You ain't kiddin'. Making homemade explosives in a RR switching yard? Would probably end up in Gitmo now.Originally Posted by Stan
....It appears that post 9/11 legislative changes have turned some of our childhood experiments into jail time. Glad I got most of it out of my system and now get paid to do it
What we did for fun
I was watching TCM the other evening while having dinner and I caught the end of one movie and the beginning of another...
You ain't kiddin'. Making homemade explosives in a RR switching yard? Would probably end up in Gitmo now.
Both starred Robert Taylor and both were about knights. One was a very distorted Ivanhoe and the other was Knights of the Round Table. They came out in the early 50s and by the late 50s were showing on our then 3 channel TV sets in black and white.
Those 2 movies (and others of the same genre) inspired neighbohood jousting matches on bicycles with pointed lances and apple crate shields. Sword fights with the same shields and one by two swords suitablly pointed. Our aluminum foil and cardboard "helmets" did little to soften a blow that came over the top of the shield. Apple crate lids slowed but did not stop a lance touch when 2 kids were hurtling toward each other at top speeds.
Nobody got seriously hurt. Go figure.
Tom
Last edited by Tom Odom; 06-13-2008 at 01:02 PM.
Akin to that was the "Posse chasing the Outlaws" game, using bikes. I still don't know why no bones were broken as the good guys swooped down and, while rolling along at top speed, leaped from one bike to the other to pull the outlaw off his "horse" (a la the Lone Ranger and a host of other defenders of frontier justice). We were never good enough ropers to be successful at lassoing anyone off his bike though.
Last edited by Tom Odom; 06-13-2008 at 01:02 PM. Reason: fix my typo
Vir prudens non contra ventum mingit
The greatest educational dogma is also its greatest fallacy: the belief that what must be learned can necessarily be taught. — Sydney J. Harris
We beat Johnny Knoxville and Jack Ass by Decades
Yep we did that one too. We also had a small rail head behind my grandad's house where the highway department stored gravel and asphalt in 50 foot mounds that were 30-40 yards long. They were absolutely fantastic for downhill bicycle racing with superb crashes. No helmets. No pads. Just skinned knees, elbows, and faces if you did the headfirst pitch over. Later we added ramps at the bottom. Just got better and better...
"The Man and the Challenge"
One of our craziest efforts along that line was a simulation of the rocket sled sequence that opened that TV show. We used several truck tire inner tubes tied between two trees to launch us on our bikes at high speed into the very large sandpile that a housing contractor had left behind. Great fun, and the sand caused your bike chain to make some really weird noises--better than the motorcycle sounds of baseball cards, clothes-pinned on the chain stays and fork, flapping in the spokes.
Vir prudens non contra ventum mingit
The greatest educational dogma is also its greatest fallacy: the belief that what must be learned can necessarily be taught. — Sydney J. Harris
All of this plays back into something that many of us have mentioned in relation to a number of topics on the board. The current environment in which kids are growing up is way overregulated - safety restrictions intended to protect the dumbest, parents looked at askance by the general population if they encourage or allow children to do anything perceived as dangerous, and low-level altercations between kids treated as a major threat to life and security. Sure, extreme sports are popular - but only an extreme minority are actually involved - the majority watch them sitting on their behinds or get involved vicariously through computer gaming.
This is what ends up being our recruiting pool - young'uns who are risk averse, are unused to any sort of physical hardship, let alone having ever been involved in a fight or even a really heated argument. I live in what used to be a rural heartland, and is still huntin' and fishin' heaven for many. But the number of kids that are involved is steadily shrinking. And don't even get me started on the way school sports are run these days at Middle/Junior/High School levels.
Sure, there are plenty of exceptions to the Nancy-boy stereotype I just painted - but from where I sit, that's exactly what they are - exceptions.
Along these general lines, and for your entertainment: Fun Toy Banned Because Of Three Stupid Dead Kids
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