My Childhood - Darwin at Work

When I was a kid, and no, we didn't walk 28 miles in the snow both ways up hill to school.  We were much more creative than that on ways we could die.  It is amazing that some of us lived into adulthood, and actually procreated - guess some of us are outwitting Darwin.

Truth or Dare.  This was not the sweet game you see on TV where the girls ask you if you kissed Johnny Angel or not.  Our truth or dare usually involved some type of life threatening issue - mixing concoctions from the spice cabinet and making the younger siblings drink it.  "Some on it only has ketchup, hot sauce, pepper, mustard, vinegar and something I found hidden in Mommy's room called cyanide.  Drink it or YOU LOSE!"

The Slap Game.  We didn't have video games, or even videos.  We invented the "slap game" that's where one sibling would slap the other's thigh as hard as they could.  Who won?  If you didn't scream, (which didn't happen too often) then you won.  If you did scream?  Mom's angry hand came back into the back seat for the first head of hair to pull - insert little sister here.

Make Mom a Drink.  Sure I've heard, "I always have to get up and get you a glass of wine."  Well, when I was a kid, we made DRINKS.  I remember making martini once for an elderly uncle at my Dad's 50th birthday party and one relative mentioning, "Look at Dick our there.  I've never seen him play football with all the nephews."

Same stupidity gene, but we survived it.  I think that population control puts a gene in all kids to see if they are strong enough to survive it.  The gene that makes the certain things a great idea:
Riding down the tallest hill in the neighborhood on a tricycle with no breaks.
Trying to do a front flip out of the second story of a house they were building because the pile of dirt underneath looked "soft."  (Ripped both sides of my Toughskins when I landed and limped back home)

King Of The Hill.  A large rock on the hill that whomever stood on was "King."  It was everyone else job to dethrone the King by whatever means possible.  It meant throwing them off the rock, pushing, taking the burning tree limb and touching them with it to just doing what I did, while everyone else was belting it out to be king, I'd sneak over to the rock and stand on it pronouncing, "I am King!"

Survival of the Fittest.  We'd run into the peach orchard behind out back yard, take friends as far as possible, then listen for the dog chains of the Farmer's dogs.  We'd all run, the slowest, we figure, becoming dog bait.  Not sure if the dogs actually existed but it did make me a better runner later in life.

Lazy Days on the Beach.  All the parents sat in a circle on the beach on weekends, drinking highballs while we floated lazily out to sea on large tire tubes or boogie boards.  And that one time I had to be saved by the lifeguard?  Well, since they were to busy chatting with the neighbors and didn't see it, well it didn't happen.  Cute lifeguard let me walk away (wouldn't do that now.)

Long Drives and Safety.  Sure there were seat belts in the car, but what were they for.  They didn't not work for us kids as on long drives, one would lie across the floorboard, one across the seat (the one that won the luck of the draw) and one would lie across the back window.  How comfortable is that?

See with all that destruction, we all survived.  Sure there is a few pins in the head, and a year I don't remember clearly from falling off the bike without a helmet on, but here we are.

What are your kids doing to try out Darwin's theory that you haven't noticed?