Childhood skills you either did or didn't have

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Notice the arrow is not exactly against the bow. It's going off somewhere else. I don't look too happy about it do i!!

Hopefully your big brother taught you how

 

[Gunk]

I always regret not learning to juggle with three balls. My bother can do it, and it's a cool party trick.

 

[Accy cyclist]

And that wasn't the worst of the stuff we used to get up to . Why is it kids are so stupid?

A lad i knew decided to hang himself from a tree,to see how it felt! Luckily for him he didn't tie the 'noose' and jump,he just stepped off the tree branch and let himself dangle,till he according to reports,turned blue in the face. His stupid antics made the local paper's headlines the following day. 18 years later he was blasted to death by a rival shotgun wielding drug dealer. He was a nasty person. Into class A drug dealing(50 grands worth found in his car once),protection racketeering and worst of all badger baiting! I can't say i shed a tear when i heard he'd died.

 

[Accy cyclist]

We used to make 'buggies' 'carts' or whatever they called them. When i say we i mean our dad did most of the work. He was a coachbuilder by trade,so the wooden bodywork had to be perfect. Me and brother told the other kids we'd made our carts,but i think their dads knew 'Bert' had done all the hard work!

 

[Accy cyclist]

Me and other lads in our secondary school year developed air rifle and table tennis skills,due to us skiving off triple maths (triple extreme boredom more like!) on a Monday morning. After we'd signed in then run out through the fire exit,we'd head for the reservoir up the hill to do air rifle practice/discipline (took our weapons to school with us,then hid them in bushes,then picked them up after escaping),or head to my mum and dad's to have table tennis knock-out tournaments on their dining room table!

 

[Accy cyclist]

Hardening conkers - inconclusive

I remember different techniques for hardening conkers,like soaking them in vinegar. After picking them up off the floor in the park and not doing anything with them except sticking them in a plastic box in my kitchen,i've found that time is the best way to harden conkers. I have about 30 from the last 3 years, They are now rock hard and slightly shriveled. I wouldn't like to be hit by one fired from a catapult!

 

[Yellow Fang]

I remember different techniques for hardening conkers,like soaking them in vinegar. After picking them up off the floor in the park and not doing anything with them except sticking them in a plastic box in my kitchen,i've found that time is the best way to harden conkers. I have about 30 from the last 3 years, They are now rock hard and slightly shriveled. I wouldn't like to be hit by one fired from a catapult!

I had a lot of conkers that I kept for years in the airing cupboard, but unfortunately I moved from a school on the edge of town to a more urban school where most the kids were too streetwise to play games like conkers. I found the results from aging the conkers a bit disappointing. Once you'd drilled a hole and put a string through them, they were not appreciably tougher, and they were more likely to split while drilling them.

 

[classic33]

I had a lot of conkers that I kept for years in the airing cupboard, but unfortunately I moved from a school on the edge of town to a more urban school where most the kids were too streetwise to play games like conkers. I found the results from aging the conkers a bit disappointing. Once you'd drilled a hole and put a string through them, they were not appreciably tougher, and they were more likely to split while drilling them.

Secret was to use a drill bit by hand. Slower, but less likely to damage the conkers.

 

[classic33]

Childhood Skills

• Vulcan nerve pinch - Partially
• skimming stones - Yes
• whistling by putting fingers in your mouth and blowing - No
• cycling no hands - Yes
• wheelies - Not at all
• making fires by rubbing sticks together - Yes, also using cough sweets
• making fires with a magnifying glass - Yes. Didn't need one to hunt ants down
• making fires by banging stones together - No
• using a catapult - never had one, likewise. But I did the slingshot arrow
• making a decent go-cart - Yes, local champion in a competition
• skateboarding - No, never tried
• roller skating - No, never tried
• making a decent sledge - No, used a heavy plastic sheet. Also learned to slide standing up, on ice, for a couple of hundred yards downhill. Later went to "bobsleigh"

Other things:

• Keepy uppy - with a balloon yes, with a ball, No to both
• Making rockets with matchsticks and tin foil - Never tried
• Making wasp traps - Never tried
• Lego - Yes
• Meccano - Yes, over Lego any day
• Handstands - No
• Crouching on your hands with your feet off the ground - No, never tried
• Making daisy chains - shouldn't admit to it, No
• Making bird sounds by cupping your hands over your mouth and lifting your finger - No
• Mending punctures - Yes
• Holding your breath - Yes
• Swimming under water - could do a length, Similar
• Lighting your farts - Never Tried
• Recognising trees - only oaks, silver birch, copper beech, pine trees (i.e. all conifers) sycamores when they had seeds and horse chestnuts when they were dropping conkers. Yes
• Recognising wildflowers - only dandelions, daisies, buttercups and thistles, Not much better, but knew which to leave alone
• Curing nettle stings with dock leaves - Yes
• Smoke rings - No, never smoked
• Hardening conkers - Yes
• Piling coins on your elbow, then flicking your arm and catching them - No
• Solve Rubik's cube - No, Pyramid and other puzzles, Yes
• Play the recorder - No, Banned at school from attempting to play any musical instrument
• Use a pogo stick - Yes, including up and down stairs
• Work the clackers - Never Tried

Got some more:

• Catch stickleback in a jar - Yes
• Catch a fish with a self-made fishing rod - never tried
• Collect frogspawn - Yes
• Read a compass - yes
• Make a compass using needle, magnet and thread - Yes
• Read a map - Yes
• Recognise the constellations - Only the easier ones.
• Navigate from the sun - Yes
• Flick towels - Weekly competitions to knock something small off a table.
• Make a snowman - Yes
• Inflict dead arms - Yes
• Wiggle eyes like Lenny Henry - No
• Waggle ears - No
• Wriggle nose like the woman from Bewitched - No
• Rub tummy while patting your head - sounds like something Blue Peter or Why Don't You would suggest, No
• Skip - No
• Make model airfix kits - Yes
• Make models of aircraft out of balsa wood - Yes
• Be able to differentiate a Messerschmidt Bf109 from a Bf108 - No
• Be able to differentiate a Spitfire mark I from a mark V - No
• Kung Fu - No
• Build a cat's crystal radio set - No
• Do a Chewbacca or Darth Vader impression - No
• Do a passable Frank Spencer impression - No
• Do a Monkey (Chinese programme from the 80s) impression - No
• Recite any Monty Python sketch without killing it - No
• Fashion a working boomerang - Yes
• Throw a knife so that its point embedded itself in the piece of wood you were throwing it at - Yes
• Catch a wild animal in a trap comprising cardboard box, stick, string and bait - Yes
• Whittle pieces of wood into something decorative or useful - Yes, within limits
• Make paper chains of people using folded up paper and scissors - Yes
• Pick locks with paperclip - Only certain ones
• Differentiate a reef knot from a granny knot - to my shame, Yes
  A granny knot is any not that's not a knot

 

[MichaelW2]

I could make Airfix model planes but my balsa wood and doped-paper, elastic band model was a hopeless failure. The aircraft however never suffered from any software failures which was comforting for a software engineer.

 

[Yellow Fang]

• Vulcan nerve pinch - Partially
• skimming stones - Yes
• whistling by putting fingers in your mouth and blowing - No
• cycling no hands - Yes
• wheelies - Not at all
• making fires by rubbing sticks together - Yes, also using cough sweets
• making fires with a magnifying glass - Yes. Didn't need one to hunt ants down
• making fires by banging stones together - No
• using a catapult - never had one, likewise. But I did the slingshot arrow
• making a decent go-cart - Yes, local champion in a competition
• skateboarding - No, never tried
• roller skating - No, never tried
• making a decent sledge - No, used a heavy plastic sheet. Also learned to slide standing up, on ice, for a couple of hundred yards downhill. Later went to "bobsleigh"

Other things:

• Keepy uppy - with a balloon yes, with a ball, No to both
• Making rockets with matchsticks and tin foil - Never tried
• Making wasp traps - Never tried
• Lego - Yes
• Meccano - Yes, over Lego any day
• Handstands - No
• Crouching on your hands with your feet off the ground - No, never tried
• Making daisy chains - shouldn't admit to it, No
• Making bird sounds by cupping your hands over your mouth and lifting your finger - No
• Mending punctures - Yes
• Holding your breath - Yes
• Swimming under water - could do a length, Similar
• Lighting your farts - Never Tried
• Recognising trees - only oaks, silver birch, copper beech, pine trees (i.e. all conifers) sycamores when they had seeds and horse chestnuts when they were dropping conkers. Yes
• Recognising wildflowers - only dandelions, daisies, buttercups and thistles, Not much better, but knew which to leave alone
• Curing nettle stings with dock leaves - Yes
• Smoke rings - No, never smoked
• Hardening conkers - Yes
• Piling coins on your elbow, then flicking your arm and catching them - No
• Solve Rubik's cube - No, Pyramid and other puzzles, Yes
• Play the recorder - No, Banned at school from attempting to play any musical instrument
• Use a pogo stick - Yes, including up and down stairs
• Work the clackers - Never Tried

Got some more:

• Catch stickleback in a jar - Yes
• Catch a fish with a self-made fishing rod - never tried
• Collect frogspawn - Yes
• Read a compass - yes
• Make a compass using needle, magnet and thread - Yes
• Read a map - Yes
• Recognise the constellations - Only the easier ones.
• Navigate from the sun - Yes
• Flick towels - Weekly competitions to knock something small off a table.
• Make a snowman - Yes
• Inflict dead arms - Yes
• Wiggle eyes like Lenny Henry - No
• Waggle ears - No
• Wriggle nose like the woman from Bewitched - No
• Rub tummy while patting your head - sounds like something Blue Peter or Why Don't You would suggest, No
• Skip - No
• Make model airfix kits - Yes
• Make models of aircraft out of balsa wood - Yes
• Be able to differentiate a Messerschmidt Bf109 from a Bf108 - No
• Be able to differentiate a Spitfire mark I from a mark V - No
• Kung Fu - No
• Build a cat's crystal radio set - No
• Do a Chewbacca or Darth Vader impression - No
• Do a passable Frank Spencer impression - No
• Do a Monkey (Chinese programme from the 80s) impression - No
• Recite any Monty Python sketch without killing it - No
• Fashion a working boomerang - Yes
• Throw a knife so that its point embedded itself in the piece of wood you were throwing it at - Yes
• Catch a wild animal in a trap comprising cardboard box, stick, string and bait - Yes
• Whittle pieces of wood into something decorative or useful - Yes, within limits
• Make paper chains of people using folded up paper and scissors - Yes
• Pick locks with paperclip - Only certain ones
• Differentiate a reef knot from a granny knot - to my shame, Yes
  A granny knot is any not that's not a knot

Very good, particularly impressed by you fashioning a boomerang, catching a wild animal in a cardboard box, and throwing a knife so it embedded itself point first.

 

[Archie_tect]

I got segs on my hands from the monkey bars and used to pee on them to take the pain away.... I could whistle with any one, two or four fingers in my mouth.

... + it cleaned your fingers.

 

[Moon bunny]

It is probably best not to put the Northern Irish version of this on the internet.
But I will admit to not learning to ride a bike until I was at university.

 

[matticus]

I always regret not learning to juggle with three balls. My bother can do it, and it's a cool party trick.

Did you lend him one of yours?

 

[Chromatic]

A boy in my wifes class at school lost his right forearm making a pipe bomb!

You'll have someone's eye out with that

A boy in our year at school lost an eye using a catapult.