# Did you have a "stick" as a kid? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 10, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966 "2009-05-10T20:05:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/21 "2009-05-11T01:17:59Z")
Yup, with the penknife I asked my parents for as a kid (Swiss Army, in honour of MacGyver :p) I whittled the bark off many a stick, for no better reason than to admire my handiwork. Good times 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/22 "2009-05-11T01:51:35Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Have video games also meant the death of the stick? Boo! ☹ I had a stick, and also played a lot of video games. ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/23 "2009-05-11T10:18:27Z")
My twelve year old son has a stick in our front hallway right now, that I am strictly forbidden from touching. He’s always got one on the go. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/24 "2009-05-11T12:53:33Z")
I had one too. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/25 "2009-05-11T13:10:14Z")
I lived in the country, so I didn’t have a stick, but would often find one and wave it around wherever I wandered. In fact, sometimes I still do that. ---
**Author:** ![TheFaerie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@TheFaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFaerie)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/26 "2009-05-11T13:14:14Z")
I’m going camping next weekend. I think I’ll find a good stick while I’m out. Work great for knocking down spider webs in the hiking path. My husband has two or three sticks sitting around the house right now, but he doesn’t do much with them. My grandfather was a woodcarver and carved faces and animals into walking sticks to sell at craft fairs and ren fairs. He liked sticks. Apparently it’s in my blood. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/27 "2009-05-11T13:16:12Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I lived in the country, so I didn’t have a stick, but would often find one and wave it around wherever I wandered. > > In fact, sometimes I still do that. So _thats_ where my stick went! 😉 Why would living in the country preclude you from having a stick? ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/28 "2009-05-11T13:18:40Z")
I always had a stick. I preferred long, thin, slightly flexible sticks… for some reason, one of my favorite activities was to find a field full of giant dandelions or other weeds, and chop them down with my stick. I also had swordfighting sticks, club sticks, and javelin sticks. (I also had my mom’s yardsticks for these tasks when she wasn’t looking… boy, breaking a yardstick was a major sin back then…) ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/29 "2009-05-11T17:34:01Z")
I had many sticks. I preferred a stick about as long as my arm and as big around as my thumb for most of my stick purposes. Waving and pointing figured prominently there. The very best sticks were straight and relatively stiff. No stick lasted more than a day. One of the really cool things one could do with a stick like that is spear a windfall apple on the end of it then use it as a sort of atlatl to throw the apple with nearly lethal velocity at a playmate. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/30 "2009-05-11T17:55:42Z")
I think some people aren’t quite getting it. He doesn’t mean did you have one particular stick that lasted your boyhood. He means did you pick up a stick to accompany you when you were out romping around-- typically to be tossed aside before the end of the day. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/31 "2009-05-11T17:57:12Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > atlatl Nice word use! Just learned about those a few months ago. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/32 "2009-05-11T18:15:59Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I think some people aren’t quite getting it. He doesn’t mean did you have one particular stick that lasted your boyhood. He means did you pick up a stick to accompany you when you were out romping around-- typically to be tossed aside before the end of the day. Of course. What else can one poke at frogs with? Improving your stick and keeping it around is more of an adult hobby. Here’s my adult version, made of stuff I found while out walking (deer antler, stick, malachite): [![](https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/malthusmalthus/Artwork/Dsc00361.jpg) ](https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/malthusmalthus/Artwork/Dsc00361.jpg) [![](https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/malthusmalthus/Artwork/Dsc00360.jpg) ](https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/malthusmalthus/Artwork/Dsc00360.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/33 "2009-05-11T18:19:40Z")
Brandishing. I don’t know how I could have forgotten to mention brandishing as one of the chief uses for a stick. ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/34 "2009-05-11T18:22:21Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I think some people aren’t quite getting it. \ Great, I’m used to being out of my depths in GQ threads, but missing the point in a thread about sticks! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/35 "2009-05-11T18:50:38Z")
> [@SiXSwordS](#): > > Great, I’m used to being out of my depths in GQ threads, but missing the point in a thread about sticks! :smack: Go to your room. And think about what you’ve done. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/36 "2009-05-11T19:14:01Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Improving your stick and keeping it around is more of an adult hobby. > > Here’s my adult version, made of stuff I found while out walking (deer antler, stick, malachite): > > [http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/malthusmalthus/Artwork/Dsc00361.jpg](http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/malthusmalthus/Artwork/Dsc00361.jpg) > > [http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/malthusmalthus/Artwork/Dsc00360.jpg](http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/malthusmalthus/Artwork/Dsc00360.jpg) Holy good glurgledroolqwkojdtdtr . . . I’m at a loss for words for how awesome that is. Great job! ---
**Author:** ![ethelbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/958977/32.png) [@ethelbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ethelbert)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/37 "2009-05-11T19:20:52Z")
I had a Log. It’s big. It’s Heavy. It’s wood. Better than bad! It’s Good! ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/38 "2009-05-11T19:53:14Z")
I never did the stick thing, but the younger boy my mom babysat _always_ had one in hand. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/39 "2009-05-11T19:57:55Z")
I had many sticks, but only one Stick. I found a gnarled knot of a very thick grape-vine on a campout when I was 14, and I still have it. It’s in my car right now. It’s kiln dried, and hard as stone. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966/40 "2009-05-11T20:12:10Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Of course. What else can one poke at frogs with? > > Improving your stick and keeping it around is more of an adult hobby. > > Here’s my adult version, made of stuff I found while out walking (deer antler, stick, malachite): > > [http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/malthusmalthus/Artwork/Dsc00361.jpg](http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/malthusmalthus/Artwork/Dsc00361.jpg) > > [http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/malthusmalthus/Artwork/Dsc00360.jpg](http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/malthusmalthus/Artwork/Dsc00360.jpg) That is cool. But I have to ask, do you actually use it? Those horns look pretty uncomfortable. Unless… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-a-stick-as-a-kid/495966.md?page=3)