Tell us something you did as a child.

[yvr girl]

I'm a quasi only child. I have brothers, but they are years older. This means I had to be able to entertain myself.

I often had a rousing game of blackjack with my stuffed animals. (I was about 10.) We played Vegas rules.

[WindRavenX]

1. I ate dirt from my mom's potted plants indoors

Mmmmm.......

[yvr girl]

2. Did you think it was chocolate?

[WindRavenX]

4. beats me

I just grabbed whatever I could into my mouth :shrug:

[RagingInMiami]

3. When I was about four years old

My mother would take me shopping. She would take me into these department stores where she would try on new clothes. She would always take me into the dressing room with her cause if she had not, I would have bolted.
Anyways, I had a tendency to crawl under the walls to check out the other women undressing.
I knew what I liked even back then.

[yvr girl]

7. Why doesn't that surprise me

Some things never change

[blackcat77]

5. Read books -- constantly

I amazed my 1st grade teacher when I did a book report on Animal Farm and actually understood what the book was about. And if anybody remembers that old colour-keyed reading program for primary school -- the name of it was three letters like SRT or something -- I went through the entire program in about 12 weeks and spent the rest of the year reading books I brought from home.

I still love to read. I have about a $100 a month amazon.com jones for books... :)

[Robeson]

8. And just think....

...your teachers and parents probably thought you'd be President one day, or find the cure for cancer. Instead, you post here with us on DU!!

Don't take it to heart. I've also always read, yet here I sit...

[dolo amber]

6. I used to think that if you put dried up

dead flies in water, they'd reanimate... :silly:

[Swede]

9. Played outside for hours.

Til mom called us in.

[Merrick]

10. I got drunk when I was two

got into a bottle of isopropyl alcohol (70%) from the medicine cabinet. My mom fed me baby food to try to absorb it. Said I was drunk as a sailor. Call me an early bloomer.

[Gabi Hayes]

44. I drank my mom's perfume when I was about three...my dad caught

me in mid-snarf, smacked me while I was drinking it

hit a stuffed chair in the BR, and smelled like Barbara Bush for years

[khashka]

11. As a child

I would torture my little sister. Once I took magic markers and scribbled all over her doll's forehead. Not quite the result I wanted - she renamed it "Baby Brain Damage" and loved it more than ever.

Vandalism was good fun but only if you can manage plausible deniability.

Khash.
minor vandalism only! like scratching my second grade girlfriend's name into the side of Dad's new car.

[yvr girl]

12. Did you get in a bit of trouble for your artwork?

[khashka]

19. No

We were in San Antonio. My mother recognized the girl's name and new I'd scratched it into the car. My dad saw it and said "When I get my hands on the Mexican who did that I'm going to beat him to death." My mother decided that saying nothing was the best policy.....

But these were unusual. Mostly I read and was quiet and no trouble and helpful and a perfect little servant.

Khash.

[enigmatic]

13. My best friend and I used to jump the Evel Knievel stunt cycle

This:



from roof to roof of our houses (he lived next door), and film it w/ my super8 movie camera. Our epic was "Evel" jumping of a 100 foot bridge into the river in our town while we filmed it; that was cool....

[Robeson]

15. Oh man, I had one of those....

...talk about bringing back the memories. I also had all the Johnny West men and women to. Wish I'd kept them since they fetch a hefty price with toy collectors!

[enigmatic]

20. Yes!!!

Remember "Big Jim"? I had all those, too..

[Robeson]

23. Oh yes....

...I had the Big Jim Airplane that folded out. Also had all the Johnny West knockoffs like Gen. Custard, Geronimo, the Silver and Gold Knight, with full armor of course....:toast:

[enigmatic]

Here they are:

Johnny West:


Big Jim

[Robeson]

30. Wow, thats awesome....

...if you had a crate load of those things now, you could almost retire!

[China_cat]

14. I found my grandmother's booze and poured it down the sink.

[PittPoliSci]

16. took a piss on third base during a little league game...

I had to go, coach wouldn't let me.

i was 5.

[yvr girl]

17. I guess you showed him who was boss!

[PittPoliSci]

21. i think the whole thing was video taped too...

my parents like to remind me of it any time family is around.

i like to remind them of how i'm running up their credit card bills with my college tuition, and tell them i have no plans to ever reimburse them as they continue to tell that story.

[hfojvt]

40. I have to wonder

were you on third base as a batter/runner, or were you playing third base?

[PittPoliSci]

56. i was playing third base

[Tom Kitten]

18. when I was three I stuck my hand in the oven

I was in the kitchen and my mom left the door down and I liked the glowing red things and my little right hand touched the upper element and I goyt a third degree burn on the whole of the back of my hand...I never remembered it but often wondered (as did other kids) about the big web-skinned patch in the middle of my hand...Now, some 40 years later, I still have the scar (an inch and a half across) but my hand is four inches across...A reminder of my childhood forever, I suppose!

[yvr girl]

22. I have a scar on my toe from a tricycle accident

We live and learn.

[Tom Kitten]

26. No kidding

those are indeed words to take true to heart.

[Skittles]

24. I gave my coat to a poor kid and told my parents I lost it

actually I did it a few times

[yvr girl]

25. You're not as tough as you want us to believe

That's really nice.

[Skittles]

27. yeah

when I told my mum that a few years ago she said she had wondered how I could lose so many damn coats :o

[caledesi]

36. Skittles - you make me proud. I was like that and still am.

Met a guy with a messed-up leg about a year ago. I allowed this guy to get into my car, drove him to Walgreen's and paid for his prescription. Call me crazy - or a true Christian in the shadows of Jesus.

[InvisibleTouch]

28. Conspired with my best friend...

...to sneak a kitten into our third grade classroom. I figured I could keep her (the kitten) hidden and quiet under my sweater, and then take her home at the end of the day. And it worked, too - for the first hour or so. Then kitty got restless and started to complain. We were both busted. Got hauled to the principal's office and everything. In retrospect it's funny, but at the time it was one of those solipsistic little childhood tragedies. I didn't get to keep the kitten. :(

[yvr girl]

32. I got to keep my cat

A stray cat got into my fort (which was in my backyard.) While my friends kept in trapped, I went and got something for it to eat. (A tin of sandwich meat.) We all played with it for a bit.

The next day, the cat was in the fort again - we didn't need to trap it this time. I got some more food for it. (Bran Flakes and milk - not as popular.)

I went into the house and asked my mom 'hypothetically' if I find a cat can I keep it... My timing was perfect. She was busy and wasn't paying attention. She said yes, and I said, I'll go get it!

[Speck Tater]

29. Invented my own language.

After learning Pig Latin at age seven I created my own version called Igpaya Ussianruski (Pig Russian). Instead of just using "-ay" on the end of every word I used a dozen different endings with a Russian flavor. I drove my parents crazy talking in Igpaya Ussianruski all the time.

Odaya ouyazho eakspono Igpaya Ussianruski?

[Seabiscuit]

31. While in little league I had one magical inning...

I pitched nine straight strikes, retiring the side, then came up to bat and hit a home run, scoring three runs for the team.

The next inning I couldn't pitch a single ball over the plate and the manager had to take me out of the game.

Go figure.

[xmas74]

33. I read constantly.

I used to play doctor with the little boy two houses down underneath the deck of his home (full nudity). I used to steal flowers from the neighbors yard.
I had a whole bedroom full of Barbies. My older cousin used to make Barbie and Ken have sex all the time.
Oh yeah, I used to cry everytime Mom made eggs. I didn't want to eat a baby chicken (though I have no qualms about downing eggs now).

[AlienGirl]

34. Put food in odd places to store it!

My mom ended up putting a dish of crackers next to my bed, because she kept finding my little "food stashes" in my bedroom and figured I must be waking up hungry at night.

I also made little hiding places for myself where I'd stash food, books, and other stuff and stay there for hours--I liked little spaces, they felt cozy.

I also liked to play in the woods where it was mossy and swampy and hide in the hollow of a rotting tree stump.

Tucker

[devilgrrl]

35. When I was 3 I tried to eat my mother's cherry red lipstick.

Hey, it was cherry red, must taste like cherry right? I took a bite and WRONG!!!! It don't taste like no cherries - oy!

[enigmatic]

41. Ha! I found Ex-Lax when I was 7...

When it looked exactly likr a chocolate candy bar.......so of course, I dug in and finished it off. I think I spent the next 3 days on the toilet...

[Bouncy Ball]

37. Well, I beat up on my brother a lot.

I drank turpentine (my dad kept it in baby food jars! OY!) and had to have my stomach pumped.

Accidentally got locked out of the house in a hail storm.

Watched "The Three Stooges" and the Sunday night Disney movie each week.

Played outside a LOT. Had heat stroke the summer I was 10 playing seven innings straight as a catcher in softball the summer of the heatwave. It was 115 degrees that day.

[yvr girl]

38. I had sun stroke along with a second degree sunburn

Spending 7 hours at the beach in Hawaii (on the water during the hottest time of the day) is not a good plan - even if you have a 'good base.'

I couldn't even wear underwear - it hurt too much. I was just wrapped in a sheet.

[huellewig]

39. I took everything apart.

Mom and dad would leave for five minutes and the dishwasher door would be on the floor. I took the TV apart one time. That could have been the end of me. After they hid the tools I started using butter knives and coat hangers that I would grind on the sidewalk to make a flathead so I could see how the VCR worked inside. Then I had a girl kiss me.

Now I watch TV.

[fleabert]

42. created a nudist colony for my Barbies under my four poster bed.

I also put all my dolls to bed every night, literally. they had to have covers and everything. I memorized their positions, I truly had a 'velveteen rabbit' thing going on in my head.

"I swear Snoopy is in a different postition this morning! He moved!"
-fleabert, age 6

[Behind the Aegis]

43. hmmm....I did several things...list a topic

Here is something I used to do...I used to pretend I was Kelly Garret from Charlie's Angels. I would run around with a friend, who was Sabrina, and we would solve crimes. I also had a purse and fake gun. OH...I am a guy, BTW! I also would stand up and sing "I am Woman" in the car. My mom still claims she never suspected I was gay! :)

[Borgnine]

45. I tried to make myself disappear.

My dad used to perform magic tricks for me by making things "disappear" in his hands. I was always trying to convince him to make me disappear, just because I wanted to see where the stuff went. I was convinced it was some sort of white nothingness. When he refused, I tried to figure out magic myself.

When not trying to bend the laws of the space-time continuum, I would play with my Pee-Wee's Playhouse and Real Ghostbusters action figures. Oh, many was the time that Pee-Wee's Playhouse was haunted.

[no_hypocrisy]

46. I used to steal my Mom's cigarettes and throw them out because

I didn't want her to die from cancer.

Unfortunately, she didn't appreciate the gesture. I was reprimanded, she kept buying the cigarettes, and 1-1/2 years ago, she did die of lung cancer with only me by her side. My bittersweet vindication came when she wished that she had "listened" to me at the time.

[radfringe]

47. cementberries are where they grow the dead people

I was about 3, we were at my great-grandfathers funeral

at the cemetary I announced that "cementberries are where they grow the dead people."

it made perfect sense to me after a summer of helping my grandparents plant a garden -- you dig a hole, put stuff (seeds) in it, cover it up and then put a marker next to the hole...

[nuxvomica]

48. I used to do something kinda weird

When I was a kid and lonely, I would draw detailed maps of fictional countries, including cities, wilderness areas, mountains, rivers, etc. These countries had made up names, usually ending in "ia" and the physical parts were done in ink while the political divisions were done in pencil. Wars and explorations kept changing the borders and cities grew from dots to circles to megalopolises.

[B Calm]

49. 11 yrs old and smoking cigarettes with two other boys

in our neighbors shed. The shed had several bays of hay in it, and before we left we stepped on our cigarettes to put them out. About a half an hour later, the fire truck was screaming down through the neighborhood. The shed had burnt completly down. The fire chief questioned all three of us boys, one on one. He knew we had done it, but none of us confessed up to it. I was one scared little boy..

[AngryAmish]

50. Stabbed my mom in the rear end with a corn cob holder

Money quote "Shot Mommy"

[DemOverseas]

51. In the 7th

grade we got extra credit for book reports. I used to make them up from books in my head. I always got an A in English.

[bettyellen]

52. i used to do my brothers writing and art projects for pay, even though he

was three years older, i'd get better marks in them then he would because i had read all the text books that came into the house, and i was youngest of six kids.
i used to write detective stories because he was into that stuff.
he'd get comments from the teachers about "hidden talent" and how "still waters run deep". He's always get "a''s for his money though.

[yvr girl]

54. Sounds more lucrative than a lemonade stand.

[El Fuego]

53. Jumped off a 10 foot high porch because I thought I could fly

When I was 4 or so, I thought I could fly since they could do it in the cartoons. It was a rude awakening when I hit the ground. (Some kind of metaphor there...)

[loudestchick]

55. I broke my nose when I was 4 by jumping off my bed "like circus people"

Read every book in the childrens section of our public library before age 10. Was asked to stop playing the flute by my elementary school band teacher. Lost a skirt while running to the school bus...it fell around my ankles. Used to play "My Side of the Mountain" using the closets when I was about 8.

[skygazer]

57. When I was three, I wandered away from home

My older siblings had a treehouse in the woods out back and I wanted to go out there and play. So I started walking but I didn't know the way and took the wrong fork in the trail. My parents finally found me hours later way the heck out in the woods - the dog had come with me and they could see us in the distance. The dog would shove in front of me and sit down, trying to block me and I would shove the dog out of the way and keep going. I wasn't scared or crying and when they caught up and dragged me home, I was horribly pissed. "I want to go to the treehouse!" I kept telling them.

I was always an independent little shit.

[yellowdogintexas]

58. read books all the time, still do

got several bad sunburns

spent my summers attending Vacation Bible School all over the place because it was something to do..

stayed at my grandparent's(mom's side) every chance I got

roamed around on my uncle's farm with him in his beat up truck

ran through the sprinkler

made mudpies in my other grandmother's front yard

went to church camp (starting in 7th grade)

started learning to cook when I was around 10

went swimming in the creeks and ponds on my uncle's farm

hung out in my other grandfather's general store trying to convince him I needed another coke and peanuts snack

oh yeah we used to hang old bedspreads and blankets over the clothesline and make tents and if the weather was bad we took the cushions off the couch and made a fort or a boat.

[New Earth]

59. i played school a lot.

i was always the teacher. and if there wasn't anyone around to play with, i would play teacher AND student. i would make up a test as if i were the teacher, then i would take the test as if i were a student, then i would the grade the paper......lollllllll

[Boswells_Johnson]

60. I once stepped on the business end of a garden rake. The handle came

up and hit me on the forehead...it was like something out of a three stooges movie. Then, as I was staggering, trying to regain my composure, I stepped into a pile of dog poop.

That pretty much explains me.

[d_b]

61. We used to have rock fights.

Remember those? I sure hope that wasn't just my neighborhood.