers in a balsa wood case with shards of broken razor blades); sling shots; all sorts of rockets, fireworks, swinging vines (like Tarzan) and crab apple launchers. I'm sure I'm forgetting one things.

We all lived and I don't even have any scars from those escapades. Knives, now that's a different story.

^^^ Unfortunately, we weren't all invincible. That pic reminded me of an incident when I was a kid. A young neighborhood kid (about 4 or 5 at most) rode his Batmobile pedal car down the hill where we lived and into an intersection. He was struck by a car. He lived, but suffered serious brain damage.

hi all
well what a laugh , reading all the threads and i thought i was dangerous playing with air rifles war,playing with petrol and fireworks and metal tubes . ha
nearly set mums house on fire just lighting the fire , explosion lighting the fire ,coal and sticks every where .cream carpet messed forever 1985.
lost most of my hair and eyebrows ,burns to hands and face neck . lucky for me and the house it could of been worse . mother has never forgiven me about the carpet and settee..
dads car got it as well , morris miner death trap ,lent me it one eve in heavy rain thunderstorms . went out to see a girl on the way home on my own in dark 8 miles away hit this corner 45 mph plus in wet , fast in one of them .only just passed the test weeks earlier. lost it in a inch of water ,off road over a bank down a embankment into a ditch .two hours later found ,cut out, car roof flat to top of seats , glad i had no seat belt on , thrown across car onto passenger seat . was not my fault . emm . only injuries were sprained wrists whip lash and a lot of bruises small cut on arm.
they called me lucky for a while ..
then i bought a road bike ... so how we all get to now ,i don't know .
my kids have been angels compared to what i used to get up to.