What kind of cool shit happened to you when you were young?

[glademaster]

Hell, I'm practically still a kid, but I have some fond memories. I came in second in our schools spelling bee in 4th grade (school was K-8). Won the school geography bee in 5th grade and placed in the top 3 every year of middle school. I had kinda a sad life in elementary school, cuz I was the fat nerdy kid. I weigh less now that I did 6 years ago, so that sucked. Oh yeah, and a kid busted my nose with a hula-hoop in pre-K.

[verbier61]

I was at 2nd elementary (7 yrs) and went with the class to visit the Milan City Hall. The mayor was in, answering questions from the kids. I asked whether it was true that (as I have heard many times from my mom) he never paid taxes . I remember first his color: and then his face

[bad_roo]

I used to play football in the streets near my house. There was an office block that was elevated on columns with a plaza beneath the main building. On Sundays I used to take my football and see if I could kick it high enough to touch the ceiling. As I got older (about 8yo) and stronger, I started to hit the ceiling quite regularly. I recall really catching the ball well once and it crashed into the ceiling with some force, breaking the slats, which were made of asbestos tile. I ran off.

When I returned a week or so later with my brother, I attempted to re-enact the ceiling busting trick. I wellied the ball aloft and it smashed the tiles next to the one I'd already wrecked. Trouble was, in the intervening time since I broke the first one, a swarm of bees had decided that this secluded cubby would make a great place for their nest. The whole freaking nest came crashing down on my brother. I can still remember my mum picking beestings out of him with tweezers.

[spanky]

5th grade - drove a riding lawnmower into the side of my dad's truck
-hit my neighbors house on a snowmobile

I was probably around the same age when I drove my uncle's snowmobile through his neighbor's garage door. I also hit the passenger door my mother's car with a ride-on mower.

[Rippinsick]

At age 3 while my mom was running inside the pizza place to pick up dinner I quickly escaped from my car seat jumped in the drivers seat, threw it in gear, and proceeded to "drive" through the front of the pizza place. The kicker was that my grandma was in the passenger seat and had zero time to react. Not to worry though, no one was injured.

[funkendrenchman]

I stuck a crayon up my nose in 1st grade and had to get it removed at the hospital.

[PaSucks]

I stuck a crayon up my nose in 1st grade and had to get it removed at the hospital.

So then your avatar fits?


A friend of my mothers told us a story about her daughters obsession with putting things up her nose as a toddler. For several months she had a lingering head cold, so finally they took her to the doctor. After a head x-ray, they discovered that something was blocking her nasal passage, so the doctor spent a long time trying to dig it out. He pulled one of those small sized comic books out of her nose. It had probably been up there for months.

[TRock]

Wow, spelling bees and car accidents. Sounds familiar. When I was three or four I put my mother's new car (an AMC Hornet) into neutral while she was in the bank. I rolled backwards into someone else's brand new Oldsmobile. To this day my folks still talk about "my first driving lesson."

I was the heavy favorite to win the second grade spelling bee. The first word I had to spell was Monday.
"Monday, m-o-n-d-a-y, Monday."
-"Wrong, TRock! You didn't say 'Capital M.'"
I was DQ'd. Nobody else received a proper noun. It was a conspiracy. I'm still pissed.

[DougW]

In grade 6 was on Know New Brunswick program - kind of like reach for the top but all history , 4 kids on team played all the elementary schools in city. Was even on cable TV though we had to go to somebody else's house to watch as we didn't have cable. We cleaned up. Think we beat every other team by almost doubling their score. Got a dinner with the Minister of Tourism.

Do have a puking story which is pretty good but was in early 20's. Was going through basic training and had been drilling on the parade square for a couple of hours in the hot sun. Had sucked the water fountain dry before sitting down in a class. Not to long wasn't feeling well.. Was about to ask if I could leave and then my cheeks filled up. Forced it down and went for door and ran down hall towards heads. Problem was that another platoon was on break in the hallway by the heads. I swerved several in a human obstacle course but didn't make it past number 4. Hit him hard and just exploded all over the place. A shotgun blast of watery puke. Don't know how many people I hit but it was quite a few. Quickly ran in to heads and put head in sink. Made sure head was down until they went back into class room as I knew the pukees would be pretty pissed.

[H-man]

Probably around first grade, 6yrs old. I remember being allowed to ride the chairlift without an adult as long as I was with this buddy of mine. Back then the chairs all had safety bars with leg rests made out of steel. We could get the bar down alright, but were not strong enough to lift it back up. We used to start about three towers from the ramp and go "one, two three..." on three we would both kick the bottom of the foot rest with the top of our boot to try to make it go up. Sometimes it took many attempts. As far as I can remember, we never failed in getting it up eventually. However, thank god for safety straps back then because I do recall many times when one of our skis would release and be hangin when we got to the ramp.

I love that early skiing memory.

[EPSkis]

Cool stuff...Let's all pile into the waaaay back machine:

Spelling Bees: 5th & 6th Grade, we had one every week. I won every week. Everytime you won, you got a certificate put up on the wall & your choice of a candy bar. "Snickers, please!" Had my name ringing the entire classroom. The last 1 of the year, we had a 4 classroom shootout. Won that too.

Some cooler stuff:

Meeting some of the Boston sports greats - Bobby Orr, Terry O'Reilly, Stan Johnathon, Brad Parks, John Hannah, Stanley Morgan, Sam "Bam" Cunningham and a bunch more. And THIS Pats game was my birthday present:
http://library.thinkquest.org/12590/...plow_field.jpg

I was there & in a couple different shots I've seen, you can see my Dad & I in the stands..(Not this angle, of course.. )

Since it's such a cool story, here it is:


Dec. 12,1982

Patriots coach Ron Meyer wanted to steal a game, so he did the obvious thing. He called for a burglar. Convicted burglar Mark Henderson stepped forward, and literally pulled a clever snow job on the Miami Dolphins, leaving them 3 - 0 losers to New England.

Meyer buried the spirit of fair play during a blinding blizzard in Foxboro, Massachusetts, where the Dolphins and Patriots were locked in a scoreless standstill. Because of the snowstorm, neither team had even remotely threatened to score a touchdown. Each attempted a field goal that failed because of the inclement weather.

However, with 4:45 remaining, New England ground out a drive that stalled out at the Miami 16-yard line. The Patriots then called time to let kicker John Smith clear away a spot on the slick, snow-covered field for a crucial field goal attempt that could win the game.

Suddenly, a light bulb lit up in Coach Meyer's sneaky mind. "I saw John Smith on his hands and knees trying to get the snow cleared, and all of a sudden it hit me," recalled Meyer. "Why not send a snow plow out there?"

He raced down the sideline looking for the operator of the John Deere snow plow that had been clearing the yard lines during time-outs. The operator happened to be Mark Henderson, 24, who was serving a 15-year sentence for burglary at Norfolk State Prison and was on the Schaefer Stadium maintenance crew as part of a work-release program. Meyer told Henderson to clear off a spot on the field for Smith.

As you might expect of a person with his address, Henderson jumped when the command was given. He made a beautiful initial fake with the snow plow by retracing his previous path along the 20-yard line. Then, catching officials and Dolphins off guard, he swerved to his left, sweeping snow ahead of him and leaving a perfect swath of green SuperTurf between the 23- and 25-yard lines. It was the best sweep the Patriots fans had seen in years.
The Dolphins cursed and threatened Henderson. But no one stopped him. Explained defensive tackle Bob Baumhower, "I saw him coming, but what was I supposed to do? No way I'm going to take on a plow."


When play resumed, Smith planted his foot squarely in the path cleared by Henderson and kicked a game-winning 33-yard field goal.

The Dolphins cried foul, insisting the snow plow play was illegal. But the term "illegal" meant something quite different to the team than it did to Henderson, the convicted burglar. "What were they gonna do?" he said afterward. "Put me in jail?"

[Viva]

At 4 or 5 I was hit by a car speeding down my residential street and had a skull fracture, or something. All I know is that they took me to the ER at fucla. Had I known any better, I would have insisted on County-USC.

At 6 I (my mom, really) was invited to not return to the Catholic school where I attended first grade. Public school thereafter for my sister and me. Mom later said it was probably the best thing I ever did in school.

At 7 or 8 a friend and I set an overgrown vacant lot on fire. Never got busted.

At 7, I won the young boys athletic decathalon at summer camp.

At 8, my sister and me were royal terrors when we spent a summer in, then, communist Romania. The kids there had no idea what to make of those American brats.

[JMO]

[QUOTE=EPSkis]

Dec. 12,1982

Patriots coach Ron Meyer wanted to steal a game, so he did the obvious thing. He called for a burglar. Convicted burglar Mark Henderson stepped forward, and literally pulled a clever snow job on the Miami Dolphins, leaving them 3 - 0 losers to New England.
[QUOTE]


I was at that game! Such a classic.

[Vinman]

I was very young, so young I actually don't remember this. But I am told my Mom and I were at the post-office and I told her I had to go to the bathroom. She was busy talking to my aunt who worked at the post-office, and I told her again that I had to go. A few minutes later someone else walks into the post-office and asks my Mom "is that was your kid peeing off the front steps of the post-office"? To this day I'm still anti-government.

[MOHSHSIHd]

in elementary school we put all kinds of random shit in my buddies milk carton at lunch.....cookies, tomato sauce, meat, yogurt, cheese, lemonade, fruit....then closed it up with a straw sticking out and said "Drink up AJ!".....he took a long sip and then booted all over and started to chase me around the lunchroom while puking.....good times


i also ate my sisters pet catepiller, a nerf football, those packets that say "do not eat", and some thumbtacks.....the people at poison control became friends with my mom....that was cool

[yentna]

Ages 8 - 11 or so, it all blurs together:

So much snow we had to dig troughs to get light into the windows, and had to step DOWN to walk on the roof of the outbuildings (8 - 10 feet tall they were). Lots of playing in the snow, but lots of shovelling. Later, thanks to all the snow and also river ice 8 feet thick, the river flooded during breakup and we had three feet of water in the yard and icebergs on the grass.

Won first place the Anchorage Daily News writing contest (writing about the flood).

Got chased by a black bear in my yard. That was not cool at the time, but is a great story now.

Charged by a moose, twice. The same moose. My dad hit it with a shovel -that was cool. Then the moose moved in and lived in our yard for a month. I dreamed of taming it and making it my horse. (Remember people, rural Alaska here.)

Age 13: Went to State in the Battle of the Books. Took second, not bad for a home-schooler. Good year, grin.

Age 13 and 15: Went to Space Camp and KNEW I was going to be an astronaut.

Age 24: Am NOT an astronaut, but still get a kick out of weightlessness (powder days, mmmmmm).

[PlayHarder]

At 7 or 8 a friend and I set an overgrown vacant lot on fire. Never got busted.

Heh, were we friends at 7?
I won a beautiful baby competition at 18 months and, like str8line, it's all been downhill from there.

[UTdave]

I won my elamentary skhools spelling bee when I was in 5th grade

pfft.. I was second in the city spelling bee in 4th grade.
I played in golf tournaments starting around age 6. I won a bunch. It was fun until I got the hooks around 12 or 13. Then it turned into complete misery. Oh well. Now I play for "fun" though I'm not sure how fun it really is. Thing is I just can't bring myself to give up the game. Golf was kind of a family sport for us. Both my brother and sister played collegiately at LSU and he later went on to the Nationwide Tour last year (he's giving it up now). I basically stopped playing seriously after high school. It kind of made me a miserable person. I'm probably the only person on the board who's actually gotten into a fight on the golf course (on second thought maybe not ). Of course I was only about 10 but that other kid deserved an ass kicking and to a 10 year old beating him at golf wasn't enough I had to beat him.

[Buzzworthy]

I vividly remember up at Mt. Baker a certain day around age 7 or so. I was enrolled in the local radio station kids ski school with a race at the end of the 8 Sunday sessions. So I ski with a group of maybe 8-10 the first half of the day and rip around with my dad the after lunch. On maybe the third day my dad did something (not even sure) but a snowboarder came up to help. Said snowboarder turned out to be Craig Kelly. At 7 I knew who he was and all, but was just in awe of that snowboard thingy. I thought the guy was the coolest on the planet for riding one of those and thought it would be very hard. So we got to take a few runs with him and I told him all about me in ski school and he showed us a few fun runs (at least they were to me). I rode a chair with Craig and since I was super scared of heights, he carried my poles like my dad did and I gripped the chair white knuckled. I wish I could remember more about that day.

So a few Sundays later was the last day. The race had started, but I was a few back and figured I would take another run. I got to the top of C2 and heard that I needed to start next. I mached the run as best I could, showed up at the starting gate with goggles crooked and snow in my eyes and they said "GO!!!". So I went, went hard and won my first race on skis!! I still have the trophy and picture of me taking a gate in some really bad brown outfit with my goggle crooked. But I won!!

Very cool experience.

[iceman]

Speaking of puking, my friends Jay and Tommy and I were on the Esplanade (the park on the bank of the Charles River in Boston) for the bicentennial concert on July 4 1976. Heart was the headliner ("Crazy on You" and "Magic Man" were already old).

The official estimate was that there were 750,000 people there. It was hot as hell, upper 90's. We were underage, but had a huge backpack full of beer that by mid afternoon was warmer than piss. We were near the stage, but off to the side away from the river. Heart is playing and all of a sudden Jay jumps up, says, "Oh, shit!" and starts running, hurdling people OJ-style. We take off after him, not knowing what was up. He gets almost to the edge of the crowd, where there were at least 500 Harleys parked, and Bikers galore. As he's running through the bikers he starts puking everywhere, right left and center, all over the bikers, the biker babes and the bikes. Jay just kept running, he was gone before any of them could react.

Naturally, we stopped running and pretended we didn't know him.

Those were some pissed-off puke-covered bikers.

[Grange]

Went downhill skiing for the first time in I belive 5th grade. Whole family fell in love with the sport made plans for week trip to the UP. Mom got in accident had to cancel. Two months later she was feeling better and on a Monday discussed going out west to ski. On that Friday we left for Steamboat. Stayed slopeside in a highend condo (3 levels, 5 bathrooms, private sauna and whirlpool) and finally got to see and ski real mountains. We got some deal where the entire trip was under $1000 for five people. Best vacation of my life.

I broke my first pair of skis on that trip. Some rental pair with the word Swallows on them. I was trying to jump like the "good" skiers. Obviously it didn't work out too well.

[EPSkis]

Speaking of puking, my friends Jay and Tommy and I were on the Esplanade (the park on the bank of the Charles River in Boston) for the bicentennial concert on July 4 1976. Heart was the headliner ("Crazy on You" and "Magic Man" were already old).

Heh - I remember that day!

Spent it in Lexington. My Dad grew up right there on Muzzet Street right AT the Battle Green. I met Jamie Farr who was in the parade that day. Think I still have one of the hats from that day floating around in the attic somewhere. Meeeeemoreeeez.

[Cornholio]

Space Camp rules! I went to Space Camp, Space Academy, and Aviation Challenge. I also KNEW I was going to be an astronaut by way of Navy test pilot. I didn't realize the amount of effort this would take, though.

I won my 4th grade science fair.

9 yrs old. We have a house with an enormous ceiling-- about 30 feet-- and would get these huge Christmas trees that were nearly that tall. One day after school, while watching Airwolf, I knocked the tree over while pretending to be a helicopter pilot. I couldn't figure out how to explain that the tree got knocked down while I was in my room doing my homework, so I got a rope and levered the massive thing back up. Problem was, the raising-up rope I'd used was still tied to the near-top of the tree. Not knowing what to do, I tucked it in the branches. I cleaned the broken ornaments and didn't mention a thing.

The little rope stayed, unnoticed, for the whole season.

I also got a random double-barrel bloody nose one day in 2nd grade.

[kristen]

when i was in 5th grade my mom and grandpa bought the local dairy queen. for someone who has always loved ice cream this was the coolest shit ever. sometimes i'd hang out down there "helping" my mom, other times she'd just bring goodies home in the designated cooler she kept in her minivan. when they sold it i was bummed, but part of their profit was funneled into an account that helped me get through college.

[grizzle6]

I was a mathlete in 6th grade. BOO-YEAH!!