Did they even have hood ornaments in the early 90s? I thought they disappeared in the early 80s. Might be a good GQ topic.
They sure did, and wearing them as necklaces was a short-lived fad after some rappers did it.
Around this time, there were numerous reports to the police from people who had gone to a certain shopping center in my town, and found their hood ornaments missing, usually broken off. :eek: The police assumed it was teenagers doing this rather than go to a dealership and pay $50 or so for a new one, but that wasn’t the case.
So, who was doing this?
One day, a mom was hanging clothes up in her 10-year-old son’s closet, a boy who had never gotten into any kind of serious trouble, and opened a shoebox that didn’t seem to belong in his closet. You guessed it - several dozen hood ornaments, along with the wire cutters her husband had been looking for a few days earlier. :eek: She called the police, and her husband at work, and the principal called the boy into his office and he was confronted with Exhibit A. He said, “Me and (he names his 2 best friends) have been collecting them.” Later, when the boys were told how much the ornaments cost, one of them vomited in the principal’s trash can. :o
Because it couldn’t be proven who did it, the boys’ punishment was that they had to write letters of apology to all the people who reported their hood ornaments missing, and the thefts largely ended after this.
Cocaine
Throwing water balloons at hookers as we drove past them on the street. I was 16.
As a kid who had been bullied I hate myself for taking part in bullying even weaker kids because I was thankful it wasn’t me. It was so cowardly of me.
Ditto. And more than once.
Gotta take either more of it or less of it.
When I was 14, I stole a sweet (literally a single jelly baby :smack:), because of peer pressure.
(I went back the next day and paid for it.)
Probably knifing that hobo in Winnemuca.
Hit a guy in the crotch, unprovoked.
I know, it’s awful.
Context: 1990s high school band camp. The guys, being guys, were into this peculiar behavior they called ‘‘meat checking’’ which was basically thunking each other in the balls, unprovoked, for masculine good times.
I’m a female. I sat in a row full of these guys (trombone.) This guy who had always bullied me and treated me like shit whispered in my ear that I should meat check the kid on the other side of me. I didn’t know the victim that well, he was a freshman I think, but he had greater social status than me within our ranks and he was friends with the kid telling me to do this. I said no, a lot of times, and the guy spent the entire class trying to persuade me, telling me it would be no big deal, people would realize I had a good sense of humor, I was too uptight, etc. etc.
He wore me down. So, I did it. I hit the poor kid right in the balls. He never saw it coming.
Problem: I’m a woman. I had no idea what an ‘‘appropriate’’ level of force would be, if there ever could be such a thing. I applied wayyyy too much force. The kid was on the ground. I felt horrible. He hated me for life. He probably still hates me, when he thinks of me.
The rest of the guys thought it was hilarious. ‘‘You weren’t supposed to do it that hard omg ahahaha!’’
I am not defending this behavior in any way. I was just too fucking stupid to realize what the potential consequences could be. I didn’t realize he could be really hurt, I didn’t realize I was committing assault. I could have been suspended or worse.
Ugh.
There was a kid in middle school who was very androgynous, had a unisex name, didn’t take gym for some reason, and nobody ever saw using the restrooms. This kid was bullied a lot, and the “joke” was that nobody could tell whether this kid was a boy or girl. I once joined in on that with the other boys. That is hands down the worst thing I’ve ever done because of peer pressure (& it was perfectly legal unlike some other things).
In retrospect I’m fairly certain that kid was transgender (hopefully is still alive). Oh, and did I mention I was an overweight closeted gay teen? Ironically I was never actually on the receiving end of any homophobic bullying, despite later finding out my closet was more transparent than I thought.
Wow, that’s pretty damn ironic. Life is funny like that sometimes.
Or possibly intersex? Those are not the same thing.
Started smoking but i am quit now for 2 1/2 months. Just don’t ever start, kids.
There was a kid in our junior high who was even more reviled and marked for hostile teasing and harassment than I was, and largely for the same reason (being perceived as feminine + dorky + easily outraged by that kind of treatment). I should have made common cause with him but instead because I was marginally more resilient in a few ways and was gradually making a few friends, I pretty much avoided him to avoid escalating my own torment. I left him out there to twist in the wind alone.
Yes, I’d say '92 or '93.
In my early 20’s I threw a beer can (or cans) out my car window because everyone else the car was doing it, and I didn’t want beer cans rolling around in my clean car. Still feel bad about it.
Shop lift and get caught.