How about going to the hardware store with dad to get a couple of new tubes for the TV? My dad looked like he knew what he was doing but now I realize that he had no idea what-so-ever ;D. He removed every single tube in the TV (black and white of course), we put them in a paper bag and then we drove down the road to the hardware store. Just me and dad. I got to ride shotgun then. I remember he had me look up the tube on the chart. "12AX7" he call out to me. I'd set the dials to the codes for the tube, and for some reason my dad would flick the tube with his finger. "OK, press the button", he'd tell me. I'd get this internal drum roll going inside my head and went for the big red button......"BAD" read the machine. Put it aside, and on to the next one. "6CB6"..."6L6GC"...6AU6&quo t; and on and on until every single tube was tested. We tested audio tubes even though the picture was the problem. He didn't know. ;D....... 40+ years later, and I'm still playing with 'lectronics. Sure miss going to the hardware store with dad though...............

 

[quote author=Commatoze link=board=10;threadid=13466;start=30#127451 date=1050192487]<br>How about going to the hardware store with dad to get a couple of new tubes for the TV? My dad looked like he knew what he was doing but now I realize that he had no idea what-so-ever ;D. He removed every single tube in the TV (black and white of course), we put them in a paper bag and then we drove down the road to the hardware store. Just me and dad. I got to ride shotgun then. I remember he had me look up the tube on the chart. &quot;12AX7&quot; he call out to me. I'd set the dials to the codes for the tube, and for some reason my dad would flick the tube with his finger. &quot;OK, press the button&quot;, he'd tell me. I'd get this internal drum roll going inside my head and went for the big red button......&quot;BAD&quot; read the machine. Put it aside, and on to the next one. &quot;6CB6&quot;...&quot;6L6GC&quot;...6AU6&quo t; and on and on until every single tube was tested. We tested audio tubes even though the picture was the problem. He didn't know. ;D....... 40+ years later, and I'm still playing with 'lectronics. Sure miss going to the hardware store with dad though...............<br>[/quote]<br><br>Yep, I can still remember watching that little swirling dot disappear in the center of the tv screen when you'd first turn off the tv. <br>If it was quite enough, you could even hear the tubes crackle as they cooled.<br><br>Rich

 

Growing up during the summer my parents pointed at the door and said be home for lunch and dinner. I would be out all day in the dirt or snow or grass doing something that most people now days would have a hart attack.<br><br>I'm still alive. ;D

 

We built a set of Ramps up the backside of a Baseball teams dugouts. I rode down a hill and around a corner just to fly up that ramp and I made it all the way past first base line. Only did that once because I learned just how much it hurts to slam my B*LLS onto the bike's handlebars as they came crunching to me. Bike was destroyed after that. Funny, nobody else wanted to do the dare after that. Just me, stupid at the time. Sometimes, I think the stupidity has followed into my older age. LOL

 

When I was a kid, which was like 8 years ago. We had all kinds of fun. Built tree houses way up in the trees on our farm. Then we would have war between the forts/tree houses. We would throw rocks and sticks mudd anything we could find to throw. Sometimes we would go out and find a hornets nest and throw rocks at it to get the to come out Got stung everytime but still would do it again Winter was the best. We wouls make a sled out of anything that was fast and light to carry. Barn sheet metal worked great and talking about fast. Only problem was it was hard to hold on and when the metal stoped you kept going. Fav. spot tp sled ride was on a steep hil where our Horses were. It had a 10' drop off at the bottom of the hill into a creek bed OUCH. 8)<br>One other stupid thing we did was take the motors of a Power Wheels Jeep so that it would fly down our road which was closed for repair about 2 miles ahead, all being down hill and curvy. enden up in the ditch many times. almost hit a car also going like 30mph. Plastic wheels don't work on Blacktop. [undecided]<br>DM01

 

I wish I had somewhere to go where I could do that. Now, you have to worry about getting shot or mugged or robbed. And if you and a friend are in a tree and he falls, you could get sued. You have to be careful with everything. Friends can't ride fourwheelers cause if they get hurt, you get sued. It's ridiculous. I hate the city and I hate these times. My dad is always telling me stories of what he used to do as a kid and I envy him. I wish I could go back in time and live that life. Were times hard then? Hell yes. But kids figured out ways to have fun. They found other ways to entertain themselves. They didn't have to go to the movies or to the mall. They found something to do outside. They made up games and everything. Not these days. These days you have to stay inside because you will get cancer if you go outside when it is sunny. If you leave the house, you have to take your cell phone/pager with you so people can get hold of you. You have to watch what you eat cause you will get fat. Yall want to hear somethign stupid. There is a law that is being approved that will ban coke machines and snack machines from school during school. The experts say that the youth of America is getting to fat. Well DUH!! All they do is sit inside and play video games. Why? Cause we shelter them. I believe that people shelter their kids to much. My dad and mom have forced me to become active. I can't sit inside for more than an hour without going nuts. If I want to stick a penny in a light socket, my dad would say &quot;Go ahead.&quot; And I did. But I learned a lesson from it. A valuable lesson. That's another problem with sheltering kids. They don't learn important lessons in life till they are older. They don't learn to not jump their bikes off of ramps. Or to not stick a penny in a light socket. People these days are nuts. They are to protective. Sorry if this post jumps topics but I'm just writing as things come to my mind.

 

[quote author=Nuttymopar link=board=10;threadid=13466;start=30#127841 date=1050327343]<br>..... I learned just how much it hurts to slam my B*LLS onto the bike's handlebars as they came crunching to me....[/quote]<br><br>I guess that may explain you user name eh? :-X<br> <br> <br>Just kidding! Just kidding! ... sorry about that one... ok. I'll go now.<br> <br>Rich

 

Rich - I imagine everybody who has read this thread cringed when they got to that part <br><br>And probably thought to themselves &quot;Yep, been there - done that.&quot;

 

[quote author=redramnc link=board=10;threadid=13466;start=30#127909 date=1050338535]
Rich - I imagine everybody who has read this thread cringed when they got to that part

And probably thought to themselves &quot;Yep, been there - done that.&quot;
[/quote]

You are correct sir.
I too have encountered the handle bars a few times as well.
I also can remember rideing a dirt bike around a corner, left leg hanging out for counter ballance, and watched a cactus that was purched on the inside of the turn make solid contact with my left inner thigh. Immediate reaction, post contact, was to bring my left leg back in.
This promptly inserted the cactus spines that use to be in my inner thigh, directly into my... uh... lets just say I:
:-X then I, , then I :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( while all the guys I was riding with went !

It was a very long ride home. :

Rich

 

Boy this brings back memories. I thought only my cousins and I were the ones stupid enough to have BB Gun Fights. It was great on the farm because there were lots of trees, grain bins ,etc. to be a sniper from. The only problem was that when they found you, there was no escape. After I got shot under the left eye, I still have a barely visible mark there, it penetrated the skin and bled like a stuck hog when we pried it out, we decided to make the rule of no shots above the arm pits. We told my mom that we where walking through the woods and a thorn bush snapped back and hit me. I was the youngest male cousin, so I was always the one who got prompted into the really dumb stuff first. The ramp my cousin built and his mini-bike. &quot;I know you'll clear the fence I measured it out and you're the lightest.&quot; What about burning the old truck in the pasture to chase out the bees. Who knew it would make that loud WHOOOOM!!! when the gas tank behind the seat that we started the fire in finally went. We sure had sore rears that day!<br>

 

These stories keep reminding me of other good ones from my childhood.<br>Like when I put my moms tweezers in the electical outlet in the wall. <br>I blew the tips off the tweezers, got heck for that.<br>Blew the fuse, got heck for that<br>The tips of the tweezers where little splatters of solder on my pants, got heck for ruining my pants.<br>I still remember the jolt. <br><br>I still think the most impressive and loudest things we did was the butane cannons. ;D<br><br>Up here they will not air the Flintstones now in fear that its not approprate for children and the Bugs Bunny Road Runner hour got canned for violence. SHEESH these do gooders are taking away everyones ability to learn from experience and to learn themselves as opposed to be told whats right and whats worng nearly all the time. My best leanred lessons were the ones I had first hand experience on and still today I will not speak of anything unless I did it or experienced it...Sometimes reading it in a book is not as good as REAL LIFE.

 

Scotty, maybe it's a Canuck thing?<br><br>Me and my friends used to have a penchant for explosives as well. <br><br>My Cannon ran on ether though. not butane.<br><br>Used to think it was great to cut aprt shotgun shells and find better uses for gun powder etc. [undecided]<br><br>Sometimes it stuns me that I survived this long. If our parents knew what we'd been up to half the time we probably would not have. <br><br>used to build great plywood jumps on the hills in the pasture for sleds. I remember daring to ride down the frozen hill on bikes and go off the jumps. MAN DID MY BUDDY HAVE A WRECK! <br><br>Boxing was a great pastime. except we only had 2 boxing gloves (if we could find them both ) so sometimes we took turns wearing the glove! Just beat on eachother anyway and thought it was great.

 

[quote author=tool link=board=10;threadid=13466;start=30#128170 date=1050387667]
Scotty, maybe it's a Canuck thing?...............

[/quote]

I don't think so. . At 13 my buddies and me were masters of pyrotechnics and had our own little backyard version &quot;shock and awe&quot;. Aerosol paint cans in the outdoor incinerator create a breathtaking display and a sizable report. ;D Then there was the incident of the jar filled with matchheads....... :...WOW!

 

A baloon filled with a nice oxy/acetelyne mix from the shop torch, a homemade fuse and run like heck. It would rattle the house windows 1/4 mile away. Mom would ask us later if we heard that loud boom and we would tell her we thought it was a sonic boom from a plane. I don't know if we fooled her or if she just didn't want to think about what we might be up to.

 

We made carbide cannons out of gallon paint cans. You used to be able to order tubes of carbide out of the backs of comic books. KABOOM!!!!!