I used to be able to hoot like a owl through my cupped hands. Also, I could fall from trees and remain unscathed. Neither are possible anymore 🙁

I could ride no-handed too, which I can just about manage but I think that is more a geometry thing than an Ambrose-failing (correct me if I’m wrong, I probably am…) I could never wheelie but used to be able to do a mean stoppie, alas no more.

Biggest regret though- I could never get the fingers in the mouth whistle thing. Uber loud and piercing, but all I got was spit and a hiss of warm air.

Holy crap dude, I can still do all of those things, except the falling out of trees unscathed.. I can’t even fall out of bed unscathed..

I have lost the ability to wheelie in a controlled manner, which is depressing as it was a hard won skill the first time around, taking many long hot summers and abandoned and then later rekindled hopes.. Also used to be able to convert a good stoppie endo into a respectable flatland routine (for a young kid in the early 80s) or a 180 bunnyhop.. I’d really like to get to grips with those skills again

I could never do the fingers in the mouth to whistle. I won’t feel like a true man until I master this this.
Evening my **** wife can do it.

wheelies
skateboarding
Whistling

For me, it’s really just the ability to move without fear of putting my back out. I can still do many of my old party tricks, including the somewhat gross one of letting a long string of saliva fall out of one corner of my mouth, then sucking it in and letting it fall out the other side so it looks like ‘saliva floss’. It’s hard to explain, but trust me when I say it impresses the girls my 9 year-old boy to no end.

Skateboarding- I tried it once, fell off and damaged my pride so much I never returned. I can do the stringy saliva thing though. And I can block veins in the back of my hands with a fingertip and thus empty them distally- and then gross people out when I release the valve and allow the vessel to refill. Women scream at this, a skill easily learned.

I can do the owl thing.

Never managed to be able to whistle using fingers though.

Just tried the owl thing. It took a few goes, but I got there in the end. Very relieved..

Skateboarding. Now graduated to a RipStik which seems to impress the yoof at the park.

Flicking the side of your cheek to make a ‘drop of water’ sound – just checked, still can do it. It’s going to be a good week.

I can still do the owl thing.

Being brought up on a farm means I learnt how to do the finger whistle thing at a young age. Can still do it but it might take two goes as there isnt much call to stay in practice in the office environment. I can do it with one hand with finger and thumb as well as two hands/two/four fingers which is even more heroic IMO.

I cant crack my knuckles anymore though.

Oh man, I can still do LOADS – owl whistles, loud whistels, grass kazoo blowing, making leaves go bang etc etc. It helps I spend my life helping today’s kidz to learn such life skills.
I can wheelie for further, but my jumping is worse.

I used to be able to dislocate my thumb, just for fun. Now it just bloody hurts.

top party trick as a teenager was I used to be able to “snort” a condom up my nose and pull it back round out my mouth from the back of my throat, holding on to the rubber band bit then “squeegee my sinuses” with it. Well I didnt have any other use for a condom as apparently this party trick did not endear me to girlz for some reason 🙁

Flicking the side of your cheek to make a ‘drop of water’ sound

Oh yeah, I can do that too. I blame Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

I could complete the Rubik’s Cube in around 45 seconds.

I can only do the upper face, middle dots and top row now.

Ohh, and I could force my face to go really bright red and make all the veins stick out. Then I tried to ‘hold’ it once for someone to take a picture and I fainted so have never done it since.

matt_oaa – how do you make leaves go bang?

Got the fingers whistling up to “**** hell, stop it!” levels for anyone within a few feet.

Even more usefully, can whistle pretty loud with my tongue making the v rather than fingers. Hands free “heads up!”, very useful on the bike. the smae whisle can start really quite low, and when brought up in tone slowly to a high whistle, sounds a great deal like a singing kettle. Party trick ON LOCK.

Rubbish at long wheelies. Shoulder is also rubbish at not hurting, which is getting in the way of a lot at the moment. 🙁

Edit: oh, and I can play “when the saints come marching in” by blowing across the top of a bottle.

Grass kazoo .
Owl hoot.
Under arm fart.
Old telephone ring (chirrup?)tone.
Hand suction pump noise ( no,not that) just squeeze them together really fast.
My wheelies are still rubbish ,but my manuals and feet up slides are getting better.

😉

Oh ,and did anyone ever use car tyre dust caps to whistle.
Now,that was some noise 🙂

finger whistle tick
grass/pheasant thing tick
owl thing never
wheelies nope no bottle these days also prob an SPD disaster waiting to happen
canoe wheelies a bit with wave help
shoot a catapult without getting thumb in the way.OOOwww

matt_oaa – how do you make leaves go bang?

Pop em like crisp packets! Over your hand as a sound box… blimey things we used to get up to, it’s like, because of the ‘net & gaming, part of our culture is dying!

Popping Smartie tube caps.

Jumping on TetraPac juice cartons – went off like explosions.

Express melting ice lollies to drink the juice.

Crushing crisp packets to ‘drink’ the crisps. Nom nom.
Tetra pacs (Jubblies?) behind parked car tyres so that when teecher reversed out it went BANG.
I can still do both- and make dripping tap noises and exploding leaves.

Did anyone else do weedkiller explosions? Sodium chlorate and sugar?

Did anyone else do weedkiller explosions? Sodium chlorate and sugar?

Yup, but nitrogen tri iodide was my preferred childhood explosive – ammonia and iodine, great fun painted on things because it dries to leave a very sensitive contact explosive.

Various experimental stink bombs with sulphur were also fun.

And gunpowder of course. And guncotton.

Now I write all that down it doesn’t seem so normal.