Wow yall did some bad things, I can admit to something I did last year. Me and my friend had the idea to fill a water bottle with sardines and put it in the ceiling of our school, we added cottage cheese to make the mix more potent then went in the bathroom and hid it in the ceiling tile. One of the people we thought was our friend snitched so the mixture didn’t get to smelling bad but needless to say we both got in trouble

I remember four of us on a bike with a banana seat and ape hanger handle bars. Myself and my cousin were 12, my 13 yr old buddy and his 11 yr old brother. Frankie, the 13 yr old was a big strong farm boy so we made him pedal and we were moving along pretty good. I was sitting on the handle bar when it let loose and pitched me forward. I did a good imitation of an Olympic sprinter and managed to save the family jewels.

Black walnut tree and wrist rockets will leave a mark.

And speaking of marks I carried one on my right butt cheek from a bb gun dare.

used to go up by the airport with the wrist rocket and round smoke bombs. at the end of the runway there was a crick with a culvert on it. lite a cigarette to lite the smoke bomb when a plane came in. fire at the plane, when you heard the helicopter coming duck into the Colvert, it would be the state police.flir couldn't see us underground!
no fence around the airport, bunch of us would run our dirt bikes on the runways. ride wheelies the length of them.airport had a old cj5 they would send out to chase us, but they couldn't chase all of us at the same time.

When I was 13 our dad left us. Mom did not drive and there were 6 of us, me being the 2nd oldest. We had no transportation or enough money to buy coal so I took our big homelite chain saw and with no safety equipment or trainging cut smaller trees for fire wood. So several dumb things for sure. No training or safety and burning green wood . That was our last winter and we made it through and by the next winter we had scattered to different places and I went on my own to work while attending HS. That part was not dumb however.

Bryce

12 or 13 my cousin and I decided to color the boar pig. We got all the colored chalk we could find and proceeded to colored the whole hog. When I say whole... I mean WHOLE.

Unbeknownst to us our uncle was watching from the hay loft.

We had just finished up when this gruff voice came from behind us. "You 2 are gonna give that pig a bath."

He walked out holding 2 tooth brushes and a cup of water. Told us this is what we had to use, and to not dump the water all over. We had to scrub it clean. It all was going good until we got to the gibblies.

Picture one 12 year old trying to hold down a squealing 600 lb hog while the other scrubbed its' nuts with a tooth brush. We both came out of that fight with scars. Ohh and we weren't allowed back in the house with the messy clothes. Had to go to the spring, strip completely down and wash. Then we had to walk along the road butt naked back to the house because our aunt wouldn't allow our clothes in the house.

One of the first things I thought of....my ears still ring 70 years later. Rock fights, BB gun fights, playing with matches and gasoline too. I guess I am lucky to have survived some of it.

As kids we would crawl on the steel girders of a bridge above the Mississippi River at night catching pigeons with a landing net. We would put them in a burlap sack and sell them for .25 cents each to a local lab breeder for training. It was about 100 feet above the river. If you ever fell it shallow filled with huge sharp rocks. It was a sure death.

At the age of 4 . . . . neighborhood kids had a contest. Who could climb up the flag pole across the street and touch the gold ball on top.

Flagpoles back then had two bars attached to the pole several feet above the ground extending outward from the pole at an angle to wrap the rope around. One pointed up, the other down.

Well, I made it to the top, touched the gold ball, and lost my grip. To this day I can recall my hands on fire as I slid down.

Didn't make it to the ground. Got hung up on that bar sticking up at an angle. It impaled my side, broke a couple of ribs, and punctured my lung. Stay at home Mom heard the screams from across the street and came running. I can also recall her in the back of the ambulance holding her hands over my gaping wound, crying and praying.

Spent quite awhile in the hospital. Full recovery I 'spose. 68 years later the scar looks like this.



As a young fella and well into my teenage years the true story of how it occurred evolved into harrowing escapes from alligators, bears, whatever.

Mom and I have had many walks back through time now that she's in her 90s and Dad is gone. She's filled in the pieces and I've apologized for being a dumb 4 year-old, which causes both of us to laugh together.

Aside from BB gun and wrist rocket fights, well, I think that's the dumbest thing I did as a kid.

Fell through the ice numerous times trapping and ice fishing, but that's not dumb, that's just part of the program, eh?