I recently got a call from Hawaii, from my old Air Force buddy Tom. (He’s stationed there now) I enlisted right out of high school, so the AF for me was like the college experience to most people, and my squadron was my fraternity. We got caught up on what’s happened to us (Tom’s married, I almost got married, yada yada) and then we started reminscing about the stupid things we did with our friends.
We got drunk and stole a 7-foot cardboard whale. (Long story, got arrested for that!)
Three of us got drunk and went for a swim in San Antonio’s Riverwalk. (Got arrested for that too)
Five of us got drunk and went skinny dipping on a private beach in Florida. (Again, arrested)
“Borrowed” a friend’s car who was out of town and drove to Houston for a concert.
Got drunk and got involved in numerous fights at the NCO club. (Got arrested twice out of 7 fights)
Any fond memories of your youth that seem really irresponsible and stupid now that you’ve gotten older, but you can’t help but enjoying the memories in spite of it?
I did plenty of dumb and irresponsible things when in my brash and foolish 18-24 years, but can’t think of anything that seems especially wonderful in retrospect, just experience gained.
I also did dumb things as a kid, as I know (from other threads) most other people did as well. The one that stuck in my mind for some reason involved the kid next door, who, during the few years they lived there, was the only other kid in the neighborhood, so the only real playing companion. We lived by a big woods and did most of our playing there. This was a completely untamed woods (no paths and such), so we were always in the underbrush, the stream, the weeds, and there were plenty of Mother Nature’s pesky bugs and insects at all times. The solution, of course, is OFF, and we always had a can accessible to us. I suppose we took our mothers’ lessons in frugality too seriously, because when a can got down to where it would no longer spray but you could hear a little bit still sloshing around the the bottom, we decided for some reason that it was important that it not go to waste. So we tackled it with ice picks, performing the very puncturing specifically forbidden by the label. Also, because it was late fall and a cold day, we had matches and were trying to light a fire out of some twigs at the same time, thus embracing the second part of the standard warning about incinerating/using near open flame. This seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do at the moment. It wasn’t.
I don’t think this quite answers the OP, in that I can’t say I particularly enjoy the memory of this occasion, but it was what the title made me think of.
In high school, some friends and I stole a Men at Work road sign and some cones, and made a coffee table out of it. It had really sharp edges, but that didn’t stop us from playing cards at it whenever we were at Eliott’s house, just on general principles.
While I was in college, I participated in one of the coed naked soccer games that are held on the library lawn in the wee hours of the morning during the week after spring finals every year. I was one of the few women who went totally nude. Hell, I was one of the few women. (I’d estimate there were maybe 6 women, and like 50 men.) It’s a fond memory, you havn’t lived until you’ve gotten buck naked and chased a soccer ball in front of about 200 spectators. I wouldn’t have participated, but I was pissed because the administration had decided to stop ignoring the tradition and tried to put a stop to it that year, so I had to do it on general principle.
You people make me feel like I was born yesterday.
I haven’t even REACHED my “brash and foolish 18-24 years” so I really don’t have anything to contribute, except that once when I was young (by my standards) my friend and I were taking turns locking each other in a cooler she had. Far be it for me to take the intelligent way out, namely not letting her lock me in the cooler. However, bit by bit, she talked me into this game by first offering not to lock the cooler, but to simply close it. I was almost traumatized and/or brain damaged when I ran out of air and she wouldn’t let me out of the cooler. That day, I became a little bit wiser. (On retrospection, we had an old refrigerator which would have served the purpose of revenge quite nicely. . . )
Growing up, my friend and I (the friend I am going to be the best man to soon) were pretty much pyromaniacs. Made homemade bombs, set the creek on fire with gasoline, turned cans of deicer into flame throwers (I set my skateboard on fire once with deicer once and rode it at night, thereby setting my pantlegs on fire.) Its VERY lucky we are still alive and unmaimed today. I dont know who was watching us but someone was.
In my early rebel teenage years I was also a big time shoplifter. That ended when I got caught at 16. Never not paid for another thing since.
Stupid kid. Stupid stupid kid, I’d like to smack some since into ya today!
Holy shit, you did that too? Glad I’m not the only one. I was stationed at Ft Sam Houston at the time. (Fuck, GIs are obnoxious! ;)) Didn’t get arrested though. We just raced across real fast. Well, that’s what happens after a long night at Dick’s Last Resort…
the stupidest thing I did as a kid is shoplift. I shoplifted anything that wasn’t glued down at Epcot,once. Then I rearranged all the items. I put sombreros in japan. I put ceramic elephants in France. I put morracan drums i England!!!
It all stopped when i got caught in a super market with my parents. One of the stock men were watching me and took me to my parents. I have NEVER stole anything since. I am even tenative to step into that supermarket eight years later.
I’d be more worried about my skin shriveling up and falling off after dipping in the riverwalk. Not to mention… we’ve seen some pretty good sized snakes swimming around in that dump, they have a hole they like to stay in right under the bridge by starbucks… sheeesh. you’re lucky you got arrested before something bad happened
We had been going from bar to bar all night and ended up at Dick’s Last Resort. After a couple of buckets of beer, we were heading back to find a cab to take us home, when my friend Greg decided he wanted to go swimming. We all thoguth that was a great idea, stripped to our underwear and jumped in. We were there for about 10 minutes when a police officer made us get out – prompting one of my favorite lines from my friend Tom.
Policeman - “What are you guys doing there?”
Tom - “I lost my contact lens.”
The cop told us, had we not stripped down to our skivvies, he would have simply sent us home, but being undressed got us arrested. No charges were filed, our 1st Sgt picked us up and brought us back to base. The next day we were informed we were confined to base for 60 days and not allowed to drink alcohol for that time.
Never really bein’ much of a drinker I was afraid I wouldn’t have anything to contribute to this thread but then memory struck.
It’s not on par with gettin’ naked or anything but how about envision me as a 4 year old chance-ling feeding an entire bucket of KFC to a 12 foot, 3-legged wild alligator in the everglades after I ran off from our campsite.
When dad found me I truly learned that humans CAN exceed lightspeed with the proper impetus.
We found it by the river, one of the guys kicked it and I shouted “Loose ball” and it started from there.
Not sure, maybe Disturbing the Peace? I’m sure it was disturbing to watch.
3)Stevens Point, Wisconsin USA
4)In my case, bourbon, not sure about the others.
5)It’s neck sort of broke off during the game
6)No, we only decapitate our enemies, not drinking partners.
Glad you enjoyed the story, This occasion was actually re-enacted about 2 years later, using a goose decoy. (head removed of course)
