Do you know where your kids are?

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When I was in 4th through 12th grade, this question started the 11 O'clock news.

My parents did through 8th grade, then in 9th grade on fall Friday nights, they only thought they did. I was in the Marching band! After the game's activities, it was time to party with my friends. As marching band members, we received a free drink and free bag of roasted peanuts (in the shell). Many a Friday night, after the game, 4 to 8 of us would pile in my family's station wagon and hit the road. We all would have our complimentary bag of peanuts to sustain us on our "Time on the Town!" But being we lived in farm country, there wasn't much town!

Someone would tell a bad joke, or rag on somebody's girlfriend (or worse, say they were dating the ugliest girl in school!) and that would start it. What it? The in car/close range peanut war!

My family traded in the 1973 Impala station wagon in on a 1976 3/4-ton pick-up. I had the clean out the car of all our maps, tools and survival equipment. For the 10th time since the last football game in 1973, I Shop-Vac'd as best I could every crevasse, cubby hole, and under the seats. The 8 gallon shop vac was still half full of peanuts!

I am so glad, I never got in trouble for those Peanut Fights! I think my parents never knew. Half of those guys are dead now, and I still have these memories to remember them by. By and large the trouble we got in was minor. But I kept a closer eye on my kids. (If they missed out on a bad experience or two, tough luck! I also helped them get into a little good-natured trouble! Squirt Gun Fights on the school but was my idea!)

What kind of good clean hijinks did you get into?

Ivan
 
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No, I don't. But then my oldest will be 58 years old in a few days, and youngest is 36.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

The kids are now 40, 42, 43 & 45, the grandkids are 16month to 17 years. and spread over the Eastern half of the US, and I still know where they are better than most folks know where their little delinquents are.

Ivan
 
My 48 yr old son at his home sleeping, alarm goes off at 4:30 am.Works first shift. My 46 yr old daughter works in Doctor's office, first shift, she is also waiting for alarm to go off. Son is a mechanic/manager in school bus garage, while my daughter is Registered Nurse. Their mother and myself are blessed.
 
I got to see both of my boys and their wives this weekend. A highly enjoyable treat. Strange circumstances though... My oldest was in town to pick up his 1966 vintage Fender Princeton Reverb amp from our amp guru. It had blown the output transformer. Went to my youngest's house yesterday to assess the damage the miscreates behind him caused by shooting pellets into his new vinyl stockade fence.
 
My kids are all adults now, but living in the middle of nowhere made it a little easier for us to keep track of our kids when they were still home. Only one of our kids had a close friend within walking distance, the daughter of our nearest neighbor - a little better than a half mile away. We were always pretty strict about them using one of our cars, insisting on knowing details of their plans, who was involved, etc.
 
During my high school years Al started the evening news with "It's 11 o'clock. Where are your kids?"


Rusty,
I don't remember the year, but do you remember the guy barging onto the Channel 9 news set and Al Schttelkotte cold cocking the guy on live television? Al just sat back down and went back to reading the news like nothing had happened.

Back to the thread.
I think Al's tongue in cheek message might have been to his wife. If I remember correctly, he had a whole passel of kids.
 
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My son is 40 and slaving away in the trades making far more than I ever did.Daughter is 33 ,works at a university and is earning her 2nd masters degree with plans of opening a psychotherapy practice. No grand babies yet,but I have 6 great nieces and nephews and one great,great niece so far(I do have 3 grand dogs and a grand cat though [emoji38])
 
Our two daughters had very different experiences growing up, but they both turned out fine.

Our youngest daughter was easy to raise. She was an introvert, very sensible, stayed home most of the time, and didn't date much until she started college. She's now a retired elementary school teacher.

Our oldest daughter had a completely opposite personality. She was an extrovert, and while she was good-natured, she required lots of attention. While in high school, she was lead singer of a rock band. They mostly played locally, but they played occasionally at a bar/club/dive 100 miles away in the town of Gun Barrel City, Texas. All the band members were under drinking age, so I don't know how they were able to get that gig. She never was willing to talk much about her "adventures" there, but she did admit she became an expert at placing her boot in the face of guys that tried to come after her on the stage. She survived all that and is now a CPA and hospital administrator.
 
Nice reports on kids and grandkids. But the question is, "What kind of good natured hijinks did you get into in High School?"

Don't tell me that smirk on your face doesn't mean anything!

Ivan
 
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What kind of good clean hijinks did you get into?

Ivan

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Never sent to detention. However will refrain to " discuss" what my buddies and I did in high school. Just got home from long time friends in St Augustine helping him repair a WWII Jeep tub. We get to talking about all the crazy " things" we did back in Va. We both concede we would be " under the jail" if we did such today.
 
I would buy my winter heating firewood from a classmate of mine. When he was making a delivery to my house, he had a 15-year-old son with him. I started to talk about off-roading and a homemade dune buggy he had. SHHHHH!, then when his son was out of earshot, "Don't ever let my kids know what we did in High School!" "Deal," was my response. (But I wasn't the one that stole the VW Beetle, the 12 volt dozer battery, or all that gas for said off-roading.)

Ivan
 
Nice reports on kids and grandkids. But the question is, "What kind of good natured hijinks did you get into in High School?"

Don't tell me that smirk on your face doesn't mean anything!

Ivan

Jim was one of my best friends in high school. He and I used to enjoy zinging each other at the start of our history class. I always had to get in the last zing, but he knew when to quit. As a result, I was the one who got caught doing one zing too many and was regularly sent to the back of the class. Ultimately, Jim became the president of Mattel, retired to a palatial estate in Palm Springs, and I didn't. I often wonder if my poor zing management contributed to that.

My craziest high school experience was at the end of my junior year, when my friend Garry and I somehow got roped into to help carrying chairs from the graduation ceremony at the football field back to the cafeteria. We used Garry's pickup truck to haul the chairs. After carrying the last load, we were sitting in the pickup and noticed that there was no else around. We were parked next to the cafeteria in the small landscaped quadrangle in the center of the campus. Garry said, "I'm going to lay a patch!". There was only about 50 feet of concrete ahead of us, and if he lost control, we were in BIG trouble. The school library in front of us was not designed for drive-through service. Before I could start to talk him out of it, the engine was roaring, the tires were screeching, and there was rubber smoke everywhere. Garry managed to keep control, and we didn't hit anything. I figured the commotion would bring all kinds authorities out of the woodwork, but amazingly, we were still alone. We carefully backed out of the quadrangle and noted with satisfaction a pair of 15 feet-long black streaks on the walkway. They were still there when we graduated a year later, our lasting contribution to our dear old alma mater.
 
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When I was in high school, I remember someone jumper wired the horn to the brake light on one of the teacher's cars. It was hilarious!!!

There's someone else who had a GEO Metro the football team would, literally, lift and place in normally inaccessible places on campus. ANYBODY who had a small car would be at risk.
 
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