Things you did or tried to do in your youth (that were a bit daft)

We used to make shoelace darts at school. This involved cutting the plastic end off your shoelace, with about 10mm of fabric left hanging off the end. A large pin was then pushed through so the fluffy end of the shoelace became a flight. These could be fired with any common or garden Bic pen peashooter.

How none of us lost an eye or contracted Septicaemia I’ll never know.

It’s like Strava really – two edged sword – sometimes it’s nice to let the world see whta you’ve done, others you just want to muck about in the woods.

I suspect a lot of our ‘endeavours’ would have been banned as soon as footage came to light, tbh.

We held competitions to see who could stare at the sun for the longest time

and yes, I do now wear quite strong glasses

Disappointed not to have found any zut zuts on Youtube.

A mate of mine built a shoulder launched spud bazooka recently. He plumbled in an oxy-aecetaline cylinder to provide propellant and used a piezoelectric gas cooker lighter to provide the ignition. The bazooka itself was made from steel tube with one end welded shut.

Apparently it’ll send a spud a good two hundred and fifty yards…

My mate is 34.

your mate, earlier;

edit; this is a 30kg lid being fired 200m by an oxy-acetylene canon. gosh.

Ate some Deadly Nightshade. 🙁

PJM, he should go to America, IIRC theres a massive competition circuit for spud firing!

Lawn darts, from the back garden to the front garden, over a house.

Couldn’t see a problem with it at the time.

they seem to have lots of names now, not just Dutch arrows.

They were ‘scotch arrows’ when I was a kid. We made them out of real arrows.

A mate of mine built a shoulder launched spud bazooka recently

I really should have a go at that at some point.

Jelly cubes thrown onto the ceiling above the teacher’s desk take approximately 15 minutes before they lose purchase and fall on said teacher’s head.

That one was fun momentarily.

Anyone else ever make zut zuts?
Plastic milk bottle crate hung from a tree. Set fire to plastic milk bottle crate. Eventually blobs of molten plastic will start to rain down going “ZUT! ZUT!” as they fall. Dare your mate to stick his hand under the falling zuts.

I have a line of three scar blobs still on my hand from an incident involving plastic bags, a tree branch and fire, n i was holding the bloody thing myself. I was 11 when this happened, i’m now 28 and the scars are still very visible and a constant reminder of my idiocy genius.

Turned on, tuned in, droppped out.

Handy “Swiss Arrow” instructional video for your kids:

I wanted to see how far I’d get along the road with my eyes closed on my Raleigh Team Banana road bike. I opened my eyes on the roof/bonnet of a mk1 VW Polo. The owner came out of his garden and helped me off and let me go on my way. Hobbling, with bent front wheel.

Handy “Swiss Arrow” instructional video

Wow, there’s a man who likes the sound of his own voice. I’d hate to see him explain anything complicated.

We did the arrow thing but called them flechets. Posh us kids from Salford. I almost kebabed* a golden labrador on the top field once.

*not really a verb and certainly not a euphemism!

I’ve remembered something else…

We once managed to make an electrical fire extinguisher explode (through the application of an axe) in a wooded area near our village.

Queue 3 14 year olds covered in white powder, unable to breath, and running in various directions to find fresh air.

Wow, there’s a man who likes the sound of his own voice.

Yep! Wadsworth Constant applies.

On a side note, my dad was a chemist* and refused to tell me how to make nitroglycerin.

I would have had other ‘hilarious’ stories to add if he had told me some ‘recipes’…although if he had told me how to make nitro you’d have probably already heard of it as ‘The Explosion that Rocked leafy Hampshire’.

*not a pharmacist

Wow, there’s a man who likes the sound of his own voice.

American, by any chance?

If you step on a rake it does exactly as happens in the cartoons. And don’t snort pepper to see if it makes you sneeze.

GrahamS – Member

Handy “Swiss Arrow” instructional video for your kids:

Love the way he repeats “weapon” as often as possible,do you think he may have a well stocked ‘bunker’ somewhere in the woods?

After a now legendary night out in Stowmarket 18 years ago, we decided that we would catch a duck and release it into my friends bedroom. My friends house backed onto a river. So at 4:00am one summer’s morning I jumped into the river and waded after a duck. to my surprise I caught one and it was duly released into the face of my sleeping friend.

It went mental, stood on his chest flapping in his face. He absolutely crapped himself.

In a vain drunken attempt to rehabilitate the duck we placed it in the kitchen in a pan of water with some bread. But it was still terrified. We then shooed it back to the river

I haven’t continued to treat animals so cruelly, and I am partly ashamed, but it was hilarious. The next time we ‘got’ him no animals were harmed. We simply crushed all his pop tarts up and put the segments under his sheet. This induced the same amount of rage as the duck incident and seeing him try to sweep off the segments from his bed in vain was hilarious.

don’t snort pepper to see if it makes you sneeze.

Good work. I suggest you google “Cinnamon Challenge” next time you are pissed 😀

Love the way he repeats “weapon” as often as possible

Especially as they are clearly TOYS, not weapons.

Papa_Lazarou – Member
We held competitions to see who could stare at the sun cheap pornography like razzle for the longest time

and yes, I do now wear quite strong glasses

FTFY

Allsorts.

DIY abseiling the local chalk quarry.

Monster rope swing under the railway bridge in said quarry.

Personal fave was Pugskiing – all you need is a 205 GTi, roof bars, ski clamps, skis & boots, a driver & a willing participant. Lock ’em in place & see how fast the Pug is travelleng when they finally bottle it & bang on the roof.

DezB – Member
Love the way he repeats “weapon” as often as possible
Especially as they are clearly TOYS, not weapons.

Quite. All this H&S derived Nerf nonsense, where’s the fun in that? 😀

We convinced our science teacher to allow us to tidy the store cupboard at the end of term one time.

Of course we just wanted a free run on all the materials needed to make things explode – magnesium, iron filings etc.

Just remember another one – shit-stick wars.
Find a nice long flexy bit of birch. About 5 foot long, I think. Go to clay pits with your mates. Grab cricket ball sized lumps of clay and mould them to the top of your shit stick … FIRE!
We used to do this, one group against another, or (more fun cos it involved being chased by adults) fire them over the local factory fence trying to hit cars and lorries in the car park. “DONG!” HIT!

Personal fave was Pugskiing – all you need is a 205 GTi, roof bars, ski clamps, skis & boots, a driver & a willing participant. Lock ’em in place & see how fast the Pug is travelleng when they finally bottle it & bang on the roof.

I used to work with a guy who represented the UK in speed skiing competitions and that was part of his training.

Anyone else participate in cardboard box sledging?

When it’s hot and the grass is long and dry on a very steep slope, sit on the flattened box and sledge downhill.

Sides of Winnats Pass used to be a favourite and a big slope in the local woods with a stream at the bottom – hang on as long as you dare, first to land in the water loses.

Anyone else participate in cardboard box sledging?

Yeah – used to get too hot to stay on by about two thirds down the local slope.

I used to work with a guy who represented the UK in speed skiing competitions and that was part of his training.

Training? That was terrifying even back then. I guess he didn’t have a driver who thought cornering or braking hard was part of the deal.

Aged five myself and a friend were kicking a ball around the small field opposite our houses. I managed to hoof the ball over a fence and an irate gardner duly appears screaming at us and refusing to answer my simple “can I have my ball back, please?” questions. The subsequent “Pop! Hiss…” told me all I needed to know.

A few hours later our parents caught us using leaves to launch dog eggs over the fence, having already sent a good dozen or so Tony Blairs on their way. I couldn’t figure out why the inevitable telling off we got was so light.

Apparently my father had once chinned the bloke after a prior altercation involving my elder brother.

pparently my father had once chinned the bloke

Ohh that’s a whole new thread there…. (mine never chinned anyone but did some bloody funny things to friends’ parents).

Sides of Winnats Pass … with a stream at the bottom

Did the stream at the bottom not get rid of those, then?

My Dad was (and still is) an exceptionally angry man. Until the age of fourteen I thought it was entirely normal for a family drive on a Sunday to involve your father getting out of the car to thump whoever it was who was blamed for causing the inevitable traffic jam.

My Dad’s language was always at it’s worst in the car 🙂

+1 for grass sledging