Asklemmy

Occasionally we would walk the mile home from elementary school. We'd sometimes stop to play in the creek along the way. We made sure not to do that one in spring though because there was a flash flood one year while a schoolmate was playing down there and drowned him.

Driving a tractor by myself, when I was a tween. I was driving a tractor before I could reach the clutch, I had to get off the seat and stand to use it, not that there's much gear-shifting driving a tractor through a field. I had a dirtbike out at the farm as well. Built a little fort in the woods.

Surfing

Made a trebuchet that almost destroyed a neighbor's car. Tried to build a fuel-air bomb out of kerosene and a shotgun shell. Made napalm out of gasoline and styrofoam. Huntes squirrels with a .22 rifle.

Weird childhood.

I'm GenX, my entire childhood was dangerous.

With some friends, I built an “unguided SAM launcher” using some wood, a lot of aluminum foil, some metal rods, and a bunch of model rockets, and we tried to shoot down stunt kites we were flying near it.

We’d have probably gotten DHS called on us if we did it nowadays lol

Got vaccinated.

That’s a joke. The real answer is almost everything. I was practically feral and lived next to a swamp in Louisiana. RFK Jr. is 100% wrong about disease prevention but there’s no vaccine for snapping turtles.

Tell jokes.

Go outside.

Walk to school.

Bike helmets didn’t get common until 6th grade or so. Same with face guards and mouth guards in anything but football.

We also had a diving board with a full size car spring. A gymnast pal could do double flips off it.

We’d grab our bikes and ride across town. If they saw our bikes were gone they knew we’d be back later.

After the abduction and murder of two local girls, this wasn’t so accepted anymore. Kids were still out and about, but you’d get grilled about where you go, who you’re with, where are you coming home. You were supposed to be at someone’s house, mum would call and make sure that’s where you were. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bega_schoolgirl_murders

I don’t see any kids out around town anymore now though. Just the ones that walk from the bus stop to their house after school. That might just say more about todays youth culture though.

Walking to school alone.

Build a flamethrower with a super soaker. Swim with sharks.

Too many to count, but I’ll leave you with one of the least dangerous: woods porn.

Run around in the woods with a good stick.

Play outside