Stuff we used to do back then that you couldn't do now

[meaneyedcatz]

My dad would take his 22 rifle on the public bus to high school and the gun club would go to the schools attic and shoot after school. Then take the rifle home with him on the public bus.

 

[Oldiron]

Can tell most of y'all were city kids. Step n mud mentioned dirt clods but real carnage could be had by going into the corn field after it was picked and pulling up corn stalks with about 2 lbs of dirt still attached. They will fly very well when swung by the top and let loose. We also had green persimmon fights. About a 2 ft stick and a green persimmon stuck on the end with a good whipping action. Was not uncommon to get a 50 yd fling. With carbide we would throw some down a gopher hole, add a can of water and fling in a match a couple of minutes later. You could hear it rumble way down into the ground. As far as riding on cars, we would ride on the front fenders (back when cars had nice round fenders) I think a '57 was about as new as that was comfortable. Fireworks were just a way of life. Walk down the road in the summer 'til you found a hot wad of tar and scrape the bottom of the M80s or cherry bombs in the tar and attach them to a rock we would pick up from the side of the road. Lite and fling them into the creek, no worry about them coming loose before they exploded like they would do if you tied them on. Lawn darts were still years away so we made our own by cutting a short piece of pine sapling, sharpening the nose and sticking sage brush in a slot in the back.
And the piece de resistance was something I never bought but some of you will remember, the full auto BB guns powered by r12 refrigerant cans. There are many more but will refrain from using up too much space.
Larry

 

[e3mrk]

On Saturdays in the fall People would rake all the Leaves into a Ditch that ran the entire length of the Block and light Them on Fire.We cant do that now.
I loved the smell of burning Leaves at night.

 

[yaktamer]

Homemade tennis ball canons. Getting bored shooting them. Modifying firing procedure to launch flaming tennis balls through air at night.

 

[Hyperion]

In the Winter, we'd "hop cars", which meant grabbing the rear bumper and get pulled along, sliding on the snow until we fell off or the drive stopped.

It's a wonder we survived.

We called it "hooky bobbing." Our greatest fun was hooky bobbing the school bus.

 

[Hyperion]

Sit on my Dad's lap and steer the car while he smoked a cigarette.

Yep; Dad let us "drive," too.

 

[chud333]

Rode in the back windshield of dads Chrysler on long road trips.
BB gun fights
Hunting Copperheads with BB guns
Walked side ditches looking for glass pop bottles to sell
Shooting my 6 inch model 19 with no hearing protection

Ahhhh, The Good ole Days

Chuck

 

[RobertJ.]

When I was a kid in SE Alaska, my dad and his friends would spotlight deer at night. Even then, this was illegal, but we were on an island with absolutely no law enforcement. Now, if that wasn't bad enough, it was our job (me, with my friends Pat and Herbie, and we were about 12 years old) to scramble up to the top of the clear cut and drag the deer down to the road.

Another fond memory is of my dad and me, he had his M1 carbine, and I had his Ruger Blackhawk .41 Magnum, target practicing at schools of pink salmon (humpies) swimming upstream.

I know that there are people who would have a serious problem these things now, but to keep things in context, this was a remote part of SE Alaska, a long time ago!

 

[johngalt]

I'm not that old, I remember riding in the back of pickup trucks. I still ride my roadbike without a helmet. I do find it irritating the way new cars ding at me for not buckling the seatbelt.

 

[soFlaNative]

I do find it irritating the way new cars ding at me for not buckling the seatbelt.

Great point! I wear mine by choice but I'd be damned if I'd stand for being reprimanded by inanimate objects in the past.

 

[Donn]

Standing in the front seat of the car between mom & dad when I was a cute little kid, (and I was once).
My brother's teeth marks on the wooden window sills. Yes, it was lead paint.
Vick's Formula 44 cough syrup with codeine. Worked better than anything available today, but Big Brother had to save us from ourselves.
The last time I flew, smoking was allowed on commercial air liners.

 

[JcMack]

When I was 16-17 I fell in with some really bad companions. I'd have to check the statute of limitations before admitting anything here.

 

[Fat Frank]

Our house was on the back half of a 10 acre strip of property with a dirt drive winding through the trees up from what passed for a "road". During the summer when the dirt drive was good and dusty, my dad had his annual solution to that problem. As an auto mechanic, he had access to lots of old used motor oil. He made a sprayer attachment to spread the oil from a drum in the back of his truck as he drove slowly up and down the drive. As the oil soaked in, it formed kind of a blacktop packing which actually made for a nice smooth drive - and no dust. I think the EPA might have an issue with that nowadays.

 

[BigBoy99]

A lot of kids in the 50's, myself included, had a Gilbert Chemistry Set. It contained chemicals like highly flammable potassium permanganate and ammonium nitrate. The fact that we survived into their adult years is amazing.

Just remember the smart ones survived and the stupid ones didn't!

 

[brigeton]

Now you have to have a helmet to ride a bike or a horse. I'm surprised some parents aren't making their kids wear helmets to go outside in case they run and trip.

 

[sheepdawg]

How about spankings. My dad wasn't one to fool with when we were out. At the Sears back when I was eight I thought it would be funny to turn the escalator off when people were riding it, I mean the on/off switch was right there, easily reachable to eight year old hands, why not? Well it was funny to see the people tumble and try to keep their balance when it all of a sudden died, real funny, till my dad showed up. I got the beating of my life right there in front of all my victims. I still remember that one 55 years later. A month ago I was in the same store, could go to the same spot by the same escalator, kind of grinned when I saw the on/off switch was encased in a locked plastic box but to be honest I never thought of trying to get a laugh by turning the escalator off, no way, nope.

How about school. Back then you screw up and get caught you got licks. I must have set a record for licks in the eighth grade and if it was one of the coaches that gave you licks you couldn't sit down for days. Then you got home praying that your parents wouldn't find out cause if they did chances are you were going to meet the belt.

Today all of this is called child cruelty. Today you get a timeout, no wonder the world is going to ****.

 

[Fat Frank]

That was the rule at our house. If I got paddled at school, I could expect something even worse when I got home. My dad used to make me go outside and cut my own switch from the sassafras tree. And it had better be to his liking because if he had to go get a proper one, I would definitely not like it. In reality, I probably only got 2 or 3 of those, but I sure never forgot them. In general, I was a pretty good kid because of that - I never wanted another one. Just the threat of one and I was toeing the line for sure!

 

[opaul]

Taking liquid mercury to school and rubbing it on pennies to make them silver. Dropping it on the desk to watch it splatter into all those littler balls.
Today this would shut down the school and bring out the hazmat guys!

 

[tedog]

On my grandparents farm, my buddies and I would locate a fresh cow patty, stick an m80 in the center, light and run.

 

[2ffat]

A lot of kids in the 50's, myself included, had a Gilbert Chemistry Set. It contained chemicals like highly flammable potassium permanganate and ammonium nitrate. The fact that we survived into their adult years is amazing.

I remember having one of those. I could go to the hobby store and get replacement chemicals, too.

BB wars were forbidden but I did bring down a lot of sparrows with my BB gun.