My neighbor is in TROUBLE

[Jims5543]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

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?

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

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Jims5543

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

No, it was Cesiro.

[slodave]

I shot myself in the eye with my first bb gun. the bb hit a cinder block and ricocheted straight back. Somehow I saw it right before it hit me and I closed my eyes. Still hurt. I guess this was karma getting me back before I actually shot out porch lights.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Tim Hancock

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.

My son has a BB gun and a 4-wheeler, I guess he can have his own cavalry now.

[look 171]

We used a BB gun and kept shooting at a street light. a few days later, as we kept shooting at it, and finally the giant lense fell on top of a brand new T-top camero. Lucky I wasn't there the very last day. Their parents were pissed and had to pay for it.

[techweenie]

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 He had been outgoing and turned shy and became withdrawn.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.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

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.

I saw a kid get almost killed by one of those things once in a 'Wristrocket war'.

We only ever did that once. LOL.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by widebody911

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.

I am pretty sure i was likewise responsible for the entire redesign of payphone coin slots in the early 1980s.

You see, a 1/4 stick of dynamite used to slide right into the coin slot.... >:}

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by techweenie

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.

Too bad it happened back then, as if it happened today, the kid could probably sue his brother and parents for a few million. Insurance would pay it and then our rates would go up some more to cover his accident.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by Laneco

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.

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!

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

My fascination grows.

[ZOA NOM]

My weapon of choice as a kid was a sling, ala David v Goliath. You would not believe the damage that can be done with a well-built sling, loaded with either a single, palm-sized boulder or a handfull of pea-gravel. We could launch a stone so hard it would penetrate 3/4" plywood. It could also be slung well over a hundred yards. The pea-gravel made a great shotgun effect, useful for hunting small animals. Thank God I never mentioned it to my kids. In those days, I lived in a rural small town, with plenty of targets that nobody cared about. The suburbs would be a much different story.

edit: Oh yeah, another one - does anyone remember the tennis ball cannons we made? Lighter fluid, several cans duct taped together to form a tube, the bottom can kept it's lids, and a small hole in the bottom. Spray the fluid into the barrel and air it out a bit. Ram the tennis ball to the bottom and have your friend hold the contraption while you light the small hole on the bottom can. Good for about 100 yard launch.

[jyl]

In college, the eight-story dormitory buildings were set in pairs, two buildings facing each other across a quad, but offset so they were not directly across from each other.

For whatever reason, the architects failed to offset one pair of dormitories, these two buildings did face each other directly.

Big mistake. 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.

[Hawktel]

Pop handed me the pellet gun at 10, gave me the usual warrnings, so I loaded it up, walked out the door, put one in the neighbor's dogs face, never got to touch it again.

So I started getting black cats and Flour together with the predictable results. That lead to its own problems.

[Wickd89]

If they pay for the window immediately, and the boy has to do my lawn for 3 months, then maybe it would be ok.
Kids will be kids.
But some end up getting worst. here is an example:
http://headlines.ocregister.com/news/cars_20447___article.html/vandalism_sheriff.html

[Dennis Kalma]

Shot my neighbour kid through the right ear lobe with my pellet gun....they were teasing me and chucking firecrackers down my gum boots (it was out on the farm after all) and I got frustrated and fired....

It makes me shiver how close it was to his eye, I took a lambasting for that one and I deserved every bit of it. For those people that do not believe in spanking, I believe in it....it gave me a lesson I never will forget about keeping my anger under control.

Dennis

[Heel n Toe]

Originally Posted by jyl

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.

What college? A guy I used to work with participated in similar tennis ball artilleryfests at Clemson in the early to mid-70's.

[jyl]

Berkeley.

[MRM]

One of the lawyers I have working with me graduated from Stanford in 1970. I asked him once if they had enough time for classes between the riots. He smiled and said the classes were pass/fail. Whenever a group of people got too far behind on midterms or papers, they'd organize a riot and shut down the campus for a while. They would shoot ball bearings out of wrist rockets at the riot cops. In retrospect he's pretty appologetic abot it and isn't sure how they didn't kill anyone. The only thing that made them back off was when they brought the mounted police in. He said that when the mounted cops formed battle line and started high-stepping toward them, there was nothing you could do but get out of there.

When my oldest son turned 12 I bought him his first BB gun. Being a vetran of many BB gun war, I shopped around to find the absolute best combination of durrability, price and fps ratio. As I suspected, I found one that was a complete outlier: almost .22 level performance for just a few dollars more. Sadly, I thought back to the mayhem I caused with my first Red Ryder as I learned how to handle it responsibly, and remembered how having a weak spring action probably saved me and our windows more times than I care to admit. So, with a heavy heart I selected a very tame gun for almost the same cost. He's doing well with it, so next year I'll make it up to him and buy him a real 10 pump gun.

[ramonesfreak]

i forgot to mention the damage i did to person and property with my throwing star collection. before age 16, i was a strange combination of Rambo and ninja. those were the days and i miss that simple life of stalking neighbors

not sure about now, but back in the early 80's, it was not easy for a kid to find throwing stars...when you did get some, i remember feeling very well armed and special :-)

sounds sick to me now but, i would hide and when someone walked passed something wooden, i would throw the star and make it stick in the wood a few inches from the person like you might see in a movie... yikes

[stomachmonkey]

All very interesting.

Not entirely sure how we managed to survive childhood.

We used to have BB gun fights, no head shots allowed.

All the cool kids had wrist rockets.

Roman Candle wars on the 4th.

Was around 5 or so. Living in Stuttgart at the time.

Omi had a housewares business and one day she made bow and arrows out of small plant support sticks and string for my older brother and I.

I guess it did not occur to her that we might go find a knife and sharpen the arrows.

I shot my friend Uve in the stomach and pierced skin about 1/4 inch deep . Luckily for me Uve was a chubby kid so there was little blood and the trauma was worse than the actual injury.