Seemed like a good idea at the time

I’m sitting at my computer trying to do some work and I’m bored so……<o></o><o></o>


As a teenager (many many summers ago!) I read WW2 books avidly. One of the things that struck was KP, especially the peeling of spuds as a punishment (don’t ask me why that stuck out – it just didn’t seem like punishment). Anyway, wanting to find out whether peeling a mountain (actually more a molehill) was all that bad, I asked my mother whether I could carry out this experiment. Well, after laughing at me for several minutes, she poo-pooed the idea. But she did suggest that I volunteer at the local Sikh temple. One of the tenents of the Sikh faith is charity, and Sikh temples offer free lunches and dinners to everyone, whether Sikh or not. Anyway, off I trotted to offer my services, and specificly asked if I could peel the potatoes. You can imagine the looks I got but they readily agreed. So the molehill definitely turned into a mountain. Five hours of peeling later, my search for knowledge was sated. Apart from the appreciations from the elderly Sikh ladies who volunteered regularly (by appreciation I mean a lot of pinching of cheeks!), I definitely understood why it was deemed a punishment. Even now I cook spuds with the skin on!<o></o><o></o>

Anyway my question is – has anyone else done anything similar to test something they’ve read (or am I the only one who was daft enough to doubt the written word?)? <o></o>

 

I was a sweet little 7 year old. My friends and I had seen a old film over the weekend set in a circus, where people could walk on their hands. So in gym class that week we decided to give it a go. All was going brilliantly until one of the lads decided to do a cartwheel, slammed into me as i was doing a handstand, I went over sideways, landed on my shoulder, and spent the next 6 weeks in a sling with a broken collarbone. It hurt.

 

Seemed like a good idea at the time


Is this a thread about first wifes?

 

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the anecdotes – just proves young people are mad. I’m sure though that I was completely insane as a kid. Couple of other things that I did:
<o></o>
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1)<!--[endif]-->making “grenades” and “napalm” – in my defence I was 10 or 11. The grenades were made by emptying several fireworks into a container and blowing it up! Napalm – hair gel and petrol (doesn’t burn but stinks like hell!)
<o></o>
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2)<!--[endif]-->At about 12 or 13, wrote to the local TA depot asking if I could have a copy of the Geneva Convention (after reading too many POW stories where the valiant RAF prisoner being interrogated by the Gestapo pulls out a copy from his pocket), with a p.s. asking if I could have some bullets. Received a very nice reply stating the GC wasn’t available but did get some inerts and some blanks in the post (definitely wouldn’t happen nowadays). As an experiment, I heated one the blanks, which exploded, and I still have the scar above my right eyebrow.
<o></o>
It’s a wonder I’m still alive – oh, must go, matron says it’s time for my pills.
<o></o>
Owen D – Top Gear has a lot to answer for including tight jeans and teeth whiteners
Kitty – I don’t think most kids nowadays know what a cartwheel is
David – First wives – no. Second and third – well, lessons should have been learnt!! :p

 

Seemed like a good idea at the time


Is this a thread about first wifes?


No, getting married for the second time!

 

i try almost everything i see.

I've tried to front flip off school climbing frames, make explosives, jump out of moving cars etc

 

O.K. Let me set the scene. When my Father returned from the war we moved to a village situated on the old A 1. I am sure you can picture it, nice quiet English village in the mid 50's.

When my Dad came home one of his souvenir's that he bought with him was some bags of dye that aircrew carried with them.

In the eventuality of a ditching they would hang the dye over the side of their life rafts, the dye would spread over a huge area staining the sea for a large area around them and hopefully making themselves more visible for searching aircraft.

Well you know how curious young boys can be. I took just a few crystals from one of the bags that had "accidentally" split open and headed for the village pond.

The pond was large for a village pond, it had been used for years as the watering place for work horses, was a favourite village fishing spot and standing at the top of Pond Street was something of a local beauty spot.

As soon as I put the dye crystals in the water I knew I had messed up. It grew like a living thing in front of my eyes, spreading over the pond at a speed you wouldn't believe. Turning the whole thing into a red/orange mess.

I beat a hasty retreat and didn't see the pond again until the next day when I got off the school bus. I stood with the old men who were gathered around and listened to them "eee by gum" etc. and realised I was in the clear.

Of course the truth came out within the family who soon put two and two together and I am sure I was punished for it. To this day we still laugh and talk about it.

Sadly the pond is no longer there, but Pond Street is and whenever I am back in that part of the world I always remember it and laugh.

 

Nice story!

 

Does climbing trees and then forgetting the route up and having to let go to get down again count? And gettign caught in barbed wire fences? Applying only the front brake of a bike by accident and then going over the handlebars.....
The number of scars I have is unbeleivable.

 

Does climbing trees and then forgetting the route up and having to let go to get down again count?

Ah, the old 'parachuting without the parachute' trick!

 

I am forever astonished that I survived childhood. The idiotic things we used to do with our .22 caliber squirrel rifles make me shudder today.

One of our haunts was an old camp on a small lake (country boy here). One of us would hide inside, usually in a closet or under a bed, while the others would fire from outside into the building.

When a bit older (and I'll never tell just how much older, but obviously not much smarter), I was walking in the woods with my Winchester lever rifle, cal. .30-30, searching for a suitable target. It was winter, but with little snow on the ground. I fired at a log, part of a fallen tree, about 20 yards distant. The outside inch of the log was soft and rotten, the interior frozen. The bullet landed at my feet.

JT

 

our .22 caliber squirrel rifles

I didn't know you could make rifles out of squirrels - which end do the bullets come out of? :p

 

I didn't know you could make rifles out of squirrels - which end do the bullets come out of? :p

Same end they come out of in deer rifles and elephant guns.:biggrin:

JT

 

Please insert your own Basil Brush imitation here.

Been sat thinking about this whilst reading a really interesting, honest guv, journal article, but I spent almost the entire first half of 2005 trespassing, breaking and entering, thieving, blagging, blackmailing, flirting and generally conning people into doing stuff or letting me do other stuff for a huge WW2 display.
I never did find that Wimpy wheel either.....