View Full Version : What Did You Do When You Were 12, That Today Would Be A Crime...?
I owned my own handgun, with ammo, that was in my room. I think this would now be a felony in every state.
I was in physical possession of machine guns that obviously were not registered to me. Not sure if having complete access to such things is actually a crime or not, but I imagine it probably is.
I carried a Buck 110 knife.
My friends and I went camping by ourselves without any adults.
I would regularly be left alone on weekends during the summer.
At school during lunch, I would sometimes leave the property and walk down the street to buy a coke and microwave burrito at the 7-11.
I didn't have the first two, but I did have a 30-30 and ammo in my room after age 10.
I didn't carry a Buck 110, but I had a big ass Buck folder I carried every day, even to school.
Left alone on weekends, Hell my parents left me and my 10 y.o. brother for a week with only the neighbor checking on us once a day.
We had open campus. Come and go as we pleased pretty much. I road my dirt bike and snowmobile to school.
At the age of 11 I had my own motorcycle. I ranged over 15 miles in all directions from our house.
I would wake up at 6am and take my dad's boat out on the lake to fish without any supervision.
I honestly don't know if these things are even illegal today where I live. My son who graduated two years ago pretty much did the same thing. He earned his first handgun at 12 by doing all the underfloor plumbing for a remodel a friend was doing. I know we left them at home at least a couple nights with his sisters. No open campus any more, but he did ride his dirt bike and snowmobile to school. He got busted for a knife at school when he was in 8th grade. Rather than expel him, the principal asked him to explain why he had it. His excuse was that his grandma said every man should carry a knife. He carried that knife (so did my daughters) every day they went to school. Cool principal, and the new one is equally cool.
Moose-Knuckle
04-26-16, 03:49
I owned my own handgun, with ammo, that was in my room. I think this would now be a felony in every state.
Well it would be a felony for your parents/legal guardians.
I was in physical possession of machine guns that obviously were not registered to me. Not sure if having complete access to such things is actually a crime or not, but I imagine it probably is.
So you caught the NFA bug from your father, that is cool as hell.
Ready.Fire.Aim
04-26-16, 05:52
I worked after school and weekends on the farm since I was about 6. Not everyday but most days, especially in winter when feeding hay and summers bailing hay.
No little league, no soccer. We did have 4H which was fun and learned how to do things. I remember learning how to sew on buttons and mend clothes - was proud I never had to ask mom after that. I still sew on my buttons thinking of that 4H session.
Operated machinery, tractors, hay bailer, etc. Drove a manual shift pickup truck routinely off highway. Learned how to back a trailer about 12. Most all the boys I knew did these things, nothing special.
Did a lot of home veterinary work at 12, especially pulling stuck calves. I learned how to stick my arm up inside a heifers birth canal to straighten a calf. Also learned how to painlessly kill animals to butcher or kill an old cow that was feeble & dying with a machinist hammer. Life and death was real, routine, & first hand knowledge at 12.
Had my own single shot shotgun and .22. I carried a Schrade knife. All before 12.
Hunted squirrels, ducks, and ran trot lines with like minded buddies. We went everywhere on bicycles in our free time.
If we were going to be gone past dark then mom wanted to know where we were going.
Parents never saw any obligation to entertain or indulge us. That was a good way to raise kids.
I don't know anyone that got an allowance but we were all allowed to work for money. Mow yards & haul hay were the two most common, sometimes work like painting buildings came available for kids. The local grocery & feed store usually had a kid hired to sweep up and do odd jobs.
If we got caught crossing the line then physical punishment with a belt taught consequence.
At school functions kids were expected to WORK- setup, cleanup, operate popcorn machines, cook hotdogs etc- adults only supervised and did not lift a finger. Although a few years older than 12 at the time I remember being in a church youth group in which we had to clean toilets at the church hall; in 4H and FFA we cleaned the toilets at the county fair barn during rodeo week. Both girls and boys were expected to work hard doing nasty, scut work.
It was a better world to grow up in.
"At school during lunch, I would sometimes leave the property and walk down the street to buy a coke and microwave burrito at the 7-11"
Kids... Microwaves and 7-11 not around when I was 12. Black powder was though. I'd rather not talk about it.
When I was 9 I got my 1st BB gun. That next year I'd walk through the neighborhood shooting birds and pine cones along my way to the woods to shoot. We also had BB gun wars in the woods around our house. There would be a bunch of us kids shooting each other all day. My neighborhood backed up to a training area of Ft. Bragg so most of the time we were out there shooting. There was also a SF demonstration area there that as 8-9 graders we would go out to and rappel off of the tower there. We'd spend hours there having a blast. I'm sure we did a bunch of other things that would be illegal now or at least get us or our parents in a ton of trouble.
Auto-X Fil
04-26-16, 07:20
Lots of pipe bombs.
I carried a knife at school every day.
I kept a rifle in my car at school when I was a senior.
I took a handgun into NYS, because crossing the border was the easiest way to get from my g/f house in PA to my house, also in PA. That WAS a felony at the time, I just didn't know it!
Switchblade. Big-ass Buck folder. When I was a kid fireworks were illegal in NC, but I managed to get them on vacation.
"At school during lunch, I would sometimes leave the property and walk down the street to buy a coke and microwave burrito at the 7-11"
Kids... Microwaves and 7-11 not around when I was 12. Black powder was though. I'd rather not talk about it.
Yeah...piece of tube...couple end caps...100 ft extension cord with the female end cut off...
We are lucky to be alive, growing up back then.
Now that I think about it, most of what I did that's illegal today, was probably illegal back then.
FromMyColdDeadHand
04-26-16, 08:47
Tried to kiss 12 year old girls.
Not a lot of things that would get me in trouble, more for my parents.
I think we are all here because the Grim Reaper was in overload mode with all the stuff people did and let the little stuff slide.
'One for the road', sweet Jesus.
Averageman
04-26-16, 10:01
We used to ride our bikes 12 miles one way to go swimming, that doesn't sound like much until you understand these were Schwinn Stingray's. Single speed bikes some with banana seat and chopper forks and sissy bars.
Camping was a big thing, at one time or another we were likely all Boy Scouts, so we thought we had a clue.
Stealing Beers out of the Kegorator at my buddies house.
Shooting untold thousands of rounds of .22 with no adults for miles.
A bomb we made out of Ohio Blue Tip Matches, I think we had about five boxes of Match heads in one when my Dad walked in and went ballistic. Of course it not being safe for 12 year olds, he set it off.
All kinds of odd jobs. I remember taking a fireplace apart brick by brick and starting on the roof and working my way down through the chimney.
We used to go down to the junk yard and gather bike parts until we had enough to make a second or third Stingray.
Games we made up, similar to tag or hide and seek, but you played at night in the jacked up side of town and stayed out until Midnight or so.
Jumping Bikes and sleds over ramps.
Games of baseball that might last several dozen innings.
Fun Stuff.
Outlander Systems
04-26-16, 10:29
Rode dirtbikes on the road.
Pretty sure if I pulled that shit today, I'd get a Hellfire enema.
I owned my own handgun, with ammo, that was in my room. I think this would now be a felony in every state.
I was in physical possession of machine guns that obviously were not registered to me. Not sure if having complete access to such things is actually a crime or not, but I imagine it probably is.
I carried a Buck 110 knife.
My friends and I went camping by ourselves without any adults.
I would regularly be left alone on weekends during the summer.
At school during lunch, I would sometimes leave the property and walk down the street to buy a coke and microwave burrito at the 7-11.
You would be good to go with your pistol here in Vermont. You could not buy it but you can posess it with a parents permission. You can buy one at 16, private sale, but can't buy handgun ammo until 21. That's a federal law/regulation, right?
§ 4007. Furnishing firearms to children
A person, firm or corporation, other than a parent or guardian, who sells or furnishes to a minor under the age of 16 years a firearm or other dangerous weapon or ammunition for firearms shall be fined not more than $50.00 nor less than $10.00. This section shall not apply to an instructor or teacher who furnishes firearms to pupils for instruction and drill.
§ 4008. Possession of firearms by children
A child under the age of 16 years shall not, without the consent of his or her parents or guardian, have in his or her possession or control a pistol or revolver constructed or designed for the use of gunpowder or other explosive substance with leaden ball or shot. A child who violates a provision of this section shall be deemed a delinquent child under the provisions of chapter 52 of Title 33.
You can have a switchblade here in VT too if it's under 3" I know Benchmade makes a 2.9" switchblade.
§ 4013. Zip guns; switchblade knives
A person who possesses, sells or offers for sale a weapon commonly known as a "zip" gun, or a weapon commonly known as a switchblade knife, the blade of which is three inches or more in length, shall be imprisoned not more than 90 days or fined not more than $100.00, or both. (1959, No. 151, eff. May 5, 1959; amended 1981, No. 223 (Adj. Sess.), § 23.)
Another latchkey kid here. Plenty of stuff I did was already illegal. Just didn't get caught. I got lucky. Like when I tried homebrew nitro-glycerin at age 10... didn't turn out well.
Other things like riding a bike without a helmet, the knife carrying, calling someone a fag.... you know. All the normal stuff.
I'm not admitting to any of that stuff on the internet…
My list would be long and include most of what was already mentioned. I didn't stick my arm up any cow's birth canal, but I don't think that was illegal then or now. I think most of what I (we…) did was highly illegal back then, but just more likely to be prosecuted now.
Of course I never rode dirt bikes on other people's property back in the old days, but if people did, they'd just take off when the 5-O showed up. Now they have dirk bike mounted officers that can go anywhere you can go, and some of them can ride too.
Our BB gun fights that we never engaged in would have had strict rules:
1. No face.
2. Two pumps only, except for Robby. His BB gun was old and underpowered. He could do 3-4 pumps. Hypothetically...
3. No close range shots.
BB gunning passers-by in the ass and then running and hiding, would never have crossed my mind either.
Hunting the pigeons that ate my dogs food in the back yard with a home made blow gun is illegal behavior that I would never have engaged in. And I have no idea how dead pigeons with shish-ka-bob skewers with cotton balls rolled on to their ends stuck in them ended up in the backyard of the little old ladies who lived kitty-corner to us and fed the pigeons… After being accused of such murderous behavior, the culprit of the great pigeon massacre of '79 began tying 50' of dental floss to the end of his blow gun darts and loading them from the front end of the pvc pipe, so they could be retrieved after a shot. So I heard around the neighborhood...
And I'd never admit to making tennis ball bombs with strike anywhere match stick heads, gun powder and duct tape. And I would have no way of knowing that if you threw it against the wall at your school the effect was much more spectacular at night.
I never had rocket fights with screaming bottle rockets that exploded at the end of the flight. That would have been dangerous and surely illegal.
My whole family never drove one town over to buy illegal "safe and sane" fireworks at 4th of July either. Further every house on my entire street didn't blatantly light them off one by one while the cops and firemen stood by with a frustrated look on their faces. That would have been against the law if we had done that.
And of course I never flushed any M-80s with waterproof fuses. That would be totally illegal. And destructive too.
Throwing water balloons at moving cars from trees of friends roof tops, would never have happened.
I never pulled down strings of people's Christmas lights and stomped all the bulbs in the middle of the night either.
And no pumpkin smashing at Halloween for me.
.22 target practice with a cinderblock wall as a backstop in an urban back yard would not have been safe, quiet, or legal in any way.
No. I was an innocent kid. Never did any of that sort of thing. Pure as the driven snow, I was. Well… I might have J-walked once or twice, but none of this other really bad stuff...
Another latchkey kid here. Plenty of stuff I did was already illegal. Just didn't get caught. I got lucky. Like when I tried homebrew nitro-glycerin at age 10... didn't turn out well.
Other things like riding a bike without a helmet, the knife carrying, calling someone a fag.... you know. All the normal stuff.
Did you ever try painting designs in the cast iron bathtub with Lysol and then lighting one end?
"What's that smell?", parents would ask when they came home…
"Nothing. I just sprayed some Lysol after using the bathroom. You should thank me!" "By the way, we need more Lysol…"
When i was 9 my parents would leave me to babysit my little sister while they went out for the evening. If my aunt and uncle went then I would also babysit my cousin who was 2 years younger.
Carried a Gerber pocket knife/tool to junior high and high school.
Had rifles in my trunk in high school. This was already illegal and frowned upon but you weren't instantly a felon. Cops still had discretion
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
Rode dirtbikes on the road.
Pretty sure if I pulled that shit today, I'd get a Hellfire enema.
When I was 14 I scored a job with a boss that made me arrive at 6am. I had to ride my dirt bike about 15 miles to get to his place. 10 of it was along our rural 2 lane highway. One day I got tired of riding the bumpy trail along side it, so I pulled up onto the pavement. No traffic at 5:30am so I decided to try and wheelie slalom the dashed lines on one of the straight stretches. I did good and pulled off a 1 miles wheelie through them. As soon as my front tire hit the pavement I heard the siren... shit... pulled over by the local State Trooper. No point in running, he knew exactly who I was. As he walked up he said, "if you hadn't missed one, I would have let you go".. I got a stern warning and he let me go. 33 years later he told that story to my folks at some local get together..he never did rat me out as a kid.
33 years later he told that story to my folks at some local get together..he never did rat me out as a kid.
I've been dropping bombs like that on my Mom for years now too. She had no idea what was going on back then.
I dunno about illegal but stuff I did would get really, really frowned on now.
BB gun fights, rock fights, playing "Evel Knievel", and stuff like that.
brickboy240
04-26-16, 12:00
I carried a Buck 110 as well. Still have the damn thing too! LOL
We used to strap our Marlin Model 60 22s to our backs, take a few 50rd boxes of 22 rounds and ride our bikes through the neighborhood to the empty fields and woods and go shooting. We were about 10-12 years old. No parents at all..just us kids. Nobody batted an eye at 4-6 young boys on BMX bikes with 22s slung over their shoulders, either.
We also used to take lawn darts and sharpen them on dad's bench grinder and throw them a trees and wood fences.
(this was in the mid 70s in the far Dallas unincorporated burbs)
...big fun!
You know....I wish to add that movies like Goonies and Stand by Me weren't so farfetched in those days.
Kids weren't so bad. Now they are all getting pregnant or into dope
I've been dropping bombs like that on my Mom for years now too. She had no idea what was going on back then.
My mother worked at my high school. She thought I was just the perfect little student. Years late--MANY years later :)--I told her about the booze we kept in the school paper's darkroom, and about how much I skipped class. She was none the wiser.
Another latchkey kid here. Plenty of stuff I did was already illegal. Just didn't get caught. I got lucky. Like when I tried homebrew nitro-glycerin at age 10... didn't turn out well.
My neighbor's dad, the history teacher at the high school and a retired SF soldier, had some books he gave me. One of which was a Special Forces manual that had a device in which you took a coffee can, taped a toilet roll in the middle, fill it with gun powder, fill the container around that with nails, screws...you get the idea. My buddy (his son) and I made one once. Once.
The fact that I did not die is nothing short of existence of a good and merciful God.
The fact that I did not die is nothing short of existence of a good and merciful God.
I have thought this thought many times over the years...
I've been dropping bombs like that on my Mom for years now too. She had no idea what was going on back then.
My mom asked me to stop telling her of former exploits, once I got up to the silliness in my early twenties...
Outlander Systems
04-26-16, 12:55
Classic.
The one time I interacted with an officer, he politely asked that me and my buddies wear helmets if we were gonna ride in the road.
When I was 14 I scored a job with a boss that made me arrive at 6am. I had to ride my dirt bike about 15 miles to get to his place. 10 of it was along our rural 2 lane highway. One day I got tired of riding the bumpy trail along side it, so I pulled up onto the pavement. No traffic at 5:30am so I decided to try and wheelie slalom the dashed lines on one of the straight stretches. I did good and pulled off a 1 miles wheelie through them. As soon as my front tire hit the pavement I heard the siren... shit... pulled over by the local State Trooper. No point in running, he knew exactly who I was. As he walked up he said, "if you hadn't missed one, I would have let you go".. I got a stern warning and he let me go. 33 years later he told that story to my folks at some local get together..he never did rat me out as a kid.
CleverNickname
04-26-16, 14:34
Carried my pocketknife on commercial airline flights.
Averageman
04-26-16, 15:05
Carried my pocketknife on commercial airline flights.
I'm od enough to remember carrying a Ruger Mark I in my checked luggage, never a problem. Oh and I flew in to O'Hare with it.
BoringGuy45
04-26-16, 15:12
-I carried a Swiss Army knife everywhere I went.
-I took karate and owned martial arts weapons like nunchuks, sai, and a bo staff.
-I set off firecrackers on 4th of July.
-Called people things like "retard" "fag" "loser" "fatso" "nerd" etc.
-Got trophies for winning, and no trophies for losing.
-Fought back against bullies.
BoringGuy45
04-26-16, 15:12
**Double Post**
I'm od enough to remember carrying a Ruger Mark I in my checked luggage, never a problem. Oh and I flew in to O'Hare with it.
My god I forgot non declared firearms. I'm sure you were supposed to do it, and I remember my dad doing it with hunting rifles in cases, but I also remember just throwing my Ruger .357 into my suitcase and not worrying about it.
And in 1984 I flew to Germany with a pair of nunchaku in my suitcase. Not sure what the German laws were, but I now realize each time I went through NY I was committing a felony at the time. If they would have opened up my suitcase and looked I could have been in deep doo doo.
BG45 touched on something.
We all hurled some horrid, profane epithets at each other. Calling a dude a fag or saying "racist" things was usually guys taking piss out of each other.
More guys broke out in laughter rather than a fight.
A funny story from when I was 14:
My parents took me and my sister to Colorado every December to snow ski. One year, my parents took my whole dads side and my sister got to bring a friend, there was over 20 people. My sister was 3 years older than me and all my cousins, all 9 of them were older than her, so it was just me and you younger cousin who was 13. My parents had rented a huge bus to take us from airport to the "hotel". When we got to the "hotel", the adults wanted to go into town and eat dinner leaving all the kids at home. All the older kids wanted to watch the new "Romeo + Juliet" with Leonardo that had just came out. So me and my cousin were left out and so we decided to go to the hot tub. We put on our swim suit and without grabbing shoes or even a towel, we walked out side and proceeded the 300' journey to the hot tub. We started walking in knee high snow and had to walk down 4 flights of steps to get to the hot tub. We were frozen to the bone, too late to turn around. My cousin started sprinting towards the hot tub. The light was on in the hot tub and no one was in it. He literally threw his hands in the air as if he was crossing a finish line as he ran down the steps into the hot tub. He never stopped to feel the water, he just "ran" in. He jumped and had a look of misery on his face as he looked back to me, as I was 20 feet behind him barely able to walk with my legs frozen, and shouted, "its not on- its ****ing cold", which it was, I mean, the Titanic sank in warmer waters. He jumped out of the hot tub, with no towels or shoes, we started panicking, looking around we saw another hot tub, this one had a few people in it. It was 200' away. So we proceeded to travel to that hot tub, still walking in knee high snow and my cousin is now wet. Not to mention its 19 degrees out side. About a minute later I was approaching the crowded hot, I noticed something that my cousin didn't. This hot tub was different but I couldn't piece together why. My cousin was desperate, cold and frantic, he walked through the small gate and ran up to the hot tub full of people and straight up cannon balled. Needless to say, he was relieved. Around 3 seconds later, I proceeded to slide into the hot tub and submerge my self. I was relieved, I was warm and this was nice. As I started to look around I noticed there were 3 women who were frantically trying to find there tops, covering there self up in the process. The 2 men in the hot tub were quickly getting out and covering up there naked bodies. There was however a guy in shorts and and a topless women sitting on the edge the whole time laughing hysterical while they were drinking there wine. I was like "OMG", the lady was laughing and asked what we were doing and we told her how the hot tub over there wasn't turned on so we came to this one. She replied, that's fine, but this is a private home and this hot tub belongs to us. We chilled with these people for about 20 minutes, all the men put bathing suits on, and one of the girls put her top back on. The lady offered us wine and food. We laughed about it for about 20 minutes and then she gave us towels and told us to go home and not to tell our parents. Me and my cousin still talk about this today, "remember that hot tub swingers party we crashed?"
Well this one time at church camp I....
Uh...
Hmm..
Said my prayers. Yep. Said my prayers.
I rode a bicycle without a helmet, still do.
Well this one time at church camp I....
got to second base with our pastor's daughter.
Let's just say that I knew a kid, who one night with a group of his buddies carried their empty bowling bags into the local alley, bowled a line or two, then left with the rattiest house balls they could find in their bags. Went to the top of the highest hill on one of the main streets, and rolled the balls down said street toward one of the busiest intersections in their community of about 140,000 people. As the balls picked up speed, they began bouncing, which I'm lead to believe was not in their plan. I'm told they were bouncing high enough that the boys became concerned they would hit the driver of a car, and split the scene of the crime before said balls reached the intersection. I'm told one of the boys spent an extra 10 minutes on his paper route the next morning reading the paper to see if anyone had been killed. So I'm told.
When he was younger this same kid, was an avid BB gun warrior. Unfortunately, he sometimes played with wimps. As a result about once a year his father had the 'I'm disappointed in you, I want you to go over to the B's house and apologize to Tommy and then give Mr. B your BB gun. Tell him to keep it until you are old enough to behave responsibly' talk. This hurt the young man to his essence, for his father seemed genuinely pained by these things. Plus, a good BB gun was a whole month of paper route money. Before it was all over, I believe most of this kid's friends fathers had one of his BB guns.
This same kid's sister tells the story of the time her brother got a questioning look in his eye, as if he was wondering whether a cinnamon toothpick, fired from the bore of a BB gun, would achieve sufficient velocity to actually stick in someone's leg. She claims it does and also that the results of that experiment earned her $5.00 of paper route money for a nondisclosure agreement. Several years later she also traded her chores for an additional nondisclosure agreement when she caught her brother and his girlfriend skipping school to 'clean' his bedroom.
I'm thinking that same kid told me he used to crawl over the fence at the local produce market to get a watermelon or two for him and his buds to snack on after they were done swimming in the University Place pool, which, by the way they accessed by, you got it, climbing over the fence. Never got caught.
I'm told the kid grew up to be a pretty good guy despite his suspect beginnings.
Outlander Systems
04-26-16, 18:50
Smoked cigarettes in Wal*Mart.
You know....I wish to add that movies like Goonies and Stand by Me weren't so farfetched in those days.
Kids weren't so bad. Now they are all getting pregnant or into dope
Chunk, Mikey and mouth didn't have iphones or play stations, they had initiative.
I miss BB gun wars. I was not above hiding out in the woods with my dad's tigers on and bushwacking people. I even toted that one Crossman BB revolver in his tank holster. Those revolvers looked pretty damn real. But meh.
Really I wish I could go back in time for tearing up/losing/ruining his stuff like that and beat myself up. It wasn't until adulthood I realized a lot of that stuff had value.
Also I must admit, all those girls I was really, really mean to were the girls I had the biggest crushes on.
To this day I still don't know how that works.
"Man, Stacy looks so good in that dress. She's really pretty. I like her a lot."
And then you impulsively push her in a mud puddle and toss her books in the garbage.
Or worse yet you think she wants to secretly join in on your personal Vietnam War so you shoot her in the back with 5 pumps. And you think "Ha HA! She's crying! What a girl!"
Then the next thing you know this flash of neon and pastel with a side ponytail is chasing you with a stick and beating the holy bejeezus out of you. Not a lick of tomboy in her but this is your first real ass whipping. But at least it knocked out that loose tooth that was grossing folks out.
Ahh the good ol' days
Smoked cigarettes in Wal*Mart.
That's pretty gangster. Double gangster if you bought the smokes at K Mart
I miss BB gun wars. I was not above hiding out in the woods with my dad's tigers on and bushwacking people. I even toted that one Crossman BB revolver in his tank holster. Those revolvers looked pretty damn real. But meh.
Really I wish I could go back in time for tearing up/losing/ruining his stuff like that and beat myself up. It wasn't until adulthood I realized a lot of that stuff had value.
Also I must admit, all those girls I was really, really mean to were the girls I had the biggest crushes on.
To this day I still don't know how that works.
"Man, Stacy looks so good in that dress. She's really pretty. I like her a lot."
And then you impulsively push her in a mud puddle and toss her books in the garbage.
Or worse yet you think she wants to secretly join in on your personal Vietnam War so you shoot her in the back with 5 pumps. And you think "Ha HA! She's crying! What a girl!"
Then the next thing you know this flash of neon and pastel with a side ponytail is chasing you with a stick and beating the holy bejeezus out of you. Not a lick of tomboy in her but this is your first real ass whipping. But at least it knocked out that loose tooth that was grossing folks out.
Ahh the good ol' days
Dude you should write a book.
That's pretty gangster. Double gangster if you bought the smokes at K Mart
How about from a cigarette machine! I bought Camels and Lucky Strikes because that's what the guys in the war movies always smoked
CIGARETTE MACHINES!
I remember those. Like 80 cents a pack.
Hell, your ol man would give you money to fetch his cigarettes, pay for gas while he pumped, and the cashier didn't care.
And those old pump meters on the pump with the roll back numbers like on an odometer
And the vending machines that sold glass bottle cokes that you pulled out.
Man I feel sorry for kids today.
ETA my dad smoked luckies. They even had candy cigarettes made up like luckies . To this day I'll go to a specialty shop to get a pack just because.
Again, I feel sorry for kids today
Age 12-14:
- rode tenspeed through town repeatedly with a slung M1 carbine to go shooting.
- did same with 357 and 45, though out of sight until at the sandpit to shoot.
- carried pocket knife every day of school, played mumbledty peg daily.
- rode dirt bikes on the RR track outside cross ties ends (for miles) to get to work. And about 200 ft on city streets before ducking into an alley
- routinely ran through a railroad switchyard often with a bow and arrows. Routinely climbed between RR cars (amazing I still have all my limbs)
- routinely shot field archery on an active golf course. Fished as well.
- spent the summers camped in a big wall tent in our or a buddy's sideyard. In S FL, none the less.
- snuck out at night, rode bikes (with girls nonetheless) several miles to hang out
- swam in and floated down canals in plastic pool boats and clean, empty garbage cans
- ride bikes to the local yacht club, sneak on, catch snapper from the docks and then eat them for dinner
- repeated mangled toes from running barefoot at night through yards and hitting a rainbird sprinkler head
- cut my leg to the exact depth of an xacto knife blade. (I could see the layers before the blood rushed in)
- swam after eating without waiting an hour. (Oh the hours wasted on that myth!!!)
- drank scope mouthwash on a dare
- carried dill pickles spread with peanut butter to school for a snack. (By choice)
- tried to make various ww1 poison gasses I read about in the encyclopedia.
- tried to make "bird lime" by boiling and cooking down linseed oil. Without a double boiler. Unattended.
-violated most of the Estes safe rocketry rules. Including but not limited to: angle of launch, combining rocket engines and slot cars, etc.
-routinely played with real, vintage M80s.
- carried a live, angry possum who had latched on to a broomstick (long story)
- accurately determined how many pool screens a golf ball hit with a bat can penetrate
- toured an active cold war hawk missile site
- snuck into neighbor's cold way style bomb shelter
- turned our stingrays into easy rider choppers by extending the forks.
- routinely carried giant land crabs and nonvenomous snakes to school. In an old bird cage.
- sunk 4 barbs on a rapalla type lure into the back of my head. And set the hooks.
- had a bell South helmet and lineman's manual and would imitate Hogan's hero's phone taps
- made a copper knife to follow a formula in a book to turn into a werewolf (I'd tell you if it worked, but my secret would be out!)
- saw the godfather at release. In the back seat of a VW, with my parents. Saw 2001 in the theater, and it hurt my 12yo old head.
- climbed to the top of the highest tree in the yard and left a rebel flag flying when Yankees bought our house when we had to move.
The list goes on!
Ready.Fire.Aim
04-26-16, 19:59
Did you know highway bridges over rivers in the 1970s had drain holes?
They are just big enough to push a cutoff garden hose through on Saturday nights in front of oncoming cars.
Great sport, especially when the driver backs up, gets out, and threaten you while you are hiding somewhere in the brush with your buddies.
Another fun activity at 12 is discovering what dead-end back road high school kids go to make out on dates.
Sneak up and knock loudly on the window.
The getaway plan was always run like your life depended on it through Mr. Johnson's pasture.
Real (pre 1966) cherry bombs. Endless fun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_bomb
Real (pre 1966) cherry bombs. Endless fun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_bomb
I remember finding my fathers stash of M-80s that he had from the early 70s.
He came to the realization that having a couple paper grocery bags full of old explosives in the garage was probably a bad idea and we spent a couple weeks disposing of them. One neat trick was to cut a hole in a large potato, he had a tool that looked sorta like a corkscrew that was almost the perfect size to do this, press the M-80 into the potato, light it and throw it in the canal.
It produced an amazing depth charge effect, especially at night with a very visible underwater detonation prior to the surface discharge of what seemed to be about 150 gallons of water almost 6 feet tall.
titsonritz
04-26-16, 22:27
I owned my own handgun, with ammo, that was in my room. I think this would now be a felony in every state.
I was in physical possession of machine guns that obviously were not registered to me. Not sure if having complete access to such things is actually a crime or not, but I imagine it probably is.
I carried a Buck 110 knife.
My friends and I went camping by ourselves without any adults.
I would regularly be left alone on weekends during the summer.
At school during lunch, I would sometimes leave the property and walk down the street to buy a coke and microwave burrito at the 7-11.
Yep all that stuff, although my machine gun was "real" just a converted 22 pistol via a little file work.
In addition to the Buck I carried nunchakus and shurikens. Also had a couple three sectional staffs, which were all illegal in California.
I would break out dad's TMs a make all sorts of improvised munitions and booby traps.
Friends and I stole alcohol from our families and got hammered on several occasions.
One buddy's folks had a Xerox copy machine, we photo-copied dollar bill, cashed them in at every laundromat quarter machine we could find and hit the pinball machines for days.
And a few other things I think I'll just keep to myself.
Pellet guns and fishing rods strapped to our bike handlebars by the time we were 6 or 7 on public roads with no supervision. Hell, I was killing game with anything that would launch a projectile before they even implemented hunter's safety courses in my home state. I got my lifetime hunting license at 14 to avoid a price hike and mandatory HS course (with a 4 digit license number). :)
I can't remember when I didn't carry a knife to school. I was deer hunting with a 1958 Winchester 30-30 at 8. That was the same year that "The Legend of Boggy Creek" came out and I saw it with my uncle. Shortly thereafter was my 1st night alone in the house. I was reading when I kept hearing noises outside, on both sides of the house. It got so bad that when my parents got home, I was sitting in the dark house with the 30-30 loaded in my lap. I wouldn't learn for YEARS that my "friends" snuck over and made the noises to scare me. They were lucky they didn't get shot!
I got a Remington 1100 at 12 for $232.00 at TG&Y, but you had to have an adult sign for .22LR and they'd log it in a log book, because it would fit in a pistol? :confused:
My grandpa was a powder man at the local rock quarry when I was a kid. We used to melt down the used det wiring for copper recycling and he had blasting caps in his closet. I have pics of him and my uncle with slurry tubes they filled the drill holes in the limestone with. Needless to say, we learned to make what would now be "IED's" on the farm. Most of them were used to blow up trees and stumps, but they'd occasionally get "tested" in ways I'd be embarrassed to mention today. :o
By 13 I was spinning brodies in the mud in my dad's 71 Jeep CJ-5 with a Buick Kaiser 225 V6. The gears were so low it would lay rubber with both rear tires in 1st and 2nd on asphalt and chirp them in 3rd. :)
At 14 I was walking down the hall in HS when a junior pinched the ass of "the hottest ass in HS". She thought I did it and turned around and slapped me. When she turned back around, I reached down and grabbed a DEEP double handful of ass. She spun back around and I said "If I'm getting punished for it, I might as well get to actually do it!" I didn't understand at the time, but I know now the look on her face was a mix of embarrassment and arousal. I'll never forget that look. Now? I'd be in juvie for a sex crime and therapy for my "deviancy". :(
Two and a half years later, a bottle of wine swiped from my mom and step dad's liquor cabinet and the back seat of my 73 Monte Carlo? Guess who my first French kiss and 2nd base was with? Yep! :D
I would NOT want to be a kid today knowing what I know. The lack of freedom kids today have is fvcking depressing. :(
Yep all that stuff, although my machine gun was "real" just a converted 22 pistol via a little file work.
In addition to the Buck I carried nunchakus and shurikens. Also had a couple three sectional staffs, which were all illegal in California.
I would break out dad's TMs a make all sorts of improvised munitions and booby traps.
Friends and I stole alcohol from our families and got hammered on several occasions.
One buddy's folks had a Xerox copy machine, we photo-copied dollar bill, cashed them in at every laundromat quarter machine we could find and hit the pinball machines for days.
And a few other things I think I'll just keep to myself.
You'd probably dig my FB page.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vintage-Nunchaku-Co/523048834442599?skip_nax_wizard=true
It's public so you don't need to be registered or anything. Make sure and check out the photo albums, especially the ones devoted to nunchaku, three sectional staffs and shuriken.
titsonritz
04-27-16, 00:43
You'd probably dig my FB page.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vintage-Nunchaku-Co/523048834442599?skip_nax_wizard=true
It's public so you don't need to be registered or anything. Make sure and check out the photo albums, especially the ones devoted to nunchaku, three sectional staffs and shuriken.
Oh hell yes, I remember all that stuff. I still have a pair of cocobolo ball bearing chucks and matched set of the octagon nylon chord version for when I want to flip two. I had/remember that issue of BB with Stephen Hayes and Masaaki Hatsumi. Had a bunch of those stars, 148-B were my favorite. Yep AWMA got a bunch of my hard earned dollars back in the day. Very cool thanks for sharing.
Oh hell yes, I remember all that stuff. I still have a pair of cocobolo ball bearing chucks and matched set of the octagon nylon chord version for when I want to flip two. I had/remember that issue of BB with Stephen Hayes and Masaaki Hatsumi. Had a bunch of those stars, 148-B were my favorite. Yep AWMA got a bunch of my hard earned dollars back in the day. Very cool thanks for sharing.
I have a few...
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/s960x960/11947794_882683395145806_247504534439450925_o.jpg
This thread has dragged up a few memories...LOL..
Sent a series of bottle rockets into the local bar front door on New Years Eve and then hid in a pre-dug snow cave while the drunk patrons tried to figure out where they came from.
Shot out the windows of new cars as they passed by on the train with our BB guns. I actually now feel bad about this one.
Moose-Knuckle
04-27-16, 03:01
Rode dirtbikes on the road.
Damn dude, I never knew you rolled with the 12 O'Clock Boys . . . :jester:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMQY6k16TU
I miss BB gun wars.
Me too. There was a nature preserve with a big pond behind my house. in the winter we'd play "POW" where 2 unarmed kids would have to evade through the cat tails across the frozen pond while everyone else was in the trees taking pot shots at them. We had ha 3 pump rule that was routinely ignored.
My favorite was making homemade fireworks and explosive with my Dad. Pops was a chemist and we'd go and raid the chemical locker at his lab on Saturdays. We made gun powder, roman candles and M80 type fire crackers mostly, but also dabbled with making thermite bombs (melted clean through the bottom of a Webber grill) as well as plastique explosives. He was like Walter White getting everything set up in the basement and was very meticulous when it came to his recipes. He had me write out the formulas for everything we did. On my own I had made versions of a ¼ stick of dynamite and napalm cocktails. Needless to say I was pretty good at Chemistry in HS.
BB gun wars, yup. I also was into bomb-making. Black powder from M-80s in plastic practice golf balls wrapped with electrical tape and smeared with epoxy resin, later I made the black powder myself. Pipe bombs out of compressed match heads. And my favorite was contact explosives (nitrogen triiodide). All bought with plans and instructions out of the back classified ad pages in Popular Mechanics, including the dynamite fuse, and stuff from the local drug store. The iodine crystals were hard to get the drug store to sell me mainly because they were poisonous, and I was 12.
Outlander Systems
04-27-16, 09:10
My brother and I always joke about how our dad would send us in the store to buy him cigs while he pumped the gas.
And damn straight, the cashier gave zero ****s.
CIGARETTE MACHINES!
I remember those. Like 80 cents a pack.
Hell, your ol man would give you money to fetch his cigarettes, pay for gas while he pumped, and the cashier didn't care.
And those old pump meters on the pump with the roll back numbers like on an odometer
And the vending machines that sold glass bottle cokes that you pulled out.
Man I feel sorry for kids today.
ETA my dad smoked luckies. They even had candy cigarettes made up like luckies . To this day I'll go to a specialty shop to get a pack just because.
Again, I feel sorry for kids today
The only difference was that it was in the sticks of Tennessee.
Damn dude, I never knew you rolled with the 12 O'Clock Boys . . . :jester:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMQY6k16TU
Averageman
04-27-16, 09:41
Not exactly twelve, but my brother was, I remember being pulled out of bed in the middle of the night by my ear.
My Dad wanted to know where I drove the Buick while he and Mom were out on a "Date Night". In the daze of being rudely brought to my feet and fully awake, I asked "How did you kn...."
There is something about an open hand slap to the back of the head that really drives the point home.
I later caught him putting a penny just under the leading edge of the tire before he left one evening.
when my son lost the use of his car as punishment, I would just write down the mileage. At the point he got the car back, I would check the mileage. If it had changed, he would lose it for another week.
I had my own .22 bolt action rifle with detachable five round magazine. My great uncle gave it to me, and I still have it. A Winchester 69A, made in the mid 1930's I think. I also was given my Dad's WWII Walther PP bring back in .32ACP and my grandfather's police service revolvers, both S&W, one in .38 Spl, and one in .32 Long.
From the age of 8 or 9, I was allowed to roam on weekends at my will. I just had to be home by dinner. With bicycles, my friends and I could go almost anywhere in the area.
I could carry my rifle through the neighborhood to go to the woods to plink, and shoot squirrels. Today, there would be a SWAT team on me in five minutes.
I had whatever fireworks I could buy, scrounge, barter, etc. Including M-80's.
I road my Honda dirt bike on the street without a license.
JackFanToM
04-27-16, 11:59
I'm not even about to admit to anything on the Internet, especially since I have no idea the statute of limitations on any of it. My parents were 17 when I was conceived, and my dad worked his way up to BG in the US army. Suffice it to say that we lived in some places where being male and Caucasian were not inductive to comfortable living.
I fought a lot, and I was a complete a**hole, but at 44 my old man would still drive up here and stomp the daylight outta me if he read about some of nonsense I pulled.
I can think of no less than a dozen times the police or MPs brought me home, when I should have been sent to juvenile detention, and those were only the times I was caught.
I'm still playing karma catch up, and I work really hard to stay on the good side of karma now.
brickboy240
04-27-16, 12:01
Oh yes...we also loved fireworks!
We'd stockpile them from the 4th of July - the only time they sold them. Then...we'd shoot them year round and they would become a hot commodity and great trading material.
We lived maybe 5 miles out of the Dallas city limits but nobody batted an eye, when 4 to 6 boys, aged 10-12 would ride down the subdivision streets with their 22 rifles slung over their backs. Riding their Mongoose BMX bikes out to the empty fields to go shooting. We'd be out there for hours and make all sorts of noise. Shooting anything we could find and sometimes building a large campfire and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows that one of us would swipe from our mother's pantry.
This was circa 1976-1979 or so.
Today, neighbors would have a coronary and call the cops on us in a hot minute.
Good times! I would not trade it for growing up today...even if these kids do have the internet and better video games! LOL
At 16, my buddy & I with our younger brothers would take our .22s to the woods where people had dumped stuff & shoot the coils of old refrigerators until they spewed Freon.
I'm not even about to admit to anything on the Internet, especially since I have no idea the statute of limitations on any of it. My parents were 17 when I was conceived, and my dad worked his way up to BG in the US army. Suffice it to say that we lived in some places where being male and Caucasian were not inductive to comfortable living.
I fought a lot, and I was a complete a**hole, but at 44 my old man would still drive up here and stomp the daylight outta me if he read about some of nonsense I pulled.
I can think of no less than a dozen times the police or MPs brought me home, when I should have been sent to juvenile detention, and those were only the times I was caught.
I'm still playing karma catch up, and I work really hard to stay on the good side of karma now.
I think some of you guys misunderstood the original post.
I was asking what you did at 12 years of age that would be considered a crime today, the implication being when you did it at 12, it was perfectly legal. Everything I listed was completely legal at the time when I did it.
I doubt a Juvie Squad is waiting to bust up a bunch of middle aged guys for looking at a nudie mag or smoking a cigarette 20-40 years ago.
Plus I never did anything illegal. It would just be heavily frowned upon.
Going on adventures, testing your mettle, and so on are discouraged because it develops a natural resistance to socialization and interdependence which is the narrative of the day. Which is why it is so discouraged and kids get doped up and diagnosed with made up disorders left and right.
No, we aren't the world and no, I don't have to like anybody.
I can be civil to the extent that I am allowed, but no I don't need anything.
Plus Jamal and Lakwanda don't "learn differently". They just need to sit down and read a goddamn book like I had to.
I grew up in the 60's and 70's. I think mostly we were allowed to have guns, and blow up stuff, and it was legal then, but not now. Also, the cops looked the other way when I rode my dirt bike, unlicensed on the street, where today they would pull you over, and give you a citation, but it was illegal back then, so doesn't meet the OP's criteria.
sandsunsurf
04-27-16, 15:57
I did a lot of things that were legal then that now would definitely not be. My friend and I walking through town with our Ruger .22s on the way to shoot in the dirt in seventh grade. In high school, we would frequently bring our .22s or shotguns to school on Fridays and leave them in our cars. The after school we'd load up into my Jeep and go shoot jackrabbits. Another friend had a ranch that was really kind of in town. We'd shoot tree squirrels, just being careful not to shoot toward the road if a car was coming.
A lot of other things were illegal, but not cared about if you weren't hurting people. We used to make little black powder bombs with green cannon fuse, and also used to make fun "firecrackers" by gluing or taping a BB on the primer and a couple feathers or surveyors tape on the other end. The Junior High School was a great place to throw those up on the air or at the handball wall. Now days the bomb squad would be called out...
JackFanToM
04-27-16, 17:09
I should have simply written, many of the things I did at that age, that are illegal today, merely got you a ride home by the police. I remember begging them to take me to jail, as it seemed far kinder than the punishment I would receive at home. A good example is when a group of us set off to go investigate a car that looked like the firebird in the show knight rider. One of the guys with us decided it would be funny to set off the car alarm (they were relatively new then so people actually paid attention when they went off). Long story short we should have been charged with vandalism and taken to processing, but we merely were given rides home by the police. I believe that lack of parental accountability, fear of child abuse charges, and simple hostility towards police have made formerly small issues into actual charges by the police.
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