Things we used to do

[Mrs M]

Cook chestnuts on an open fire .

 

[Profpointy]

Putting the chairs on the desk in class at home time.

... tenuously reminds me of a great prank I saw in school assembly. When everyone stood up when the Head came in or to sing a hymn, shuffle up the chairs in half the row in front by one chair's-width so someone in the middle doesn't have a chair. The person at the end of your row passes the now spare chair at the end back a row - person behind gets the idea and it's zIpped to the back of the hall in a couple of seconds. Everyone tries to sit down, and the chap in the middle is baffled to see his chair had disapapeared and can't quite figure how it's been done. If he's quick on the uptake he quickly walks to the back of the hall whilst everyone sits down. If he's a touch slow - all eyes in the hall including the beady eye of the Head turn to stare at the ninny still stood up in the middle of the hall.

 

[slowmotion]

Packing Gold Block tins with sodium chlorate and sugar and testing the blend with an ignited Jetex fuse. Mostly it vapourised the lids...
Connecting salvaged (I think, electrolytic capacitors?) from old TV chassis capacitors across the 240v mains
I once offered my friend Nick two wires which were connected to a big SW, MW, LW, VHF mains radio (Hilversum mon amour) - there were a number of outputs on the back and I think he got 6V DC...His Dad came-a-knocking later that evening and my parents were very accomodating; my Mum threw away my Victor comic collection as punishment.

There's nothing quite like the smell of a deliberately abused piece of electronics. Smoking Bakelite adds that final je ne sais quoi.

 

[vernon]

Packing Gold Block tins with sodium chlorate and sugar and testing the blend with an ignited Jetex fuse. Mostly it vapourised the lids...
Connecting salvaged (I think, electrolytic capacitors?) from old TV chassis capacitors across the 240v mains
I once offered my friend Nick two wires which were connected to a big SW, MW, LW, VHF mains radio (Hilversum mon amour) - there were a number of outputs on the back and I think he got 6V DC...His Dad came-a-knocking later that evening and my parents were very accomodating; my Mum threw away my Victor comic collection as punishment.

I remember putting my tongue on two wires attached to the the terminals of a 90V dry cell for a radio back in the sixties to see if it had any charge. The purple and blue haze that clouded my vision and the clunk of my head hitting the floor after being knocked backwards confirmed the presence of a substantial charge. I thought that it was a 9V battery 10 x life size. Childhood logic eh?

 

[LarryDuff]

Has whistling been mentioned? It's gradual eradication has added to the sum of human happiness

I like a whistle.

 

[mybike]

Buying Rawlplugs made from some kind of weird, faintly sticky dark brown wood fibre stuff.

Or that asbestos wall plug stuff.

 

[mybike]

Packing Gold Block tins with sodium chlorate and sugar and testing the blend with an ignited Jetex fuse. Mostly it vapourised the lids...
Connecting salvaged (I think, electrolytic capacitors?) from old TV chassis capacitors across the 240v mains
I once offered my friend Nick two wires which were connected to a big SW, MW, LW, VHF mains radio (Hilversum mon amour) - there were a number of outputs on the back and I think he got 6V DC...His Dad came-a-knocking later that evening and my parents were very accomodating; my Mum threw away my Victor comic collection as punishment.

Ah, Victor, it was illegal at school.

And we used to connect tuning capacitors across the mains & pouring oil on it. (not sure whose idea it was)

 

[Hyslop]

Has whistling been mentioned? It's gradual eradication has added to the sum of human happiness

+1 Funnily enough,I was walking through our local shopping centre yesterday and was passed by a very elegant girl,in, I should guess, her 30s,whistling as she walked along.Made me smile,as its not often you hear anyone whistling and as you say,its rather cheering.

 

[martint235]

Throwing paints tins on to a fire and watching the lids fly into the air. Graduating to aerosol cans and eventually a calor gas bottle. I wasn't allowed out for a while after that one.

Oh and asbestos sheeting that also went bang. Whatever happened to that stuff? You don't see as much of it lying around as you used to.

 

[Postmanhat]

+1 Funnily enough,I was walking through our local shopping centre yesterday and was passed by a very elegant girl,in, I should guess, her 30s,whistling as she walked along.Made me smile,as its not often you hear anyone whistling and as you say,its rather cheering.

Along with very boring Sundays, I'm glad it's died out. Blithe, tuneless whistling really raises my hackles

 

[mybike]

certainly works - that's what normal dialling does anyway. The term is "loop disconnect signalling" and it'x exactly what it says on the tin. 0 is 10 pulses, the rest you can work out

Which is why you could bypass the dial inhibition, the cradle had to be able to disconnect.

 

[mybike]

+1 Funnily enough,I was walking through our local shopping centre yesterday and was passed by a very elegant girl,in, I should guess, her 30s,whistling as she walked along.Made me smile,as its not often you hear anyone whistling and as you say,its rather cheering.

You'll be telling us of a crowing hen next.

 

[slowmotion]

To maximise our popularity in the neighbourhood, nothing worked better than lobbing a few yards of scavenged bitumen roofing felt onto a bonfire in the back garden.

 

[Illaveago]

We used to play football in the lunch break at school using Malteasers for a ball, that was until somebody stood on it.

 

[swee'pea99]

that asbestos wall plug stuff.

I still miss that. It was excellent - way better than Rawlplugs.