Differences Between Boys/Men and Girls/Women

[Least Original User Name Ever]

There's currently a thread (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=497972)going on about gorging one's self on mini Reese's Cups (you can make it to 65!). Only a guy would do that. So it got me to thinking that there are other only-male or only-female kinds of experiences that aren't necessarily biological.


So I started thinking back to childhood. Every time I tell this story to a woman, it becomes apparent that a girl would A) never do this and B) put the kibosh on it when she had the chance.

So, a few doors down from me, when I was a little sprout, there was this double lot. This second lot was overgrown, and the neighborhood kids (there weren't many of us then) would hang out there. We'd have a makeshift treehouse and all that crap. Well, one day, I was back there myself, pondering life and looking at a big, overhanging tree branch when a eureka moment happened.

If I put something heavy on the branch, tie one end of a rope to the weight and the other end to my ankles, I can hang myself upside down!

This is right about the point where girls start to veer away.

So, it was also the time where they had an ordinance saying that a large concrete wall had to be built between residential and commercial neighborhoods. They were constructing that wall. A bunch of cinder blocks could do the trick. So I grabbed a bunch of cinder blocks and hauled them up the tree and balanced them on the thick branch. I tied one end of the blocks and the other end to a pair of old Rollerblades (so I wouldn't get rope burns around my ankles...I was thinking ahead!) and poked the cinder blocks with a stick. I learned real fast that if the rope was a little too long, it'd just yank the feet out from under me and knock the wind out of me. So I found out the right length and found how to hang myself upside down.

So I told a friend, Bob, about this.

This is the part f the story where a girl would have said "NO!" or threatened to tell.

I told him about the idea and what I had done. He, of course, thought it was a great idea. So we spent the better part of three days straight hanging each other upside down in a tree. So we told a mutual friend, Craig.

Yes, the girl would have stopped the Fun Express at this point as well.

Craig also thought it was a great idea. We kept this up for about three weeks, just hanging each other upside down. No broken bones, no permanent injuries, nobody dropped onto their heads (more than once).



Got any fun stories from childhood? I'm also convinced that boys dodge death about three times from childhood to adulthood and I'd like to see those stories as well.

[Hello Again]

I'm also convinced that boys dodge death about three times from childhood to adulthood and I'd like to see those stories as well.
Boys actually do have more injury accidents that girls. Apparently, among other things, according to at least one study (http://jpepsy.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/23/1/33?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=1&author1=Morrongiello&andorexacttitle=and&titleabstract=risk+boys+girls&andorexacttitleabs=and&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT) boys are more susceptible to the Optimism bias - the belief that a bad thing will not happen to them. Girls are also more likely to attribute accidents to themselves, boys are more likely to attribute them to bad luck.

[Least Original User Name Ever]

Interesting. It also explains why my mother always said that if my shoes were untied, I should tie them or I'd "trip and fall and break my neck".

On my side, I just figured it'd be because I wasn't careful enough.

[Cat Fight]

There's currently a thread (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=497972)going on about gorging one's self on mini Reese's Cups (you can make it to 65!). Only a guy would do that.

Does not compute.

[Hello Again]

Oh! and in the spirit of the thread --

One afternoon while my brother was watching me (I was probably 10 and he 13) somehow the discussion of whether a penny was solid copper came up. We decided that only Science could answer the question (the interwebz was still far in our future).

So we got a penny, and a pair of needlenose pliers, and a hammer. We heated up the penny over the gas stove. We got frustrated when the copper did not appear to be melting. So, we hit it with the hammer to see if it was even softened - and liquid nickel squirted out! A very small amount of which hit me on the back of the wrist, giving me a very tiny very serious burn that gave me a scar I bear to this day.

My parents never knew!

[Least Original User Name Ever]

Oh! and in the spirit of the thread --

One afternoon while my brother was watching me (I was probably 10 and he 13) somehow the discussion of whether a penny was solid copper came up. We decided that only Science could answer the question (the interwebz was still far in our future).

So we got a penny, and a pair of needlenose pliers, and a hammer. We heated up the penny over the gas stove. We got frustrated when the copper did not appear to be melting. So, we hit it with the hammer to see if it was even softened - and liquid nickel squirted out! A very small amount of which hit me on the back of the wrist, giving me a very tiny very serious burn that gave me a scar I bear to this day.

My parents never knew!

I know of a guy that did something similar. He heated up a penny really hot and got some pliers to try and bend it in half. He bent it and slipped. The penny shot up in the air and came right down the inside of the back of his coat. It never touched him, but it left a long burn mark.

[Cagey Drifter]

Different genitalia. K thx bye

[Vox Imperatoris]

I've thought before that I sometimes feel like a lesbian trapped in a man's body (not really). I never had the urge or desire as a young child to participate in outdoor athletics (especially team sports), cursing/acting rude, or foolhardy stunts. My favorite thing to do was to act out pretend situations (action movie-type situations, granted). I am also a lot more commitment-minded than most guys. I am rather competitive, though, and I'm not very "emotional".

But overall, I'm just not a very "guy" type of guy (I hesitate to say effeminate, since I definitely don't act like the stereotypical gay guy).

Valete,
Vox Imperatoris

ETA: I would never have done anything like what you're describing.

[Hello Again]

I've thought before that I sometimes feel like a lesbian trapped in a man's body (.

:) I am a girl. But I was huge tomboy too (I have gotten a bit more girly with age, tho I'm not very girly at all).

[Dinaroozie]

I was also never really inclined to do the kind of stuff you describe (although I climbed trees a lot as a child, and still do when I have the chance) - I think I'd probably have bailed at about the same time the hypothetical girl in your story would have. As an adult, the thing that most commonly comes across as a 'guy thing' is building stuff. If I have an idea of building some ridiculous thing, my male friends are much more likely to come to my ridiculous-thing-building party than my female friends are. But, it's only a small subset of my male friends that are interested in such things, and obviously this is a very unrepresentative sample.

For what it's worth - and this is an unashamedly uncited claim but hey, it's MPSIMS - there was apparently a survey conducted by some videogames-for-girls type developer a while ago that asked adult women whether they considered themselves tomboys when they were children. 50% said 'yes'.

[Oredigger77]

When I was about 8 or so, my friend (12) and I found a brick pile. We started by throwing bricks at walls but that became boring quickly. Luckly a small flock of birds were pearched nearby so we began throwing bricks at them unfortunaty they quickly flew off leaving us without live targets, kind of. It turns out that your friend is a live target. So we began having a brick fight, it was a blast. Until I bent down to pick up a new brick and Ryan hit me in the back of the head and busted my wide open. Luckly his mom was a nurse and she badedged me back up. For the record we were throwing bricks for 5-10 min before I got hit.

Yep, boys do stupid things.

[Buckler of Swashing]

I would be interested to know what it is exactly that makes the OP think that no girl would ever involve herself in any of the activities he mentioned.

[Least Original User Name Ever]

I would be interested to know what it is exactly that makes the OP think that no girl would ever involve herself in any of the activities he mentioned.

I've never (personally) talked to a girl that would have hopped in the festivities.

[Brown Eyed Girl]

Some youthful morning of mine, while snails were engaged in their slow race across the concrete patio in my backyard, I created a large maze out of table salt, trapping several of them to see whether they could escape before the sun fried them to a crisp. Unfortunately, I didn't realize until it was too late that snails come to a dead stop the moment they hit a salt wall. They have no sense of adventure at all, really.

Girl thing or boy thing?

[Least Original User Name Ever]

Yes.

[Brown Eyed Girl]

So, we are all equal-opportunity snail torturers?

[Vox Imperatoris]

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever actually seen a snail/slug in person.

Valete,
Vox Imperatoris

[alice_in_wonderland]

Eh, I did lots of stupid stuff when I was a kid and I am a (girly) girl.

Climbed trees. Hung from trees. Jumped off the roof of the house into a pile of leaves. Shot my cousin in the ass with a BB gun. Chased boys and pinned them down and kissed them till they cried (interestingly, the stopped crying when the lot of us hit about 13). Got in fist fights with boys (and won at least some of the time).

Essentially, I behaved exactly like a little boy only I wore a dress at my mother's insistence. I think she thought if she made me wear a dress, I wouldn't climb trees because boys would see my underwear. Didn't work.

In fact, the only boy affectation I really do not get is taking doodie pictures of each other. That is, taking pictures when the other guy is laying a turd. It's just not funny.

ETA - my (girl) cousin and I crushed about 50 snails with rocks just for shits and giggles. I actually still feel quite guilty about this.

[Hazle Weatherfield]

Not a childhood thing (or maybe it is,) but the whole hands-down-the-pants-thing in the evening while watching tv. As far as I can tell, it's not a sexual stimulation thing...just kind of hey my hand fits nicely in here and I might as well (I don't know, adjust/air out) while I'm in here. I think it looks disgusting and slovenly and have never seen a woman do anything remotely like this. Also guys will dig around in their ears, look at the finger and then wipe it on their jeans. Eeeeewww!

[Roland Orzabal]

I have yet to meet a female who snorted a Pixie Stick during childhood. I've met the occasional male who claims not to have done this, but he's lying.

[matt_mcl]

I have yet to meet a female who snorted a Pixie Stick during childhood. I've met the occasional male who claims not to have done this, but he's lying.

I didn't even see a Pixie Stick during my childhood. To this day I'm not exactly certain what one is. (I have a vague mental image of something somewhere between Pocky and those little white candy cigarettes, but I'm sure that's wrong.)

[Yeticus Rex]

Hmmmm......let's see.

Take mom's Aquanet hairspray and a lighter and torch anything that remotely qualified as an insect.

Played "Trench Warfare" by throwing dirt clods at each other when there was pipe trenches dug up for new houses. Proceeded to hit my brother in the head with a typical dirt clod that harbored a rock inside of it. Rather than quitting, we decided that our motorcyle helmets would still keep the good times rolling.

Blew stuff up. Firecrackers in mailboxes, ant hills, model planes and boats, popsicle stick buildings, etc.

Launched rockets at an angle.......preferably horizontal......eh, I guess no angle.

[spoike]

...So we got a penny, and a pair of needlenose pliers, and a hammer. We heated up the penny over the gas stove. We got frustrated when the copper did not appear to be melting. So, we hit it with the hammer to see if it was even softened - and liquid nickel squirted out...

That is so cool! If I didn't have to be the mature grown-up mum person, I would totally try to do that (not the burning myself part, though).

[Captain_Haddock]

...I didn't realize until it was too late that snails come to a dead stop the moment they hit a salt wall. They have no sense of adventure at all, really.

Girl thing or boy thing?

It's probably because they're hermaphrodites. The female part of them obviously thought it was a bad idea. Exclusively male gastropods would no doubt display the degree of sang-froid required to laugh in the face of osmosis and keep on going.

My own happy childhood memories include a neighbour leaving an unguarded microwave for council collection, which myself and a friend disappeared for various entertaining experiments, and the successful use of combined hazardous chemicals, obtained through gardening suppliers and school chemistry departments, that would probably be frowned upon nowadays given concerns about 'bombs' and 'terrorists' and so on.

My only regret is never finalising the goal of transforming a SNES lightscope into a shoulder operated rocket launcher. I and my friends had to make do with a nonetheless powerful potato launcher involving an industrial sink trap and darts secured onto D cell batteries.

[JustThinkin']

Lessee. . .
(female here)

Climbed trees -- check
Aquanet hairspray and matches -- check (now THAT was fun; yes I'm a pyro, why do you ask)
Firecrackers and horizontal bottle rockets -- check
Jumped from high places (haystacks, back of bleachers) -- check

We had a large and long equipment building, barn thing on our farm. There were two lines of 2x6 boards in the rafters running parallel to the roof line (nothing but a 12-foot drop underneath). My foster sister and I had races on those boards - no hands allowed.

And, for the record, I probably would have joined in Least Original's tree hanging game.

[Dung Beetle]

There's currently a thread (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=497972)going on about gorging one's self on mini Reese's Cups (you can make it to 65!). Only a guy would do that.

Female here. Hand me 65 peanut butter cups and prepare to be amazed!

However, I’ll admit that when my brother, my male cousin, and my crazy uncle decided to run around in the woods shooting each other with BB guns, I went to play in the house.

[jjimm]

Tried to slide down a rope strung between two trees using an umbrella. Like on James Bond. Fell about 20 feet.

Used to take weeks to make model airplanes, then fill them with cotton wool soaked in gasoline, light them and throw them out of the window.

Made what we called "JR Bollocks" out of catkin fluff and wax, light them, then put them somewhere they'd smoke for hours and cause consternation. Best one was in a drainage trench under the church so it looked like the church was on fire.

Soaked a firework rocket in gasoline for a day, then lit it. The stick burned off faster than the fuse, the rocket went wild, went up my shirt, burned a hole in it, set fire to my hair, and exploded about a foot from my head.

[Clothahump]

Differences Between Boys/Men and Girls/Women


What's the old rhyme?

"The only difference between men and boys
Is the length of their dicks and the cost of their toys."


Bottle rocket wars. When I was 10 or so, they were the rage. I hung out with a group of guys. We'd shoot off a Roman candle, then use the tube as our launcher. Hundreds of bottle rockets would fly back and forth, and if we were lucky, we'd make someone jump a foot in the air. We could never get the girls to join in. They'd go home and bitch to mom about all the fun we were having, and then hordes of angry mothers would descend upon us screaming the mantra 'YOU'LL PUT SOMEONE'S EYEEEEE OUTTTTTT!"

Good times, good times.

[Brown Eyed Girl]

I'm beginning to think that kids today just don't get to experience the good, clean (dangerous) fun we did. I have kids, so I'm happy to keep this delusion if it is one.

[Jonathan Chance]

And maybe that's it. I wouldn't remotely claim that there's a definite difference between the sexes but I do think I see general differences, whether through socialization or instinct I claim no knowledge.

This bit, for example:

It turns out that your friend is a live target.

Made me laugh out loud. Of course in that situation at some point those boys are going to end up throwing bricks at each others head! Who wouldn't? Oh, a subset of the species might not, but most of the boys I know would view it as de rigeur.

[Roland Orzabal]

I didn't even see a Pixie Stick during my childhood. To this day I'm not exactly certain what one is. (I have a vague mental image of something somewhere between Pocky and those little white candy cigarettes, but I'm sure that's wrong.)[checks location] Ah, maybe my data is skewed...I used to hang out in Montreal, but I don't know how to say "Pixie stick" in French.

Anyhoo, it's a thin paper tube full of pure sugar. It's lightly dyed and (supposedly) flavored. Here in 'Murica, boys and girls alike eventually try to make Kool-Aid out of 'em (it sucks), but only the males seem to come up with the idea of snorting one up, either by laying on the table and doing it like a line of coke -- not that most of us knew what coke was back then -- or simply jamming the tube in a nostril and upending it.

[Write Handed]

I have yet to meet a female who snorted a Pixie Stick during childhood.

*raises hand*

[Leaffan]

Oh man. Where do I start?

I had no idea that hair spray was flammable, until I was experimenting one Saturday morning with it and some matches on the dining room table! I learned quickly not to do THAT again.

I convinced my best friend and my little brother to run away from home with me; We were 7, my brother was 5. All we would require was an apple and a pack of Juicy Fruit gum apparently. We "lived" in a cardboard box behind the Beer Store until about midnight when my little brother decided to answer to the calling of one of the kind strangers out looking for us. My Mum thought we were dead. She was a complete wreck when we got home. She bathed us and hugged us and kissed us for a long while after that.

We thought shooting a BB gun at the screen door of the lady behind us was fun for a few weeks, until she found out and Dad had to buy her a new screen door.

I "stole" my parent's car on occasion and went joyriding when I was 14, 15 years old: with a cigarette hanging from my mouth.

We used to swim in a dirty pond in the middle of the train yards. I cut my foot wide open on a rusty barrel in the bottom of the pond and needed 5 stitches to close it. I still have the scar.

I decided that I needed an underground fort at one point. So I convinced my older brother and his friends to help me dig one. We dug a maybe 6' X 10' hole in the ground, covered it with plywood from a construction site, covered that with dirt and sod, and then made a tunnel to a "secret" entrance also covered with a plywood hatch. I LOVED that fort. We played in there for a whole summer.

I could write a book.................. Kids today with their video games and iPods......

[percypercy]

I have yet to meet a female who snorted a Pixie Stick during childhood. I've met the occasional male who claims not to have done this, but he's lying.

Only because you've never met me or the girls I played with growing up. You'd have thought we were rehearsing for a cocaine addiction.

[Marley23]

Making fun of movies, although it's more of an adolescent thing than a childhood thing. I've known women who do this, and I know there were a few women writer/actors on Mystery Science Theater, but this is mostly a thing guys do. Further, while women will go along with it socially, maybe for one movie, they generally won't do it all day - the crowds at the B-movie mock-athons I've attended are overwhelmingly male.

[Finally]

I'm a girl but my son isn't. Last summer he and his buddies built a go cart out of stuff laying around. They took it down the huge hill leading to the beach (despite each of them being aware of about 10 neighborhood kids injured on that hill on their bikes) and, naturally, wiped out. But was that enough? No...my son was all scraped up so he went home and put a double layer of duct tape on his scrapes and went down again.

Later I got a call from him asking me to stop for 'a lot of bandaids and maybe some gauze and tape' on my way home.

I would never have done that as a kid. I limited it to walking across the spillway (dam?) with my big brother to get to the best fishing spot. :D

[I Am The Lorax]

I have yet to meet a female who snorted a Pixie Stick during childhood.

You have now;) Well, sort of met.

[Least Original User Name Ever]

Hmmmm......let's see.

Take mom's Aquanet hairspray and a lighter and torch anything that remotely qualified as an insect.

Played "Trench Warfare" by throwing dirt clods at each other when there was pipe trenches dug up for new houses. Proceeded to hit my brother in the head with a typical dirt clod that harbored a rock inside of it. Rather than quitting, we decided that our motorcyle helmets would still keep the good times rolling.

Blew stuff up. Firecrackers in mailboxes, ant hills, model planes and boats, popsicle stick buildings, etc.

Launched rockets at an angle.......preferably horizontal......eh, I guess no angle.



You're male, I take it.

[Least Original User Name Ever]

Female here. Hand me 65 peanut butter cups and prepare to be amazed!

However, I’ll admit that when my brother, my male cousin, and my crazy uncle decided to run around in the woods shooting each other with BB guns, I went to play in the house.


Ha! Now THOSE sound like fun times!

[olivesmarch4th]

I was actually a pretty rough-and-tumble kid. I liked wrestling with and fighting with boys, climbing and hanging from trees, launching my bike over giant construction-created hills in our area. I took regular forays into the woods, where I would kick over logs in search of slugs, frogs and salamanders.

(Actually, I'm 25, and I still kick over logs in search of slugs, frogs, and salamanders, because frogs, slugs, and salamanders hidden under logs are one of life's great joys.)

In elementary school I played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which was a pretty physical little role playing game (even though they always made me be April.)

I made boys cry and bleed countless times throughout my childhood just roughhousing along with them. I was into martial arts and bow-hunting.

Now I'm not nearly so crazy or adventurous, thinking always of safety first. But until I was about 10, I was rather Amazonian in nature. And there is still a part of me that is very physically tough. I wouldn't hesitate to throw a punch, and I'm reasonably confident I could take out a dude twice my size if I had to.

[Least Original User Name Ever]

I remember there was a big hill by my house. Part of it had woods on it, part didn't. Well, we carved a sledding track around a tree or two. Little sleds can be pretty maneuverable. Well, until you pound into the big tree at the bottom like I did.

Se, I got the idea that going face first would be more fun (which it was). I had an old wooden sled whose skids dug into the snow and brought me to an abrupt stop. That flung me forward right into the tree, which should probably have broken my collarbone.

It didn't, so we did it again and kept playing for the rest of the day. No casualties, no permanent damage.

[Captain Amazing]

Well, Three Stooges. I still have yet to find a woman who likes the Three Stooges.

But lets see, growing up, some things that tended to be single-sex? Oh, dodgeball. When I was a kid, we played dodgeball up against a brick wall. There was a lot of aiming for the head...that can be especially painful when you're just in front of the wall. That was pretty exclusively a boy acctivity.

[Infovore]

In fact, the only boy affectation I really do not get is taking doodie pictures of each other. That is, taking pictures when the other guy is laying a turd. It's just not funny.

People...actually do this? Often enough that there's a name for it? Ugh.

I was the world's biggest tomboy as a child (still am, actually--I'm a nerdy guy trapped in a female body) but I was never into risk-taking or particularly strenuous activities. I remember being annoyed at myself that I was fairly annoyed at myself for being such a wuss, but I didn't want to risk getting hurt or punished (my parents were great but they were strict about that sort of thing) so I didn't do it. So I guess in that way I was more the typical girl, though it definitely had nothing to do with being "girly" in any way. I was sort of a butch Hermione Granger. :)

[Simmerdown]

I remember there was a big hill by my house. Part of it had woods on it, part didn't. Well, we carved a sledding track around a tree or two. Little sleds can be pretty maneuverable. Well, until you pound into the big tree at the bottom like I did.

Se, I got the idea that going face first would be more fun (which it was). I had an old wooden sled whose skids dug into the snow and brought me to an abrupt stop. That flung me forward right into the tree, which should probably have broken my collarbone.

It didn't, so we did it again and kept playing for the rest of the day. No casualties, no permanent damage.

I, on the other hand did this on a toboggan--the kind with the curl. I stuck my head under and headed down the hill blind "just to see what would happen". Well, I hit the tree literally head on, and somehow managed to break my arm. I remember my first reaction being "do I have brain damage?!! Do I have brain damage??!!!" because I had recently seen a film version of Hans Brinker in which Hans' father became brain damaged after something heavy falling on him at work.

The other time I ran around shouting "do I have brain damage??!!! Do I have brain damage???!!!" was when I decided to jump a ramp on my bike. It was one of those long banana seat Schwinns, not a short BMX type bike better suited to this type of endeavor. I had to build the ramp myself, so when I was done with "up" ramp, I was too impatient to wait, so I did my Knievel impression without bothering to build a "down" ramp. I landed on my head.

Do I have brain damage?

[Kobal2]

Man, my childhood was lame compared to yours. Guess I've really never been that much of a guy. The worst I ever did was bury fireworks in cowpats. Cause, y'know, the only thing funnier than a shit geyser is shit splatter that might just land on your head. I once cut up silk sheets to make GI-Joe parachutes that'd be more historically authentic. That didn't went well either. I did the BB gun forest fight thing when I was 16 though, so there's that.

Oh, and my best friend and I used to build pillow mines where the He-Men slaves were forced to toil and die by their Playmobil overlords while they whipped naked Barbies in the comfort of their luxurious castle ; but I think that's less "boys being boys" and more "freaks being weirdoes" :)

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

I have yet to meet a female who snorted a Pixie Stick during childhood. I've met the occasional male who claims not to have done this, but he's lying.Well, it was my sister's idea for the two of us to snort Lik-'em-ade.

It was also her idea to make designs with Lysol spray on the carpet and light it on fire. Then we got a little overzealous and the carpet got scorched, so we poured wine on it to disguise the burn marks. Better to be punished for trying to steal our parents' wine than for trying to set the house on fire.

Come to think of it, it was also her idea for the Great Wasp War. Remember those plastic rulers they gave you in school? Well, she and I were in the 6th and 5th grade respectively, she enlisted me into the war on dumpster wasps. The schoolyard had a grey dumpster, the lid was closed, so wasps would have to land on the side and squeeze through the space between the lid and the side. As they were doing so, you'd bend back your ruler, then with a loud elastic SNAP! you could crush or fling your prey like a catapult.

The object of the game was to have the biggest pile of dead yellow jackets by the end of recess. I only got stung the one time.

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

Oh! And cracker eating contests! You try to see who can stuff the most saltines in their mouth at one time. When you laugh, it sprays crumbs everywhere.

[gravitycrash]

This might sound a little creepy but I used to kill or stun mosquitoes and watch for hours as I fed them to various ant hill colonies in my parents yard. It was so cool watching the ants take their prey down into the hole. I can't picture a girl doing or enjoying this.

[Incensed]

...The other time I ran around shouting "do I have brain damage??!!! Do I have brain damage???!!!" was when I decided to jump a ramp on my bike. It was one of those long banana seat Schwinns, not a short BMX type bike better suited to this type of endeavor. I had to build the ramp myself, so when I was done with "up" ramp, I was too impatient to wait, so I did my Knievel impression without bothering to build a "down" ramp. I landed on my head.

Do I have brain damage?Snerk...jesus, reminds me of my childhood. I was the minion of a couple of boys 3-4 years older than myself, was nearly terminally gullible and suffered grievously from that Optimism Bias mentioned upthread. Mix that up and add in 3 cheapo BMX style bikes, some cinderblocks and plywood, and you get a couple of 11 year olds building ramps that look like something out of a Rube Goldberg contest for the differently abled, and an 8 year old that the ER nurses know by name.

[Least Original User Name Ever]

Something that you can talk a girl into doing: playing Chubby Bunny. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chubby_Bunny)

Note how even Wikipedia has a picture of a guy doing it. Not a girl. Women make up for it when you search for images, though.

[Gwyen]

Another girl checking in here, and I STILL beat boys up if I need to.


I climbed trees, burned things, killed things, fed those things to other things, got dirty, and I actually have helped hang someone upside down from a tree. They were quite willing of course, until we left him there...
















what? I was 11, and we went back and got him....eventually.

[Simmerdown]

Oh! And cracker eating contests! You try to see who can stuff the most saltines in their mouth at one time. When you laugh, it sprays crumbs everywhere.

For us it was to see who could whistle first.

[Least Original User Name Ever]

Another girl checking in here, and I STILL beat boys up if I need to.


I climbed trees, burned things, killed things, fed those things to other things, got dirty, and I actually have helped hang someone upside down from a tree. They were quite willing of course, until we left him there...
















what? I was 11, and we went back and got him....eventually.

Yeah, we did that to the kid that lived across the street from me. We came back to see his shirt flopped over his head and a little puddle of tears in the dirt.

[Shodan]

Something that you can talk a girl into doing: playing Chubby Bunny. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chubby_Bunny)

Note how even Wikipedia has a picture of a guy doing it. Not a girl. Women make up for it when you search for images, though.
I didn't want to play this game until I read this from your cite -Chubby Bunny has caused at least two deaths, both from asphyxiation due to the throat being blocked with marshmallow:Now I'm game.

You go first.

Regards,
Shodan

[Shodan]

Oh! And cracker eating contests! You try to see who can stuff the most saltines in their mouth at one time. When you laugh, it sprays crumbs everywhere.My best friend Wesley won that one.

Regards,
Shodan

[Hazle Weatherfield]

Well, Three Stooges. I still have yet to find a woman who likes the Three Stooges.

But lets see, growing up, some things that tended to be single-sex? Oh, dodgeball. When I was a kid, we played dodgeball up against a brick wall. There was a lot of aiming for the head...that can be especially painful when you're just in front of the wall. That was pretty exclusively a boy acctivity.

I love the three Stooges and I'm a woman. Last New Year's Eve there was a Stooges Marathon and I couldn't have been more thrilled. I think it's an urban myth that women don't like the Stooges.

[Hazle Weatherfield]

Something that you can talk a girl into doing: playing Chubby Bunny. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chubby_Bunny)

Note how even Wikipedia has a picture of a guy doing it. Not a girl. Women make up for it when you search for images, though.

It's not a good idea, though! :eek:

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/chubbybunny.asp

[Oredigger77]

I have yet to meet a female who snorted a Pixie Stick during childhood. I've met the occasional male who claims not to have done this, but he's lying.

Done, they burn for the first couple and then you can't stop moving.

However, I’ll admit that when my brother, my male cousin, and my crazy uncle decided to run around in the woods shooting each other with BB guns, I went to play in the house.

At least they were smarter then my friends were we play in the house until we broke a window. Then we changed houses and discovered that we could shoot q-tips from pellet guns which were pretty accurate if you cut one end off, which didn't break windows. That was a blast until I got shot at short range and the q-tip stuck in my arm (still have the scar). I was 16.

Oh! And cracker eating contests! You try to see who can stuff the most saltines in their mouth at one time. When you laugh, it sprays crumbs everywhere.

We did those in college whenever we went to restaurants as an offensive line.

I love the three Stooges and I'm a woman. Last New Year's Eve there was a Stooges Marathon and I couldn't have been more thrilled. I think it's an urban myth that women don't like the Stooges.

I think a couple of other admitted this on a three stooges thread we had a while back but I've yet to see a girl laugh at one of their shorts, most of the time I get the eye-roll and walk-out.

[Least Original User Name Ever]

It's not a good idea, though! :eek:

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/chubbybunny.asp

What, two deaths in all the times that Chubby Bunny has been played? Bah. I'm unimpressed.

[Mtgman]

Female here. Hand me 65 peanut butter cups and prepare to be amazed!

However, I’ll admit that when my brother, my male cousin, and my crazy uncle decided to run around in the woods shooting each other with BB guns, I went to play in the house.
ONE pump, you asshole, ONE PUMP!

Enjoy,
Steven

[jjimm]

What, two deaths in all the times that Chubby Bunny has been played? Bah. I'm unimpressed.Note they were both fenale. Thus proving that girls shouldn't attempt dumbass things that boys do.

[Gyrate]

In junior high my friends and I came up with a game called "Silent Castle". The local playground had one of those climbing structures with the parallel bar thing in between two towers, with various slides and poles and platforms attached. The game was essentially Tag, except that:

1) If you were not It, you couldn't touch the ground. All dodging and hiding had to be on the structure somewhere; and

2) If you were It, you could touch the ground - but you were blindfolded.

Since it's easy to get cornered on these structures, we had several amazing leaps from one section to the other over the groping arms of the person who was It. The ground below was dirt, so if you fell off and managed to avoid braining yourself on the structure it would still hurt a lot.

We also had a game in which we each had a stick and we would throw frisbees at one another and attempt to bat it away before it hit us in the head. This would be played in darkness, when the frisbee was essentially invisible until right before it hit you.

And then there was the night-time boomerang throwing. That one stopped after we each got whacked in the neck a few times....

[Cat Fight]

Okay, while I truly believe most of what separates little boys and girls is socialization (I swear, even little babies– tell someone it's a boy and you get 'Ooh he's so tough' and girls 'What a flirt!'), there was one major difference between most of my little boyfriends and girlfriends as a kid. No girls I know tortured animals. If anything, we tried to bring sick and wounded birds back to health and held funerals when they didn't make it (which some of the more interesting and sensitive boys attended).

[Least Original User Name Ever]

In junior high my friends and I came up with a game called "Silent Castle". The local playground had one of those climbing structures with the parallel bar thing in between two towers, with various slides and poles and platforms attached. The game was essentially Tag, except that:

1) If you were not It, you couldn't touch the ground. All dodging and hiding had to be on the structure somewhere; and

2) If you were It, you could touch the ground - but you were blindfolded.

Since it's easy to get cornered on these structures, we had several amazing leaps from one section to the other over the groping arms of the person who was It. The ground below was dirt, so if you fell off and managed to avoid braining yourself on the structure it would still hurt a lot.

We also had a game in which we each had a stick and we would throw frisbees at one another and attempt to bat it away before it hit us in the head. This would be played in darkness, when the frisbee was essentially invisible until right before it hit you.

And then there was the night-time boomerang throwing. That one stopped after we each got whacked in the neck a few times....

We used to throw footballs over the street lights in the dark to each other. You'd see the ball come up, and then just happen t see it the split second before it beaned you.

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

No girls I know tortured animals. I'm a guy and never tortured an animal either. However, it was always open season on bugs. Not torturing them, we didn't pull the wings off of flies or anything (but we did make fly kites), but more along the lines of setting wasp nests on fire. My sister and I hung out with her friend (girl) and her friend's brother. The girls were willing participants in wanton bug destruction. Fire was always the weapon of choice.

I do believe that we inadvertently killed small toads while unsuccessfully trying to create homemade aquarium habitats in pickle jars, but usually if the toads started looking distressed we released them and they survived.

[Brown Eyed Girl]

Okay, while I truly believe most of what separates little boys and girls is socialization (I swear, even little babies– tell someone it's a boy and you get 'Ooh he's so tough' and girls 'What a flirt!'), there was one major difference between most of my little boyfriends and girlfriends as a kid. No girls I know tortured animals. If anything, we tried to bring sick and wounded birds back to health and held funerals when they didn't make it (which some of the more interesting and sensitive boys attended).

Snails don't count, right? Caterpillars either? And I swear what I did to my hamster was totally an accident. It did stink ever so.




*backs slowly away from the thread*

[Beware of Doug]

I've thought before that I sometimes feel like a lesbian trapped in a man's body (not really). I never had the urge or desire as a young child to participate in outdoor athletics (especially team sports), cursing/acting rude, or foolhardy stunts. My favorite thing to do was to act out pretend situations (action movie-type situations, granted). I am also a lot more commitment-minded than most guys. I am rather competitive, though, and I'm not very "emotional".What you are is the fifth sex, the heterosexual-without-portfolio. You might have been generally accepted as straight in the '70s and '80s, but in today's gender climate - where gay-tending people have a lot more freedom to go against type than straight-tending people - your orientation is open to question.

Before you go saying I'm just dealing out stereotypes, let me add that I'm a heterosexual-without-portfolio myself. It ain't no tea party. As false as stereotypes are, people live by them, and they're often very, very subtle.

[Shakes]

My friend and I one time got an empty milk jug, filled it half full with gasoline, stuck a rag in the top, lit the rag, then flung it with a huge ass sling shot that was originally meant for flinging water balloons.

We shot it out in a big empty field with lots of dried out grass. Obviously, we didn't exactly think this thing through. We practically shat our pants when the field began to catch on fire. Luckily we were able to stomp it out, but still.

The OP gave me a good chuckle. Kind of makes me think kids sitting all day in front of the TV playing video games may not be such a bad thing after all.

[DubsyUin]

All of this puts a smile on the face before the last final.

Let's see.

I remember in the old neighborhood we had a gigantic hill with, like, a 30 degree incline. So, lets take our skate boards up there and ride down it. We'll go really fast! Well, that was correct in my case. My friends skateboard had "brakes" on it. Mine didn't. So, I end up blazing down this freakin hill at thirty miles an hour while my friend coasts down. I'm thinking "Oh shit! Oh shit! (My friend taught me this one)" So, I bail out and tuck and roll. All I ended up doing was skinning my knee. Pure luck.

I remember in high school me and some friends digging up a bunch of Axe canisters. We took a look at the ingredients. Hey, look, alcohol and butane...YES! We proceeded to set my friends concrete patio on fire. That was actually kinda neat. You could just barely see a blue flame and could feel the heat. Other then that you couldn't see it. At that point, we found a cardboard box...So...let's....fill it up with axe spray and some pressurized canisters and set it on fire. Long and short, after waiting ten or so minutes behind a wall watching it burn. Just as we considered going out there and putting it out or poking it with a stick, a boom that could be heard a mile away goes off. Sets off car alarms down the street. We recorded it too if I remember. Awesome

I remember convincing a friend to eat a concoction of go-gurt, M&M's (with peanuts in them), apple and orange juice, a pepperoni, some mashed potatoes, smarties, a pixie stick, chocolate milk, regular milk, skittles, a piece of cheese, and damn something else. I went around the lunch room and collecting money from people to pay him to eat this shit. It worked. Took two bites. He spent the next two periods puking. Poor guy.

[Brown Eyed Girl]

I remember convincing a friend to eat a concoction of go-gurt, M&M's (with peanuts in them), apple and orange juice, a pepperoni, some mashed potatoes, smarties, a pixie stick, chocolate milk, regular milk, skittles, a piece of cheese, and damn something else. I went around the lunch room and collecting money from people to pay him to eat this shit. It worked. Took two bites. He spent the next two periods puking. Poor guy.

Yeah, but how much money did he make that day?


Not saying I'd do it, but I do admire his priorities. :D

[jjimm]

(but we did make fly kites)Please elaborate.

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

Please elaborate.Required materials:
1. strand of hair - preferably girl's (needs to be long)
2. fly - too stunned to flee
3. tape

Sometimes thread can be substituted for hair, but that takes forethought which we rarely had.

With great effort, you need to tie one end of the hair around the fly. My buddy had a really good knack for creating a kind of lasso that worked well, for me it was just trial and error. The other end of the hair, you taped to the corner of your desk. When the fly recovered, it would try to fly away, but was tethered to the desk like a little wee buzzing fly balloon or kite.

We mostly did this in grade nine science class. We also once used the bunsen burner valves to fill balloons with gas then light their strings on fire. Wasn't as cool as we'd hoped.

ETA: Note: if you use thread, be careful how tight you make it or you risk... er... halving your kite.

I have to say I laughed my ass off watching Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil because there was an "eccentric" character who had fly kites attached to his suit jacket.

[Brown Eyed Girl]

Swallowed My Cellphone, that is SO completely awesome, I'm impressed. I simply MUST try this.



What?!? We all have inner children that must be indulged.

[Mtgman]

My mother told me a great story of when she was a kid she'd go to the State Fair and they had chameleon lizards they'd sell you. They had a thread tied around their necks and the other end of the thread tied to a safety pin. You'd pin this chameleon to your shirt and it would crawl around on your shoulder, eventually turning the color of your shirt. It sounded so cool we started doing it. There are a lot of small chameleon-like lizards at my mom's house and the kids always try to catch them and make pets.

Enjoy,
Steven

[Incensed]

Swallowed My Cellphone, that is SO completely awesome, I'm impressed. I simply MUST try this....
June bugs. Or maybe yellow jackets, for the bold.

Gyrate, you're my kind of guy (I'm guessing). Whenever we had more than 4 people roving the neighborhood, it usually ended in some sort of war, wherein the group split into factions and laid siege to each other from 30-40 yards with anything vaguely round and apt to cause permanent ocular damage. Green walnuts were perfect.

And there were the hide-and-seek games in a friend's unfinished but furnished basement. No windows, all lights turned off, absolute darkness. The game usually ended when someone panicked and made a dash- you heard the rapid sh-sh-sh of socks on concrete followed by a ringing DING! as someone took a header on one of the metal posts that loomed in the darkness like unwelcome truths.

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

Swallowed My Cellphone, that is SO completely awesome, I'm impressed. I simply MUST try this.The hardest part, IMHO, is the fly capture and getting it to be still enough without killing it. We'd try to get them in cylindrical beakers (remeber this was a grade nine science class boredom activity). You shake the beaker to bounce the fly around until he was knocked out enough to slip your mostly pre-tied hair around. But shake the beaker too hard, and your fly would stop moving permanently. Or its wings would be damaged, so rather than a "fly kite" you'd have a "fly on a leash" which, while still having some amusement value, just wasn't the same.

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

And there were the hide-and-seek games in a friend's unfinished but furnished basement. No windows, all lights turned off, absolute darkness. The game usually ended when someone panicked and made a dash- you heard the rapid sh-sh-sh of socks on concrete followed by a ringing DING! as someone took a header on one of the metal posts that loomed in the darkness like unwelcome truths.One of my college roommates was childhood best friends with a kid whose family ran, and lived in, a funeral home. Apparently the games of hide and seek there were legendary!

[cmyk]

When I was 16, me and a couple of friends drove up north to shoot a "movie" we had in mind. Of course this meant lots of fire. I think every girl I ever knew would have interjected about the point where we were dousing a hill of dry grass and shrubs full of gasoline in the middle of a huge field (surrounded by woods). Why gasoline you ask? Because we couldn't find enough black powder. I'm surprised I still have my fingers. Anyway, we had all experimented with fire before, and felt confident in our abilities to control it. Needless to say, the resultant fireball that went up with a WHOOMP of heat, once we threw the first match, could've been seen from the moon. Then it was about 10 minutes of us frantically trying to put the blaze out with our jackets and sand, before it could get severely and truly out of control and set the entire forest on fire. It was a close call, and you think we would've learned our lesson. Surely any girl would have. We were out the next day setting more shit on fire with the camera rolling with a (5 gallon!) bucket of water nearby.

Thankfully, I'm still here to testify. Can't say much for the scorched earth we left behind.

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

Can't say much for the scorched earth we left behind.And to this day, UFO enthusiasts make a yearly pilgrimage to your "landing site".

[Least Original User Name Ever]

I was over Bob's house, playing video games one day, when Craig comes in and proclaims "I know how to make napalm!"
"The fuck you do", I said.
"No, really, get some gas and some petroleum jelly, maybe some styrofoam peanuts. They'll dissolve into the gas and we'll have napalm!"
"Well, shit, I'm sold"

So we go over to the gas station. We knew the guy that ran and worked there We had all worked there for some length of time in our past as well. When we go to get 15 cents in gas in a Pepsi bottle, the clerk paused a moment.
"Listen, you little fuckers. I don't know what you're doing, or why you want 15 cents of gas to be put in a Pepsi bottle, but I know nothing about this, understand?"

So we go to the church parking lot a couple blocks away. It's dark by now and we had whipped up a half-fist-sized glop of this stuff on the concrete. Craig and I were huddled over this thing with matches, trying to get it to catch fire, which it didn't seem to want to do. Bob, who was filling up a Zippo lighter, figured he'd add to the mix. He squirted the glop with fluid and we put a match to it. The fluid caught fire instantly and burned. It caught the glop on fire as well, and the fire started to grow. It was at this point that we realized that none of us accounted for...you know...a fire. So we did what any kids would have done with a steadily-growing fire. We ran.

We ran to Bob's house, less than a block away, past the baseball field and a couple of doors down. I distinctly remember looking back after getting past the baseball diamond and seeing a pillar of flames up over the hedges.

We went back the next day and saw this nifty scorch mark in the cement.

[cmyk]

Exactly. I'm sure all the other UFO sites they have logged are really just the results of no-good punks "entertaining" themselves.

Then again, we did happen to burn the foliage in a rough shape of a fractal, and buried a piece of aluminum with strange markings engraved into it, in the center of the ruination. Just to fuck with 'em.

[CAT=^..^=]

Female here. I can think of dozens of things I did over the years that would have put my mother in a coma had she known.

I was raised on a farm. There are 4 girls and 2 boys in our family. I was kid #5.
One thing we all did once was climb to the top of the ladder on the side of the barn and jump off into a huge pile of straw. We climbed way past the haymow entrance, to just below the roof. I don't know the height, but it is at least 2+ stories up. The pile was huge, but as the day wore on it got smaller and flatter. We had the neighbor kids join in too, at one point. Two more girls and a boy.
My Pa nearly killed us when he saw the pile all spread out. How we all survived with not even a broken bone I will never know. When I look at it now, I can't even imagine jumping from half that height.

Another fun farm game was to see who could grab on to the electric fence and hold it the longest. I admit to instigating this one. I got caught up in it and couldn't let go once. It was probably only 2 seconds, but I never did it again after that! It might explain some things about why I am like I am today.
After that incident I would do the much safer, hold-the-water-hose on the fence method. And then all the kids around would join hands and feel the shock with me. Wheeeeeee.

Good times.

[Zulema]

This is a boys never grow out of seeking danger story;

I bought an old Chevy Vega for 25.00 once. It strangely had an excellent running engine but had been stored dirty, in MI, where they use 100% salt on the roads in winter. When I drove it rust flecks would rain from the ceiling. Rain would rain from the ceiling. It was as solid as a strainer. Well, it needed a new muffler and I couldn't get the old one off so I asked my dad for help. He grabbed his blow torch and crawled under the car. I said "Dad, I don't think that's a good idea", he said that it would be fine. I said "I'll just go wait inside by the phone."

It did turn out fine but I thought it was a risky move. After the summer I sold it to the junkyard for 35.00.

[jjimm]

I just remembered a) aged seven throwing an empty metal oil can on a fire we'd lit in the woods, with the lid screwed firmly on, and being knocked off my feet by the shockwave when it exploded; and b) my friend "Q" pouring a puddle of gasoline on the ground, lighting it, then running through it and leaving a line of flaming footprints down the street.

Q was actually very creative in this regard. Not only did he and my brother burn a giant swastika into a local field - not because they are nazis, but because they wanted to see if they could cause a witchhunt for fascists in the local papers - but they also stole a tripod from the chemistry lab, put a full butane gas cannister on it and set a blow torch burning underneath it, then retreated to a "safe" distance. After ten minutes nothing had happened, so they approached to see what had gone wrong - at which point it went WHOMP and the cannister disappeared into the sky, never to be seen again, leaving a two foot crater beneath where it had been.

[Dosipede]

Things that came out of my mouth during childhood:

"If we throw a rope over that branch and tie it down, we can swing from the roof. It'll be awesome!"
Result: one case of severely rope-burned hands and a mild concussion (separate incidents)

"Bottle rocket war? Sounds awesome. Even better if we do it in the dark and use strings of firecrackers as grenades!"
Result: no serious damage.

"I built this fort out of popsicle sticks. I'm gonna take it in the backyard and set up a buncha army guys in it."
"Then what?"
"Then I'm gonna set it on fire."
Result: neighbors complained to my parents.

"If we glue this model rocket to this model car, what do we get? A rocket car."
Result: awesome.

"Everyone pops a Sour Warhead, a Hot Warhead and an Atomic Fireball in their mouth at the same time. Last person to spit them out and drink water wins."
Result: some hair on the chest.

"I stomped on 14 bees at recess."
Result: Don't we have a bee shortage? Crap.

"BEEEELLLLLLLCH"
"And what do we say?"
"Thank you."
Result: timeout.

"I threw my toad farther than you."
"Yeah, but mine went higher."
Result: ummm... natural selection?

"First person to chug their milk wins!"
Result: One giant gulp of rotten milk, and that was the end of that.

Each of these activities was undertaken either of my own volition, or under pressure from other boys. I knew a guy in high school who set his house on fire trying to kill black widows with a lighter and hairspray. Even though it was a serious financial hardship for his family, he endured severe ridicule at the hands of his peers. I don't recall seeing any of this type of activity from those of the female persuasion.

[sturmhauke]

Hmm, what are some of the dumber stunts I did as a boy...

playing tag on the rooftops at a school, leaping between buildings
playing bike tag; "it" had to hit the other players with a tennis ball while everyone rode around at high speed
lighting various and sundry things on fire
trying to make a spark by putting paper clips into an extension cord and then plugging it in (didn't work)
walking across the concrete support beams of an unfinished freeway overpass
climbing up and across the little walkway on a frieght train car while the train was stopped
jumping out of trees
climbing insanely high up on trees or fences (30+ feet)
bicycling along a winding country road with no shoulder at night and no lights other than headlights

[groo]

When I was a lad, we'd break into a construction site nearby and play. At some point, there was a huge pile of sand on the property (maybe six feet high), so we did the only logical thing: rode our bikes out of the second floor aiming to land on said pile of sand. Several females were present, but they declined to participate.

When I was old enough to know better, I participated in the commandeering of several electric carts from my school's maintenance area one night. Then we started racing them around the athletic track and, as my cart was overtaking another one in a turn, I did the only logical thing: I swung myself into the back of the cart and jumped to the cargo area of the other cart. (Or so they told me at the hospital). No females spotted in the area.

[AngryIrishLass]

I was tomboy through and through - tree houses, sword fights, getting stuck in pipes, testing that leeches do exactly what they do. Though I drew the line at setting anything on fire or torturing animals (cow taunting doesn't count does it?).

When I lived in upstate NY, we lived at the top of a hill. In the wintertime, we'd ride our sleds full speed down the hill to the busiest street in town. Of course it being the dead of winter, other than a city bus and an occasional car, it was pretty clear. In the summertime, my friend Chrissy and I decided we did it all winter, why not in the summer? We rode our bikes down the hill, arms and legs splayed, to slam on the brakes. The bigger the cloud of smoke and the closer to Main St. you got, the cooler you were. Of course, traffic was much worse. One time Chrissy miscalucated her timing and had the choice of hitting a huge oak tree or careening through traffic. She hit the tree with such force, every part of her exposed skin was bleeding. She looked like she was bleeding to death but after the fireman wiped her down, there was no more blood nor a cut. She immediately claimed it was a miracle from God and smiled like a darling. We were both spanked after the firemen left. We also didn't get our bikes back that summer (of course her's was pretty mangled).

In the late 70s, while living on Treasure Island, my parents and pretty much all parents on our block went to the base Christmas party. The oldest on the block who was supposed to be keeping on eye on us was entertaining her boyfriend. We, the 10 or so roaming the streets, decided it'd be great to ring in the new year. Everyone went and got their dad's stash of fireworks. I grabbed 2 packages of bottle rockets from the 10 or so my dad had and had particular fun at pointing them at people. My brother got the little bombs. We had a great time, only one kid got a significant burn. The 'babysitter' came out and freaked out and made us clean up all the evidence, which admittedly we had not thought about. We got away with it, though I think the parents knew we had done something.

There wasn't confirmation until July, when my dad went to get his stash out of the closet. Seems my brother used over half of my dad's illegal stash of M-80s. He tried to ban us from the festivities of the 4th, but my mom wouldn't let him. My father still complains about it.

Just last weekend my 7 & 9 year old and I did the cracker game. :) We did it again when the 18 yro got home from his date and complained about missing out.

[Spiff]

Guy here.

My friend Pat and I loved to play handball ... with a dangerous twist:

1. Spray tennis ball with lighter fluid.
2. Ignite ball.
3. Volley flaming ball back and forth using hands.
4. Repeat.

Well, we did wear heavy-duty work gloves ... which caught on fire most of the time because a flaming lighter-fluid-soaked ball will shed some of its flaming lighter fluid when it rapidly changes direction by 180 degrees!

[InterestedObserver]

Female.

Did tons of risky stuff as a kid (still do from time to time;)). Often with other girls like my friends or cousins, sometimes with a boy or few in tow.

Climbing trees, made tree "swings" out of assorted rusty metal and ropes, crawling around in the rotten rafters of the old tool shed, playing in the old storm cellar (strictly forbidden since the door and stairs were rotten and full of rusted nails...we cleaned the rotten stairs out and used the slope as a slide), started fires, brought home dead animals and parts of them, caught turtles in the nasty ditch, jumped off the roof, rode bikes down the VERY steep hill near home at death-defying speeds, I can't even remember it all. It's a wonder any of us survived childhood. :D

I think a great deal of these "natural" differences come down to nurture, not nature, though I'm not beyond accepting that there are inherent differences generally (beyond the genitalia, I mean). But generalizations aside, I think it ultimately comes down to the individual and factors other than sex.

I worked with young children for many years, and knew plenty of boys who refused to get their hands dirty or climb the playscape and plenty of girls who "ran with the boys" and were fearless. (and I don't think those predispositions have a damn thing to do with sexual orientation...I wouldn't call myself "girly", per se, but I'm sure not "butch" and I clean up REAL nice:))

Back when I was growing up, we kids ran pretty much wild from dawn to dusk, outside, in a rather rural setting. We had plenty of chances to get into trouble and try risky things. Many kids today have a much more sheltered existence.

[Santo Rugger]

How many of this gals in this thread who claimed to have snorted pixie sticks snorted red pepper from a pizza joint?

Didn't think so. :D

[Karyn]

I snorted cayenne once. It's a long story, but does that count?