Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mind is blown by this thread.

Same. This was never a thing with me or my friends, and we were always out in the woods unsupervised and stuff. I can’t think of one instance where any of the 10+ kids in my neighborhood did something like this.

How old are you?

39

Kids were always setting fires for fun in my neighborhood. There was a long stretch where we’d meet after school every day with a collection of items to burn: newspapers, stuffed animals, hairspray, anything we could find. It eventually came to an end when someone called the cops about one particularly large fire in the woods. We were pretty lucky no one got hurt.

Anonymous wrote:I assume its inversely proportional bc straight A students generally tend to be highly risk averse. I guess I'm trying to convey his personality - risk averse, highly buttoned up type of guy. I still can't believe it!

Meh. My “nerdy,” straight A crew were the biggest troublemakers I knew, but never got caught. We got away with SO MUCH because we were both smart and above suspicion.

I assume its inversely proportional bc straight A students generally tend to be highly risk averse. I guess I'm trying to convey his personality - risk averse, highly buttoned up type of guy. I still can't believe it!

Anonymous wrote:My DH and his friends who were all super good kids at the time apparently used to douse tennis balls in lighter fluid and set them on fire on a concrete driveway. In high school!!!

Literally blew my mind. My DH was and still is a straight A kid who literally never got in trouble.

Why do you assume that the relationship between good grades/good behavior and making tennis ball bombs is inversely proportional?

I'm female, almost 40.

As kids we would spray hair spray inside water cooler bottles and then light a match and toss it in.

My DH and his friends who were all super good kids at the time apparently used to douse tennis balls in lighter fluid and set them on fire on a concrete driveway. In high school!!!

Literally blew my mind. My DH was and still is a straight A kid who literally never got in trouble.

Beach town living year round. Teens are starting their ritual bon fires now. No adult supervision since they're all trained how to safely do it, extinguish, wait for embers to cool and dispose of all debris and any kid made trash. Every kid has a job and item to bring. Parents pick up and if the job isn't done properly, no more bon fires.

Anonymous wrote:My brother and his teenage friends tried to make their own firecrackers. Someone lost a finger tip.

My husband and his friends used to have bottle rocket wars, shooting them out of PVC pipes at each other across a field. I'm pretty sure there are several of them who have the scars to prove how dumb boys can be.

Anonymous wrote:My mind is blown by this thread.

Mine too. Not sure how my parents educated us on fire, but the effect was that I never had any inclination to play with fire. Ever. I liked looking at campfires, but that was it.

My brother and his teenage friends tried to make their own firecrackers. Someone lost a finger tip.

Anonymous wrote:My husband and his brothers did in their teen years, not as actual children. This was in the early/mid 80's when teens were wilder than what they were in the mid 90s and beyond.

ETA, my husband and his brother ended up setting their Dad's car on fire (accidentally). Fire truck came out, entire thing was destroyed.

Yes.

One brother would take firecrackers and try to make mini bombs.

I would burn stuff with a magnifying glass.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mind is blown by this thread.

Same. This was never a thing with me or my friends, and we were always out in the woods unsupervised and stuff. I can’t think of one instance where any of the 10+ kids in my neighborhood did something like this.

How old are you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my gosh I was just thinking about this the other day. Woman here and yes, my friends and I used to set fires in the backyard. We also used to do that thing where you'd spray hairspray into a lighter and make a big torch. It is nothing short of a miracle we never burned anything down or hurt ourselves (knock wood, thank you to the gods!).

^ me again - do kids still do this? I get the impression kids are less destructive now than when we were young. (I'm in my 40s with no kids.)

They are. Kids now are too supervised and sheltered to do much of this sort of thing.