If you grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, you probably can’t even imagine being a child in a world where you’d have a cell phone by the age of ten and access to unlimited information on the internet. Just picture never having to rush to pee during a commercial break because there are no commercials and you can pause your show at any moment. Unbelievable.
But having little access to the internet and television had Millennials and Gen-X kids out in the yard, breaking into abandoned houses, playing with dangerous things lying around the house, and doing all kinds of stuff that should have probably killed us.
Redditor u/bananawhack asked: “What unsupervised childhood activities did you participate in, that probably should have killed you?”
Here are 18 stories that will take you back to a simpler time when you actually felt invincible.
1.
“My cousins and I, from the time we were toddlers, were just sent out into the forest in the morning with nothing but whistles to “scare the bears.” One time I chased a bear.” –Katy-L-Wood
2.
“We used to play with chemicals in my neighbors garage. Like combine all different kinds of chemicals we could find, I would assume lawn care and car chemicals , in her garage into a hole in the cement floor. At least we were smart or lucky enough to keep the garage door open.” –rrt527
3.
“I grew up in Kigali, Rwanda. After the 1994 genocide there were land mines all over the place. We used to walk to our primary school (about 1.5km). As kids we used to place soccer on the street while walking to school, so 1 day the ball fell in the bush as always, and i went for it. Little did i know the the stone-like thing under the ball was a notorious landmine, i got the ball and i asked the other older kid what it was. 10 min later the entire neighborhood was on site talking about how i just cheated death. Never will i ever forget it. If i stepped on the mine that afternoon, i would n’t be writing this today.” –chyco4j4j
4.
“My brother and I would bend our mattresses in half and then sit on them, release them and fling ourselves across the room into the wall. We were not bright children but damn did we have fun.” –saturatedscruffy
5.
“Tree riding. Climb a tree and have your friends cut it down. We would have contests to see who would climb the highest. I won more than once. I cannot fathom how I nor anyone else was not seriously hurt, never mind killed.” –Babydontcomeback
6.
“One day we found a vine that was dangling next to a ravine and do a Tarzan Juno across it. It was probably a good 30 foot drop to the bottom of a pit filled with jagged rock and dubious puddles of ick. I wasn’t supposed to show my parents, but I did one day and they freaked out and cut it down.” –GeneralLoofah
7.
“We were preteens, owners of red Ryder BB guns, and unsupervised rounds of ammunition. We would get bored at plinking cans, birds, and squirrels, so we lined up shotgun shells and .22 rounds and shot them with our BB guns. We would routinely have to dodge the .22 casings shooting back at us after we hit the primer.” –throwaway75693
8.
“Lawn darts. Except no one was throwing em at the rings. Nope toss em straight up in the sky and scatter.” –BigBald
9.
“For a little bit it was a middle school fad to throw yourself off public buses as they were slowing down and do a roll on the sidewalk. I smacked my midsection on a telephone pole and had bruises for weeks.” –Sembregall
10.
“I used to rollerblade off the roof and onto the trampoline….it hurts to think about it now. I’m still shocked I never got hurt!” –Melrob17