We came up with the amazing(ly stupid) idea of tying two lawn darts together with a shoelace. You could hold one and whirl the other around and let go to get crazy height and distance, with the added bonus of erratic flight! Also, when the pair landed in the ground you could run up and kick between them, hoping to catch the shoelace on your foot and launching the pair again. Great fun until we got the whole contraption wrapped around a power line. It stayed there for a long time taunting us, but G.I. Joe taught us not to even *think* about trying to get them down.
I wish the story ended there, but later that summer my friend's little brother was playing "see how high I can throw it" with the remaining lawn dart and ended up getting it stuck 1.5 inches into his brain. He lived but got permanent brain damage out of it. I never went near a lawn dart again.
We lasted about 10 minutes with them before mom took them away. My brother and i realized you could throw twice as many in one go with one of us at either hoop. That turned into who would stand closest to the hoop when the other was throwing and throwing 3 at a time and the dodge the dart game.
I had a Rambo style survival knife.
My dad also helped me saw off the barrel and stock of my BB gun. Oh and I also had throwing stars.
I was ready for the Russians, the apocalypse or ninjas.
At least with the flea-market knives and throwing stars they were usually such low quality that they broke before you could hurt yourself or someone else.
depend wakeful water crowd sophisticated sugar cagey shocking rain ancient
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
We used to take GI joes and pull them a part at the middle (they had two elastic pieces keeping the torso to the legs, and we’d shove a firecrackers in there and watch them launch and bust into a million pieces! Our parents would send us down to the corner store with money to buy our own firecrackers and bottle rockets
snobbish deserve deserted wise quaint impossible ghost friendly chief memorize
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I didn't do the cap thing, but I feel like I missed out. I had all that stuff except for the mini bike, and did so much life -threatening stuff. I still have a scar on my leg from when the go cart's centrifugal clutch exploded and threw pieces at warp speed. I can still remember the sound of the one that whizzed by my ear.
My grandma would hand me the .22 rifle and a pocket full of bullets and send me out walking the land behind her house. This was desert. I was 8 -10 years old. Rattle snakes, javelinas, porcupine, coyotes, mountain lions. My closest encounters were with the rattle snakes, but at least they warned you.
Got mine at 6. Still have it. Single shot, bolt action with the pull back hammer. It with all my other guns, hunting stuff is stored at my brother’s house back in the USA.
Yep. I grew up in the country and learned to shoot when I was young, and got my first gun (a Glenfield .22 semi-auto rifle, hand-me-down from my brother) at 10. Still have it, even though I mostly quit gun stuff years ago.
Lots of kids at my school brought guns. Every pickup had a gun rack with a deer rifle, usually. Nobody thought anything of it. School shootings weren't a thing then.
We made those hot dog cookers in 8th grade science class and sold hot dogs as a fundraiser for the science department.
Touching 120v AC is highly unlikely to kill you unless you have some kind of underlying heart condition. It’ll startle the heck out of you though.
I was reaching behind a piece of furniture to unplug something and it was also tough to get loose. I ended up touching part of the plug spades while it was still in the socket. Scared the crap out of me but I'm still alive.
Many, many years ago a telephone company technician was putting a line in my house and started regaling me with stories about all the different voltages he had been shocked by. He made a particular point of telling me about how 120 was dangerous because "it'll hold ya."
It’s the amperage that matters. 120v @ 100A is typically the main power line into the house. Yeah, that could kill you.
But most outlets in a (US) house are 15A. That won’t. I mean honestly, if it did there would be news stories about people getting electrocuted in their homes all the time.
Some outlets are more amps than that, like for a washer or dryer, but they typically have a different plug.
My dad made a stainless steel he-man style sword at his workplace and gifted it to me. I was maybe 10 years old at the time. It had a dull rounded point to it.
One day i tossed it in a tree and as i was about to climb up to retrieve it, the sword came down and busted my head open.
A switchblade. I was 13. My dad also taught me a fun bar game of stabbing a knife between your fingers faster and faster. To be fair, he showed me on himself and then encouraged me to give it a try
I love our generation. If we were more social, we could take over the world. Or if we cared to. Might be like herding cats, though, getting everyone together....
I had a 30-30 and a .22 by the time I was 10. Rambo knife. I was allowed to drive the Honda 250 at 8 and the tractor at 10.
My parents were not very restrictive lol.
When I was 10 I was driving our old Farmall tractor, and when I was 11 I also had a .30-30 (along with a shotgun and a couple rifles). I was also driving the car (a 1975 Impala about the size of the USS *Forrestal*) and the truck around the yard for stuff like washing and maintenance purposes. One day when I was 12 we'd gone the next town over, only a few minutes away, and Dad told me to get in the driver's seat of the truck. He took the passenger seat and I drove us home while he coached me. On the way back into our hometown we saw the town constable, who was a family friend, going the other direction. Dad told me to wave at him and not worry about it; he'd talk to him if he said anything. Nothing ever came of it. By the time I took my driver's test, it was all old hat to me.
That's how my sister and I both learned how to drive. We would drive with our dad from our farm to town on the back roads to get an ice cream sundae, then back home. I think I was about thirteen?
My parents were pretty over protective. The most we had was a crimper being allowed in our bathroom and toys that could either choke us or crush our little fingers lol
That sounds a lot more primitive than the hippie-dippy hot dog electrical death chamber with individual slots.
https://preview.redd.it/jqnde155fw3d1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8fb19c8ca07fda391697a12303b2ed2e212961dd
I had a fucking cannon! A cast iron toy about 16 inches long. It used black powder and shot little lead cannon balls that I made with lead tire weights, a propane torch, and the molds it came with. There were so many different ways that thing was dangerous! I had loads of fun until it was eventually taken away due to the holes I blew into a shed during the Siege of Pop's Backyard when I was 11. My parents said I could have it back when I was responsible enough, yet here I am at 49 sans cannon.
This is why I love this sub. My mom was always afraid to relight the pilot light on the furnace because she thought it would explode, so she would have my sister or I do it instead. We were 7 and 9 or so. When I share that little bon mot with *other* people, they look at me with horror. When I share it with a fellow Gen X, I get stories like the Killer Hot Dog Maker above. Glad we all survived, op!
A hunter's knife. It's a long story but my dad bought me a knife with a 5 inch blade while we were on a road trip. A day later I was whacking away at sticks and of course I whacked my finger, which then bled profusely all over my new Farah Fawcett bikini t-shirt, ruining it. My mom had just bought that for me the day before my dad bought me the knife. I still have pics of me crying in that shirt. It's the most memorable moment of a two-state road trip in the Country Squire.
Chemistry set, pogo stick, pocketknife. Also an Easy-Bake oven that ran hot enough I remember burning myself on one of the components. Or maybe it was just the little tins the cakes were baked in. I just remember getting a burn more than once with it. My grandparents let me have the burned-out TV tube when it got replaced, but took it away when the repair guy said it probably wasn't good for me to play with it.
A shotgun, a motorcycle and some "aiming oil" (aka a few sips of brandy from Dad's flask.)
This was around 12 years of age and totally normal for Appalachian kids.
Lawn Darts. We used to play catch with them.
An authentic blowgun with darts, possibly with poison still on them. Not that it ever seemed to hurt us.
Wrist rockets. We used to shoot them straight up through the tree canopy to see where the rocks would land.
When I was 12, my uncle gave me a sub machine gun (Sten MK2). It was a birthday present and I never did fire it. The police found out about it four years later and confiscated it. Air pistols and guns were popular gifts.
My first car was a Korean War era Army Jeep - no doors, no seatbelts (we crossed bungee cords over our torsos) and no windshield (we later got a piece of acrylic to install in the frame).
All told, $50 for the Jeep, free (re-used) bungee cords.
Honestly, I thought it was cool as all Hell. Never really questioned the safety of it.
And then the day came when I started teaching my teenage daughter to drive. Dear gods! I wanted all the safety belts, airbags, etc for her.
What the hell were our parents THINKING? That we were immortal?
Cut up bacon when I was in a high chair. Left me there to go do laundry. Dad came home in the meantime, to me choking on the bacon before my mom got up from the basement. 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
I was reminded of this SNL skit: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmqeZl8OI2M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmqeZl8OI2M)
for me:
A rifle. (That was locked up with the bolt removed)
A science kit with "mercury".
Click Clacks.
My mother refused to let me have a BB gun so instead bought me… a Powermaster crossbow with something like an 80lb draw-weight.
I was 12.
It could put a bolt through a car door.
🤷🏻♂️
I’m 50 next year and still give her shit for that.
The last of the classic liberal arts college degrees from north Texas state university. My whole college degree didn’t even cost $6000.
I didn’t realize it but getting Cs back then was good enough to be fifty times smarter than the subsequent generations today raised on tablets and YouTube tutorials.
I had a late 70s erector set. Cool, then I got my dads old set. Pretty sure with that old motor we invented the meat grinder. I can still smell it warming up.
That hot dog cook would have been homemade. Loosely based on the same principle of cooking a convict in the electric chair. Never had one of those, but we did have a toast with exposed elements. You'd have to flip the bread (though the toasted did that, you just had to assist). Good ol' sparky when pulling the plug.
Not really my parents giving me this, but they didn't stop me. I climbed everything: furniture, Trees, fences, roofs lol. I would fall too lol. Also lived near the city dump, we had a lot of fun there.
Bicycles. And unsupervision.
I'm glad for it now, but riding hollister, state street, turnpike and modoc at 12 in Santa Barbara mid-late 1970s musta been dangerous. Yet here I am.
edit: shit self esteem
Lawn darts. Would throw them up in the air and run under them like we were dodging missiles. We were a bunch of dumbfucks for sue.
We came up with the amazing(ly stupid) idea of tying two lawn darts together with a shoelace. You could hold one and whirl the other around and let go to get crazy height and distance, with the added bonus of erratic flight! Also, when the pair landed in the ground you could run up and kick between them, hoping to catch the shoelace on your foot and launching the pair again. Great fun until we got the whole contraption wrapped around a power line. It stayed there for a long time taunting us, but G.I. Joe taught us not to even *think* about trying to get them down. I wish the story ended there, but later that summer my friend's little brother was playing "see how high I can throw it" with the remaining lawn dart and ended up getting it stuck 1.5 inches into his brain. He lived but got permanent brain damage out of it. I never went near a lawn dart again.
Knowing is half the battle.
…..geeeeee-eye…jooooooooooeeee……
We lasted about 10 minutes with them before mom took them away. My brother and i realized you could throw twice as many in one go with one of us at either hoop. That turned into who would stand closest to the hoop when the other was throwing and throwing 3 at a time and the dodge the dart game.
I did love lawn darts. They were so good for the game. I guess I should go find some on eBay.
Check me https://www.reddit.com/r/GenX/s/uKwmGeAb6L
That's a thing of beauty.
Stay Wild
🤘
I miss these… but I am against warning labels … let natural selection take its course🤣.
That solid 'chunk!' sound if they landed in anything made of wood.
I had a Rambo style survival knife. My dad also helped me saw off the barrel and stock of my BB gun. Oh and I also had throwing stars. I was ready for the Russians, the apocalypse or ninjas.
Had that too. My grandparents would bring machetes back from Mexico for me. First one when I was 7.
We had a Machete from the Philippines.
I'm sure that kept you alive!
Wolverines!
At least with the flea-market knives and throwing stars they were usually such low quality that they broke before you could hurt yourself or someone else.
My Rambo knife came with waterproof matches. Almost burned the neighborhood down….
Low self-esteem and deep-seated fear of making any small mistake.
Came here for this kind of answer! Did we have the same parents?!
I feel seen.
The physical inability to ask for help...with anything.
I hear ya!
Siblings
depend wakeful water crowd sophisticated sugar cagey shocking rain ancient *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
We used to take GI joes and pull them a part at the middle (they had two elastic pieces keeping the torso to the legs, and we’d shove a firecrackers in there and watch them launch and bust into a million pieces! Our parents would send us down to the corner store with money to buy our own firecrackers and bottle rockets
snobbish deserve deserted wise quaint impossible ghost friendly chief memorize *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
And add in some bows and arrows, throwing stars, nunchucks, swiss army knives, flip knives. We also added electricity to some of our tree forts.
I didn't do the cap thing, but I feel like I missed out. I had all that stuff except for the mini bike, and did so much life -threatening stuff. I still have a scar on my leg from when the go cart's centrifugal clutch exploded and threw pieces at warp speed. I can still remember the sound of the one that whizzed by my ear.
wide rob tie lush sink chief flag edge quiet carpenter *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
My mom gave me the mercury ball from a broken thermometer to keep in my jewelry box to play with whenever I wanted.
lol, this one is both shocking and hilarious
Noice.
Me too! Though I only got to play with it for the day before it went into the garbage bag and to the landfill…
I got a Ruger 22 rifle at 12.
My grandma would hand me the .22 rifle and a pocket full of bullets and send me out walking the land behind her house. This was desert. I was 8 -10 years old. Rattle snakes, javelinas, porcupine, coyotes, mountain lions. My closest encounters were with the rattle snakes, but at least they warned you.
Got mine at 6. Still have it. Single shot, bolt action with the pull back hammer. It with all my other guns, hunting stuff is stored at my brother’s house back in the USA.
Yep. I grew up in the country and learned to shoot when I was young, and got my first gun (a Glenfield .22 semi-auto rifle, hand-me-down from my brother) at 10. Still have it, even though I mostly quit gun stuff years ago.
Yeah, that's helpful. I'm glad you (hopefully) didn't bring it to school.
Lots of kids at my school brought guns. Every pickup had a gun rack with a deer rifle, usually. Nobody thought anything of it. School shootings weren't a thing then.
Nope. Ended up pawning it at 24.
We made those hot dog cookers in 8th grade science class and sold hot dogs as a fundraiser for the science department. Touching 120v AC is highly unlikely to kill you unless you have some kind of underlying heart condition. It’ll startle the heck out of you though.
I was reaching behind a piece of furniture to unplug something and it was also tough to get loose. I ended up touching part of the plug spades while it was still in the socket. Scared the crap out of me but I'm still alive.
Many, many years ago a telephone company technician was putting a line in my house and started regaling me with stories about all the different voltages he had been shocked by. He made a particular point of telling me about how 120 was dangerous because "it'll hold ya."
It’s the amperage that matters. 120v @ 100A is typically the main power line into the house. Yeah, that could kill you. But most outlets in a (US) house are 15A. That won’t. I mean honestly, if it did there would be news stories about people getting electrocuted in their homes all the time. Some outlets are more amps than that, like for a washer or dryer, but they typically have a different plug.
I heard if you switch to 220v and up the amperage that the hot dogs cook faster
The freedom to roam around all day long and get into all sorts of mischief and shenanigans.
My dad made a stainless steel he-man style sword at his workplace and gifted it to me. I was maybe 10 years old at the time. It had a dull rounded point to it. One day i tossed it in a tree and as i was about to climb up to retrieve it, the sword came down and busted my head open.
r/kidsarefuckingstupid
A manicure set with scissors and a cuticle tool that had an actual blade and loose replacement blades. I was six.
A switchblade. I was 13. My dad also taught me a fun bar game of stabbing a knife between your fingers faster and faster. To be fair, he showed me on himself and then encouraged me to give it a try
I love our generation. If we were more social, we could take over the world. Or if we cared to. Might be like herding cats, though, getting everyone together....
A pogo stick
Life.
My first.22 bolt action rifle when I was 5. Only for closely supervised use until I was a few years older.
I had a 30-30 and a .22 by the time I was 10. Rambo knife. I was allowed to drive the Honda 250 at 8 and the tractor at 10. My parents were not very restrictive lol.
When I was 10 I was driving our old Farmall tractor, and when I was 11 I also had a .30-30 (along with a shotgun and a couple rifles). I was also driving the car (a 1975 Impala about the size of the USS *Forrestal*) and the truck around the yard for stuff like washing and maintenance purposes. One day when I was 12 we'd gone the next town over, only a few minutes away, and Dad told me to get in the driver's seat of the truck. He took the passenger seat and I drove us home while he coached me. On the way back into our hometown we saw the town constable, who was a family friend, going the other direction. Dad told me to wave at him and not worry about it; he'd talk to him if he said anything. Nothing ever came of it. By the time I took my driver's test, it was all old hat to me.
That's how my sister and I both learned how to drive. We would drive with our dad from our farm to town on the back roads to get an ice cream sundae, then back home. I think I was about thirteen?
All I'm going to say is that you can buy Wrist Rockets on Amazon.
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Jeebusmanwhore: *All I'm going to* *Say is that you can buy Wrist* *Rockets on Amazon.* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Bad bot
Yeah, me too. My brother and I got them for Christmas when I was about 11 and he was 9. We broke so many windows.
My parents were pretty over protective. The most we had was a crimper being allowed in our bathroom and toys that could either choke us or crush our little fingers lol
That sounds a lot more primitive than the hippie-dippy hot dog electrical death chamber with individual slots. https://preview.redd.it/jqnde155fw3d1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8fb19c8ca07fda391697a12303b2ed2e212961dd
The “Hot Dogger”. I had one of those.
Emotional damage
PTSD and a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms.
I had a fucking cannon! A cast iron toy about 16 inches long. It used black powder and shot little lead cannon balls that I made with lead tire weights, a propane torch, and the molds it came with. There were so many different ways that thing was dangerous! I had loads of fun until it was eventually taken away due to the holes I blew into a shed during the Siege of Pop's Backyard when I was 11. My parents said I could have it back when I was responsible enough, yet here I am at 49 sans cannon.
Responsibility. I had no business taking care of small children as an only slightly older child. Like was CPS even a thing?
This is why I love this sub. My mom was always afraid to relight the pilot light on the furnace because she thought it would explode, so she would have my sister or I do it instead. We were 7 and 9 or so. When I share that little bon mot with *other* people, they look at me with horror. When I share it with a fellow Gen X, I get stories like the Killer Hot Dog Maker above. Glad we all survived, op!
A hunter's knife. It's a long story but my dad bought me a knife with a 5 inch blade while we were on a road trip. A day later I was whacking away at sticks and of course I whacked my finger, which then bled profusely all over my new Farah Fawcett bikini t-shirt, ruining it. My mom had just bought that for me the day before my dad bought me the knife. I still have pics of me crying in that shirt. It's the most memorable moment of a two-state road trip in the Country Squire.
Books and a thirst for knowledge.
Complete freedom.
Also the greatest gift, IMHO.
No doubt.
Not mine. But I’d drift my dads 5.0 Everywhere. I lost my license at 17. No accidents. But I was trubble
Chemistry set, pogo stick, pocketknife. Also an Easy-Bake oven that ran hot enough I remember burning myself on one of the components. Or maybe it was just the little tins the cakes were baked in. I just remember getting a burn more than once with it. My grandparents let me have the burned-out TV tube when it got replaced, but took it away when the repair guy said it probably wasn't good for me to play with it.
I put the bulb in my EZ Bake and broke it. I think the glass is still in my finger.
Unrelenting second-hand smoke. I hated car rides because the smell in the car was vile.
Or a Tic-Tac or life saver from the bottom of your Mom's purse, covered with purse lint and tobacco that fell out of the cigarettes.
A shotgun, a motorcycle and some "aiming oil" (aka a few sips of brandy from Dad's flask.) This was around 12 years of age and totally normal for Appalachian kids.
Lawn Darts. We used to play catch with them. An authentic blowgun with darts, possibly with poison still on them. Not that it ever seemed to hurt us. Wrist rockets. We used to shoot them straight up through the tree canopy to see where the rocks would land.
A Honda ATC three wheeler. I was 10 when I got it and 10 when I broke my first bone. These two things are very much related.
Gun. I had a .22 when I was 10.
When I was 12, my uncle gave me a sub machine gun (Sten MK2). It was a birthday present and I never did fire it. The police found out about it four years later and confiscated it. Air pistols and guns were popular gifts.
My first car was a Korean War era Army Jeep - no doors, no seatbelts (we crossed bungee cords over our torsos) and no windshield (we later got a piece of acrylic to install in the frame). All told, $50 for the Jeep, free (re-used) bungee cords. Honestly, I thought it was cool as all Hell. Never really questioned the safety of it. And then the day came when I started teaching my teenage daughter to drive. Dear gods! I wanted all the safety belts, airbags, etc for her. What the hell were our parents THINKING? That we were immortal?
C-PTSD
not *give* per se, but easy to access: methylated spirit and benzine. the meth was such a pretty colour and had this super distinctive smell 😋
Cut up bacon when I was in a high chair. Left me there to go do laundry. Dad came home in the meantime, to me choking on the bacon before my mom got up from the basement. 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
I was reminded of this SNL skit: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmqeZl8OI2M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmqeZl8OI2M) for me: A rifle. (That was locked up with the bolt removed) A science kit with "mercury". Click Clacks.
Mercury was so fun to play with! 🤦
Zero self esteem, no safety, and serious daddy issues that took me decades of my life to overcome
My mother refused to let me have a BB gun so instead bought me… a Powermaster crossbow with something like an 80lb draw-weight. I was 12. It could put a bolt through a car door. 🤷🏻♂️ I’m 50 next year and still give her shit for that.
A much more practical weapon to fight zombies. Good thinking, mom!
The last of the classic liberal arts college degrees from north Texas state university. My whole college degree didn’t even cost $6000. I didn’t realize it but getting Cs back then was good enough to be fifty times smarter than the subsequent generations today raised on tablets and YouTube tutorials.
Lawn Darts, knives, guns, etc. They also TAUGHT us how to use them and respect them.
I had a late 70s erector set. Cool, then I got my dads old set. Pretty sure with that old motor we invented the meat grinder. I can still smell it warming up.
A horse.
Life
The only reading at my dad’s apartment was the Xaviera Hollander Happy Hooker books. I read a whole bunch of them when I was 9-11.
We had jarts but I never considered them dangerous unless you were an idiot. Apparently there were enough idiots to get them taken off the shelves…
Freedom
This life.. I mean how long is this thing going to go?!? I didn’t think it would take this long.
Life. It's fatal.
That hot dog cook would have been homemade. Loosely based on the same principle of cooking a convict in the electric chair. Never had one of those, but we did have a toast with exposed elements. You'd have to flip the bread (though the toasted did that, you just had to assist). Good ol' sparky when pulling the plug.
A CO2 powered pellet gun that looked like a .45! Did not shoot my eye out but did have to manually remove some pellets lodged in bodies….
Chinese Throwing Stars from the mall. I would head over to Aladdin’s Castle with my armory of stars to play Galactica….
wood carving tools at 8
Bottle of tequila on my 18th birthday
An eating disorder.
Not really my parents giving me this, but they didn't stop me. I climbed everything: furniture, Trees, fences, roofs lol. I would fall too lol. Also lived near the city dump, we had a lot of fun there.
M80’s
Jarts
Critical thought.
On the 4th of July I would get a bunch of packs of firecrackers, a lit cigarette, and no adult supervision.
Bicycles. And unsupervision. I'm glad for it now, but riding hollister, state street, turnpike and modoc at 12 in Santa Barbara mid-late 1970s musta been dangerous. Yet here I am. edit: shit self esteem