Originally Posted by Rick Lee (Post 4584974)

I had a stupid neighbor when I was a kid whose parents would believe any lie he ever told them. One day my dad arrived home and saw the kid chipping golf balls into our yard and driveway. My dad told him to change directions so as to avoid windows. An hour later my dad came outside again and found a hole in his windshield and a golf ball in his driver's seat with the kid's dad's name printed on it. Would you believe the kid denied he'd done it and his parents believed him?

Originally Posted by Jims5543 (Post 4585004)

By any chance was the last name on the Golf Ball, "Hamilton"?

Originally Posted by Tim Hancock (Post 4584631)

Good for you Matt! BB guns, BMW bikes, slingshots, skateboards, pocketknives, minibikes, go-carts ect will be outlawed someday if the country keeps heading down the path it is presently headed.

The wussification of America.

Originally Posted by VINMAN (Post 4584574)

I remember when the "Wrist Rocket" slingshot first came out. That was like the Barret .50 cal of slingshots. Ordered mine from the back Boys Life magazine. My dad confiscated that thing real quick.

Originally Posted by widebody911 (Post 4584602)

I had one of those. I would take out car windows on passing freight trains - a lot of K cars arrived at the dealer dinged up. I think I'm single-handedly responsible for the new enclose auto carrier rail car design.

Originally Posted by techweenie (Post 4585409)

When I was growing up, back when we weren't "wussified," the neighbor kid shot out his brother's eye with a bow and arrow. It literally changed the kid's life overnight. He had been outgoing and turned shy and became withdrawn. Nothing the family did -- even the one-eyed brother -- could bring the kid back.
You risk destroying more than one life if you give a kid destructive power without proper orientation.

Originally Posted by Laneco (Post 4584661)

I honestly think that boys are "wired" to break things...

Our easy-going, kind-hearted son broke his first window when he was 5. He was playing with an old tennis racket, tossing small stones into the air and whacking them. Well, he whacked one through the window of my Jaguar.... The rear door side window that is unique to series II long wheelbase cars.

He broke another window with a baseball at the day care providers a few years later - a house window this time.

When he was about 9, he and his cousins were out on a big lot that we have (1 acre), they were playing golf. The cousins are kind of wimpy and don't hit very far. Ryan hit the ball the length of the lot, over the road, past the side walks, subsequent yard and through a newly built house's window. That one cost about $500 out of pocket, but at a solid 200 yards was a hell of a hit for a 9 year old kid. :rolleyes:

We have numerous guns and he even has a 22 rifle. We are very strict about when and where these items may be handled. His grandmother bought him a pellet gun and despite my numerous warnings, has failed to put into place good safety rules. Well, Ryan was shooting too close to the house, hit a metal bucket and the richochet nailed grandma in the arm.

Boy was she PISSED! :p

I guess the point that I am making is to keep the truly dangerous items limited in access, but the fact is that boys will be boys. You could take every item away from them and they would throw rocks and break things. You're going to buy a few windows while they are growing up. Roll with it and accept it as a way to "meet the neighbors" and teach kids the value of broken items in relation to the work they will do to fix them.

angela

Originally Posted by jyl (Post 4585742)

Those two dormitories hated each other, every year, for decades and to this day for all I know. "We" and "they" each had whole batteries of those tennis ball cannons, and would fire salvos of flaming tennis balls across the quad (yes, we juiced up the technology a little). The glowing balls thumping into windows and bouncing into balcony doors, along with the rain of exploding bottle rockets and various unsavory projectiles launched with five foot lengths of surgical tubing - ah, those were the days.