What situations did you find yourself in as a teen that, looking back, was utterly insane?
Posted by Jagermeister_UK@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 115 comments
Here's mine. As a 15 y.o. there was one pub I could get served in. The Red Lion was a dodgy pub that had a reputation as a gay pub in a town where gays didn't 'exist'. But they served us, no questions asked. Maybe the second night ever being in the pub, a fight broke out, which turned into a full-on brawl. Pint glasses were being thrown and smashing everywhere. I mean it was raining glass. Police came in batons drawn and dragged out and beat some of the clientele.
I was 15!
At the time I thought it was awesome but as an adult and a father I'm utterly horrified. And it wasn't to be the last time I found myself in the midst of a glass fight. The 70s and 80s were vicious.
Dry-Daikon4068@reddit
Drunk driving, took a wrong turn off the highway, ended up stalled out straddling train tracks.
DelightfulHelper9204@reddit
Behind my father's house was a football/baseball field. Behind that was woods. When I was 15 I was smoking Marlboro reds and drinking kegs in the field and woods behind my father's house.
Armitage_Soulshroude@reddit
Being a member of an undisclosed gang in the Portland area. Witnessing a beat down that should've never happened. It's on the series "Gangland". I was even interviewed for the series...
GladosPrime@reddit
We used to go egging. You'd probably be shot doing that today.
ApatheistHeretic@reddit
Ring doorbells are everywhere. The police would be at your door in the morning.
Ok-Sale-8105@reddit
Too expensive ro egg and TP houses today.
forested_morning43@reddit
TP-in when colored TP was still a thing.
discussatron@reddit
As an adult I realized that it was always the kids next door. When I did that shit as a kid, we never left the immediate neighborhood.
whirlydad@reddit
I miss seeing homes with massive trees overloaded with toilet paper. It was honestly awe inspiring. How much money was spent? Did one or two people do it alone? I don't even think my two teens could imagine such a thing, much less coordinate the logistics needed to get it done.
RoadGlideWanderer@reddit
Seniors in HS here still roll yards to all the Juniors. It’s a Tradition in my town.
whirlydad@reddit
I like that every Junior gets it. Schools seem much more egalitarian these days. Only the "cool" kids got rolled in my town.
seandia@reddit
Breaking into and exploring abandoned mental wards and condemned old hospitals in the middle of the night in the name of “urban exploration”. This was in central Iowa so it was particularly scary knowing that if something went wrong, guaranteed that no one would see you or find you
MrsSchnitzelO@reddit
16 years old, standing on line to get into the Red Zone (dance club in NYC), 1990. Then it happens.....gun shots........so half of us run into the club, the other half ran somewhere else (I don't believe anyone was shot). And I told my parents I was sleeping over at so and so's house (my parents never called to verify).
We get in (an absolutely no one carded us) and the place is packed. Just packed. About 2 hours later, music goes off and the FDNY comes in - dozens of firemen. Shut it down for overcrowding.
I never had kids but I'd break their ass in half if they tried that shit, let alone got away with it.
ishootthedead@reddit
Aha memories of going to the limelight while in high school and using my library card as ID.
bizzylearning@reddit
I can't tell you how often my husband or I will share a story from our teen years with the kids (generally in a cautionary tale kind of way), only to be met with silence and horrified stares, followed by, "What was WRONG with you?" They've turned out better than we could have hoped.
MrsSchnitzelO@reddit
lol you did a good job!
Jdevers77@reddit
Based on my own similar experiences (but in the south, not NYC), you wouldn’t have to worry about your hypothetical kids. My kids are good but even their “wild” fellow students are boring as fuck haha. My oldest is 16 and plays sports, all his friends…even the basketball players and football players go to class and when out of class sit and talk about Roblox, Brawl Stars, and the like. They don’t even drink and I was doing my best to score X when I was their age 😂…and I graduated like fourth in my class from high school.
MrsSchnitzelO@reddit
LOL I play Roblox with my husband's nephews. Some of those games.......what the hell.
MehX73@reddit
Held hostage in my boyfriends apartment by a couple of skinheads his idiot brother invited over. Had no idea what their endgame was...they just wouldn't let us leave. Drugs or money maybe??? Anyway, they locked us in the bedroom and we sent one of the roommates out the window to get get my boyfriends coworker. Just when the baseball bats and broken bottles start flying, in comes the roommate, my boyfriends coworker and all of his band mates. They were a pretty popular heavy band in the area and they kicked ass. They ended up driving the skinheads about 30 minutes away and left them on the side of the road. The whole thing was surreal and I refer to it as my bad 80s B movie plot. Very St Pepper to have a band swoop in and rescue us. I lowkey want to drop the bands name and see if it actually happened the way I remember or if it was a feverdream. I googled them and they are still active in Charlotte...
CyndiIsOnReddit@reddit
14 years old okay?
I had a friend named Bryan I kind of liked and he asked me to come to a party with him with kids from his school. He was 16 so I was expecting kids our age. Most of them were adults though. It was a big house party like the ones in the TV shows. Only time I ever went to a party that big. Anyway, there was a guy with handcuffs and he was goofin with people. My friend went off in to another room with a girl and I got my feelings hurt enough to flirt with the first guy to my left. He was cute and friendly but he was older, and wore a lot of old denim and studded bracelets. He had a shaggy head of hair and a "Kill 'em all, let God sort them out" T-shirt.
So of course someone thought it would be funny to handcuff me to him. At first it was cute. We were really hitting it off. He wasn't the bad boy he made out to be. We engaged in some major flirting for about an hour then Bryan came back and said we needed to get home before curfew. We went to find the joker who cuffed us together.
He was GONE.
And I had to go home then. I was actually already late. And I had to bring this strange "man" (he was only 18 but he looked older) to my house and stand in front of my mom with this problem. OOh she was pissed. My mom was super liberal but this was a bit much even for her. But she was a good sport about it. So my friend could go home she drove us around to all the common party spots until we found the guy with the key, like waaay early in the morning. All the while she's just as nice as could be, asking my new friend about his life, just being as sweet as she always was. She did say at first she thought we were fleeing from the cops, so the reality was much more positive in her eyes. After all it wasn't his fault some guy handcuffed us. The truth was he was harmless and my mom ended up calling him a good friend. My whole family did. We dated all through my high school years even though he joined the military. But then we both moved on. He still came around to visit my mom until she died. He died a few years later of brain cancer after being an instructor at LeJeune.
I know this isn't as wild and crazy as some of these stories would be. I even have much, MUCH wilder ones, but this one is special, and thinking back it's absolutely wild that I was just a KID. I think 14 now... practically a BABY. I was so young but this chance meeting affected my life profoundly. Through him I made a new friend group and his sister was a very special person too, and the first person I knew who died from AIDS so that affected my life too.
And I have no idea who the guy with the cuffs was. I don't think I ever saw him again!
JJQuantum@reddit
I was dating an 18 year old senior in Gish school when I was 19 and a freshman in college. She and a girlfriend of hers went to the beach for spring break week and I was supposed to meet them there on Friday after work. This was before cell phones. I get to where they are staying at maybe 1 am. They run out to meet me where I parked in the back of the beach house. They were panicking because 3 drunk marines had been flirting with them when they were out and followed them back to the house. They couldn’t figure out how to get them to leave. So of course I’m now in the living room trying to get these guys to leave without getting my ass beat. I’m sure they thought they were getting laid. I was finally able to laugh them out of there but for a second I thought I was going to be a greasy spot on the carpet. Good times.
Inevitable-Analyst50@reddit
I used to think I had a guardian angel in my late teens/early twenties.
The amount of times I should actually be dead, maimed, or otherwise incarcerated was outstanding.
Possibility of drowning, immolation, car crash, physical violence were all things that happened to me, and I live in Canada in a pretty subdued town. It was almost like two magnets attracting the dangerous events but then repelling them at the last minute.
The fact I made 46 is actually amazing....
SignificantTransient@reddit
When I was 10 (1988) and my uncle was 12, we were at grandpas cabin snowmobiling and decided to go get hot chocolate at the hunting lodge. 10 and 12 year olds on two snowmobiles totally unsupervised.
I was 10, on a Ski Doo 7500 blasting by "beaver dam" in potter county PA about 60mph across snow fields to make a 12 mile trip to get hot chocolate. We never even told anyone we were going somewhere.
Got back. Told everyone where we were. Cool, go chop more firewood.
Jagermeister_UK@reddit (OP)
Well it wouldn't have took long at 60mph
dreaminginteal@reddit
Exactly 12 minutes, if they were at 60 MPH the whole way...
Nofanta@reddit
I sold a half pound of weed per week in high school and bought and did 8 balls most weekends. Suppliers were all Latin King gang members in Aurora IL. Had guns pointed at me during car chases. Cannot fathom my kids doing this kind of stuff.
dreaminginteal@reddit
Joe? Is that you???
muscadon@reddit
Similar story but in Chicago, and suppliers were Armenian mafia, but no car chases or guns. However, my father worked for the Fed and it wasn't until much later when I realized I walked a dangerous line.
We did get super drunk and drove all around, including the Eisenhower Expressway...for fun and to cruise hotties.
My 20s were much more dramatic with violence, etc.
I often wonder why I'm still around.
Jagermeister_UK@reddit (OP)
Dude...
Poe1031@reddit
Is this a trap? I feel like this is a trap.
Jlr1@reddit
This is making me laugh as I think about….I was 16 and would put on my mom’s dressy work clothes and go buy beer at Walgreens.
Drove from the suburbs of Chicago to clubs over the boarder in WI where the drinking age was 18. I was never the driver but we were definitely drunk driving and in the winter on snowy roads.
NegScenePts@reddit
Jumping from the bed of one moving pickup into another because some jocks stole our skateboards and beat up a younger guy in our group.
derioderio@reddit
Nice try, FBI
CapotevsSwans@reddit
Exactly. Everything that goes through my head doesn’t need to be on the Internet.
Apprehensive-Ant2141@reddit
I was involved in the skate culture as a girl amongst many boys in the early 1990’s. Let your imagination run wild.
CapotevsSwans@reddit
I saw that movie! Hi Chloë!
Cutty_McStabby@reddit
I'm sure that bout 40% of my
Jagermeister_UK@reddit (OP)
You didn't do ballet?
Apprehensive-Ant2141@reddit
Oh no. Definitely not my thing.
Auntie-Mee@reddit
I would climb out my bedroom window onto the porch roof and jump down to the ground to hang out with my boyfriend. Can't believe I didn't break an arm or leg.
sideways92@reddit
I was 17. Told my folks I was going backpacking with some friends and instead hitched almost 200K to see a girl I'd met at the beach a month before. She was 19 and had her own one bedroom about 3 blocks from the beach. Spent the weekend with her, then hitched all the way back home.
Either of my kids tries that kind of shit and I'd bury them under their room until they're 25.
That said, sure was fun.
Recent-Owl-9135@reddit
Where did this girl live 200,000 miles away?
sideways92@reddit
kilometers
Recent-Owl-9135@reddit
Ahahaaaa oh man that makes so much more sense 200 k🤣🤣🤣
freerangetacos@reddit
Her name was Moon Unit
flyfish207@reddit
Jarts. The original. With pointy tips. Puncture wounds were made. Pools were replaced.
dmbmcguire@reddit
We would ride a mile on our bikes to the local shopping mall. It had a Safeway and all sorts of other stores. We were only like 9 and it was near a major hi way. No way we could do that now.
Tlegit@reddit
My mom’s boyfriend would give me 5 bucks on Friday and tell me not to come back until Sunday.
thembones44@reddit
Driving to a party or bar in downtown, pulling over to piss in a random bad area and having undercover officers pull up with guns drawn, screaming at us to put our hands up. All are being frisked, asking all kinds of questions, why were we here, where are the drugs, etc.
After they realized we were just pissing, they told us that unless you want to get killed, go piss somewhere else. Pretty much were trying to give us good advice.
mattbnet@reddit
I had a group of friends who were all skaters (skateboarders) and we would do risky stuff for thrills.
One of those things was one would be a decoy and make a car pause at an intersection by dropping something or falling. Others would sneak out behind the car and hang on to the bumper on our boards as they'd drive away. We'd see who could hang on the longest. There were speed wobble crashes and police after us but the worst was a car that slammed on the brakes. My friend smashed his face into the back of that car and got all bloodied. Nobody ever got seriously hurt or in any real trouble.
nycbaldman@reddit
I was in my 20s, not a teen, but got into a huge bar brawl outside a bar in the village, NYC around 92 or so. Only 3 of us against 8 or 9 Jersey jocks. We held our own for a bit but they outnumbered us. Had a bottle broken over my head right before undercover cops showed up and drew guns on us.
I did a lot of other crazier shit in my youth, but nothing I want shared online, or anywhere else for that matter.
Good times in NYC in the 80s and early 90s. Wouldn't trade it for anything nowadays.
neoprenewedgie@reddit
I grew up in New Jersey with a local legend of "The Hookerman." (A guy fell off a train and lost his hand. He now wanders the tracks at night looking for his lost hand, with a lantern hanging from his hook hand. At night ,you can see the lantern swaying back and forth in the distance.) It was a common thing for kids/teens to walk the tracks looking for the Hookerman.
We drove out to the tracks one night - very isolated area. The local Sheriff drove by, saw 6 teens sitting in a parked car and came up to us. He looked us over, totally profiled us as a bunch of harmless white nerds, and asked "you kids aren't out here looking for the Hookerman, are you?" He then proceeded to tell us the legend, just like something out of a B horror movie. He ended by saying something like "look, I can't stop you from going on the tracks. But it's nights like this that he tends to be more active so you be careful."
We didn't know whether to laugh or be terrified (we still went down the tracks.) That was 40 years ago, and to this day I can't help but think "well done, Sheriff... you played that perfectly."
The Hookerman Legend:
https://weirdnj.com/stories/unexplained-phenomena/hookerman-spook-lights/
sayhi2sydney@reddit
Had a similar experience but we were looking for "The Jersey Devil" out in Lakehurst/Pine Barrens area.
ColdTomorrow407@reddit
I would definitely be more afraid of hearing banjos playing than of the jersey devil out in the barens
neoprenewedgie@reddit
What if the Jersey Devil was playing the banjo?
ColdTomorrow407@reddit
Yeah, for real pinies are a different breed.
sayhi2sydney@reddit
There was great debate about whether the Jersey Devil was an animal, person or a THING. eek
ColdTomorrow407@reddit
Having worked with a lot of pinies in going to reasons with YES as well as a mineral.
neoprenewedgie@reddit
Stay Jersey Weird!
PirateHungry8293@reddit
I was waiting for my mom to pick me up from the local rink…. She was really late as usual. This older bully thought he’d show off by putting a switch blade to my throat. Talked to my mom about it & she didn’t do anything!
arlmwl@reddit
A friend’s Dad was a former hippy and was super permissive. He’d buy us beer and pot. We were 15. Jeezuz.
Round-Sea5612@reddit
A friend suggested we go to some random house party one night. We were HS seniors, pretty sure whoever threw it was a bit older. Probably an older brother to a classmate or something. A guy already passed out on a tailgate when we were walking in around 8 or 9 should probably have been a sign to turn around. Went in, grabbed a few beers, standing around trying to look cool and mature to a house full of strangers, when this guy, who I assume was the older brother type person living there pulls this massive revolver out and starts waving it around. My buddies and I froze until his attention was elsewhere and we got the hell out of there. We didn't let her suggest what parties to go to after that. Remembering this in response to this question makes me really glad my high school aged kids have no desire to leave the house.
No_Lie1171@reddit
15 yo me (f) and 15 yo f friend at time went on radio station booze cruise. Just bought tickets at gate and on we go lol! Drinks provided no ids required. After it was over we walked home. About 3 hours away. I took my shoes off halfway cause I remember having the feet worn off my tights. God only knows what could have happened to us and I just shake my head at what did happen. How I’m not dead is just beyond me.
SixAndNine75@reddit
The Rave Scene in Sydney circa 92 - 93. Enough said.
PGHNeil@reddit
I'm pretty sure I wasn't a teen but I remember back when I lived in the Poconos and being bored as hell I said to my friend "Let's drive over to NYC." IIRC it was something like 10 o'clock at night.
Long story short I was afraid the heap I was driving at the time would break down so I turned around somewhere in New Jersey.
Sorry, it would have been a better story if we'd made it but I'm pretty sure it would have ended badly.
AbbreviationsGlad833@reddit
Early 1980s At 14 we Played with a C.B radio in my friends room. It was pre internet days so it was closest thing to talking to strangers and making friends. One guy on a channel was an adult and kinda weird and we used to pick fights with him for laughs. But one day it went too far and my friend got pretty vicious with his insults. Even when I told him to stop. Anyways this guy got angry and said he was gonna look for us now. We laughed it off. We didn't know he had a device that picked up the strength of radio signals and he already figured out the town we lived in. And he drove around our block looking for An antenna on house roofs. we freaked out. We turned out the lights. And closed the shades. My friends parents weren't home and just like a horror movie an old dirty car with like 5 antenna on the roof with its headlights turned off slowly drove past the house all while creepily saying " I'm gonna find youuuuuu." I know this is one of your housesssss.. Holy shit, still gives me chills to this day. 40 years later.
Round-Sea5612@reddit
A lot of radios had a signal strength meter on them. We used them in high school to play vehicular hide and seek. Almost t-boned a guy we were seeking because he ran a stop sign trying to get away. 😳
Northmannivir@reddit
I wasn’t a teen but maybe this still applies.
I would spend the weekends with my father and often we would stay at his girlfriend’s mobile home in the local trailer park. My eventual step-siblings were always up to trouble, and I, being the naive, youngest of the three, would tag along and do as I was told.
So the plan that night was to lie in the ditch, along the highway that left town, and throw snowballs at passing cars. The first ‘oh shit!’ moment occurred when we hit a cop car and he stopped and turned on his lights and then drove off. But we kept going. We were giggling and laughing until the ice ball that I threw absolutely obliterated someone’s windshield. It shattered it but didn’t pierce the glass, thankfully.
The car’s brakes locked up and reversed in a second and the driver was after anyone he could catch, but, somehow, he knew it was me. I ran straight back to the house and slammed the door behind me, pretending everything was fine. My dad and his gf asked why I was out of breath.
Apparently, the enraged man found several of us hiding in various places near the ditch and let them go when he knew they weren’t the guilty party. I still don’t know how he didn’t see me running as fast as my 7-year-old legs could take me. I’m not sure what he would have done but I’m sure I would have shit myself with fear.
When I think of this now, I think of kids throwing bricks off overpasses and how fucked that is. I’m horrified that I did something so careless and thankful that I didn’t injure anyone when it could have easily happened.
Lotek_Hiker@reddit
Hitchhiking from California to Washington State, we were 17 at the time.
fazeflak@reddit
Seems whenever I visited my cousin we'd always get into something...one time we were shooting a BB gun (airsoft) at some cans/bottles in the concrete bayou next to his apartments. The apartments were next to the bayou so we got up on the second story balcony to make it interesting...the balcony was also facing a busy street. After awhile we heard a voice coming up the stairs saying "POLICE! SHOW MY YOUR HANDS!" and a cop came up with his gun in hand pointed at us! I put my hands up and looked at my cousin who was holding the BB gun. He went pale and his eyes were bugged out. He carefully handed the BB gun to the cop stock handle first. The cop inspected it and handed it back to us. He said that people were reporting us shooting it into traffic but we explained that we were shooting at the cans in the bayou below. He told us that it would be best if we went down to the bayou to shoot instead of from the balcony and left. My cousin didn't want to play with the BB gun anymore and we went inside to watch TV instead. Good times!
Littleleicesterfoxy@reddit
My school was a bit rough and I’m fairly sure I have told this story on Reddit before but anyway. Our fifth form leaving disco (1989) was a bit of a disaster as the gang from Hinckley turned up for a fight as someone from the Barwell gang had stolen his girlfriend. The disco ended up with about three police riot vans, a teacher stabbing and basically a complete fight out the front in addition to the normal bodies hidden in the cistern of the loos type drunkenness. Despite all this I didn’t bother like phoning my family or anything and eventually just walked home normally.
I was vaguely thinking I may have over egged this in my imagination when a few years ago a guy randomly commented on my Leicester City sticker in my car and it turned out he was at the school in the year below me and he confirmed that this indeed was the talk of that year when it happened and the disco was very strictly policed the next year.
Door_Number_Four@reddit
The utter amount of drunk driving in our small Midwestern town.
bird9066@reddit
Me and my friends climbed a cliff in Cumberland RI. We got stuck. Sat hundreds of feet off the ground on this little ledge with our feet hanging for hours smoking weed.
We made it to the top eventually. No idea how.
Guilty_Signal_6363@reddit
Going on dates with a pistol at 18 afraid of getting jumped.
PHL2287@reddit
We used to hang out between the freeways in Los Angeles. We would literally have to run across the freeway to get there.
tangerinemargarine@reddit
Went with 2 friends to a music festival that was kind of in the middle of nowhere. We got separated from one friend (no cell phones in those days). Around 4am we had to leave in order to get back home in time for my summer waitress gig at 6am (back when I could go to work after being up all night). We couldn't find our friend so we shrugged and said, "I'm sure she'll be fine," and left. Later we found out she caught a ride with a stranger on a motorcycle. Turns out, she was fine. We were 16. Now, I wouldn't leave an adult friend of mine alone at a music festival at 4am with zero communication. That's how you end up on a milk carton. Different times.
TeaWithKermit@reddit
You basically just described my experience at a Flaming Lips/Butthole Surfers show in 1993. In the middle of nowhere, everyone scattered, I ended up getting a ride home from a guy I’d never met before.
felisfemina@reddit
My friend left me at a Santana/Rusted Root concert when we were maybe 19 or 20. We had driven with a big group so there were 4 or 5 cars but I didn't know anyone else except my friend because they were all her friends from high school. Luckily, I saw one of the girls who had driven and latched on to her but I didn't see my friend again that evening.
sick2880@reddit
Midwest here. So many times as a teen going to field parties. Passed out in cornfields, waking up the next morning. Didn't think anything of it.
AdhesiveSeaMonkey@reddit
When I was about 15 or so, I went to a party in an industrial park. Way too many people there and way too many shenanigans. We were on the roof, we broke into other units. It was a hot mess. The cops showed up and got on the pa in their car, telling everyone to go home. A couple of guys on the roof responded by tossing their beer bottles and hitting the top of the cop car. That was my cue to leave. On my way out, I passed about a billion cop cars on their way in, sirens and lights in full effect. News the next day showed some pretty painful arrests and fights among the partygoers and cops alike. I was a pretty innocent 15-year-old who just found out about that party 15th hand and showed up by myself. Once the cops got there I just about peed my pants. Glad I left when I did.
casade7gatos@reddit
Got stuck in mud in the woods in the middle of the night because a friend was showing off. We eventually had to walk out to a house. Here’s where I envy younger dumbasses who can just use their phones.
Camping at a rattlesnake habitat multiple times. Never saw any but there were also ground bees that got some people.
discussatron@reddit
Most of my “I can’t believe I survived that” experiences were in my 18-20 days.
I remember being at a party in a house where I didn’t know the homeowners, I went there with friends of a friend that I’d partied with before. I only knew 3-4 people there out of a dozen or so.
Morning rolls around and everyone is passed out, or has left. I’m awoken on the couch by people banging on the front door. I get up and open it to find three big, angry guys. They were the brothers and father of a girl who’d been brought to the party by a date and were looking for them. They came in and looked through the whole place and not finding either of them, left. They asked me questions but I was useless, hung over, and I didn’t know her or whoever she showed up with.
I think about that now and holy hell, it could have gone all kinds of sideways.
Malgus-Somtaaw@reddit
I was in 4 gang fights/riots as a teenager, but I was never in a gang, I was there when shit went down.
Cranky_Uncle@reddit
Skitching (sliding behind car on an icy road), the Violent Femmes at a Christian college, 80's NYC subway rides, making homemade fireworks in junior high and having a cop show up for the "display." Gun/archery range in HS basement. Pantsing. 45 minutes to download and format Farrah's tit (RIP)
stanley_leverlock@reddit
In my mid to late teens my friends and I used to go caving/spelunking with a crappy flashlight and crawl into passages so narrow I had to fully exhale to pull myself through certain spots. I crawled into passages so small that there was no way I could turn around and I also couldn't pull my self backwards out of, I was just gambling that at the end of the passage there'd be a spot to turn around. And of course we'd do this at midnight to 4am drunk and high.
I watch videos of people doing the same thing now and I legitimately have no idea how I didn't die.
MaximumJones@reddit
There was that time everyone got murdered when some drunk dumbass said "Bloody Mary" in the mirror three times.
Ugh, worst part ever.
Clean_Factor9673@reddit
Try going in the bathroom on Halloween and saying "Biggie Smalls" three times!
MaximumJones@reddit
Hell no. He could easily kill me! 😳
Bobodahobo010101@reddit
My friends and at about 10 to 12 years old would sneak out and hop on the backs of train cars where the ladder was and ride across town.
The trains went slow through the city because there were so many crossings. Maybe 15mph ish
1singhnee@reddit
I have a train story. 😁 there was a long train tunnel under our downtown so trains wouldn’t disrupt traffic. I’d never actually seen a train there before. So my friend and I used to walk through it at night. One night a train came, and we were about 1/4 way inside the tunnel. Had to run towards the train to get out. It was absolutely terrifying. Fun times!
Bobodahobo010101@reddit
Every walk a railroad bridge over a river? That was a sure-fire way to weed out your friend who were scared of heights.
mEp1973@reddit
On a school trip to Europe, my friend and I got lost in a little German town in the rain. When we passed 2 of our chaperones and asked for help, they told us we should have a map and walked away. We wandered around lost until we were finally so desperate, we walked into the next house we found (I'm hoping we knocked first? Lol but I seem to remember just feeling panicked because it was close to sunset). It was the right house!! I'd be mortified to find out my 17 year old daughter was lost, unsupervised, anywhere but especially in a foreign country. We also got lost in London 🙄
1singhnee@reddit
I used to take my dad’s car for midnight joyrides. Climbed out my window and everything. 16 years old, barely know how to drive, racing as fast as possible down dark forest roads in the rain- I’m shocked I’m still alive.
I, uh, have an adrenaline problem.
jimbothigpen@reddit
When I was 17 I paid $250 for a '66 Chevy Caprice and started to do deliveries for a low-tier coke dealer, got an 8-ball in payment for every ride.
chillaxtion@reddit
When the three guys showed up at the powerline kegger on acid on acid blasting metallica and then pulled out a huge gun? Maybe that?
Or when a teen girl showed up at another kegger and has a seizure on molly or something and then a guy who had been kicked out of the marines insisted he had it 'under control' due to his 'training in the military' and we literally had to fight him to take her to the ER.
her mom later said she would have died and 20 years later she sent me a best buy gift card.
twirlingmypubes@reddit
We make a cardboard cutout of cat, paint it black, and glue a marble for an eye.
Then we'd prop it up in the middle of the road at night with a stick behind it and wait in the bushes. A car would come down the road and see that eye glowing right before they hit it and that stick would bounce around underneath, making then think they hit someone's pet. Then we'd laugh and laugh until they started chasing us with a tire iron.
Harlowful@reddit
Getting acid at the reggae fest parking lot and then deciding to head back home after dropping said acid. 4 teens in a Suzuki Samurai all frying balls, including the driver (not me). Took all night to travel what should’ve been a 1.5 hour drive because we got so lost. Don’t know how we didn’t die.
ConstructionThin8695@reddit
I live in the western US. When I was 14 , we were legally allowed to have driver's licenses. I took driver's ed at my junior high, the summer I finished 8th grade. I believe the age limit was so low because my state is more rural with a lot of agriculture. They needed the farm kids to be able to drive. It seemed a totally normal thing that my friends and I all got our licenses so young. Even though we all lived in the city. They raised the driving age finally. Looking back, it's crazy to me that we were allowed to drive so young.
MurkyMitzy@reddit
I took a friend to see her (older) boyfriend at his apartment, late at night. We had snuck out. We hung for awhile and then he disappeared. Then his real girlfriend showed up, pounding on his door, telling us to leave and she was going to kick our asses!
Oh, the 90s!
sayhi2sydney@reddit
I was 16 and dating a 24 year old police man. That's nuts to look back on. He took me to my prom!! How come no one lost their minds over that???? Not my parents, not the school, and of course my friends were all as dumb as me and thought it was so dreamy that a real adult was interested in me. My parents considered it a positive thing because "he has a job." The other crazy part of that is that after I broke up with him, he dated someone else from my high school. Dude just trolled the high school for girls. Still blows my mind. Total pe'do.
jpow33@reddit
My dad and I were on a road trip and made a stop in Seattle. We parked downtown and in true '80s style it was agreed to meet back at the car in 2.5 hours. Somewhere about 20 minutes into my urban exploring, a guy carrying a couple of heavy boxes offered to pay me to carry one of them for him. I enjoyed free money at the time, so I said sure. We went like 6 blocks to a super shitty apartment building and up 3 flights of stairs into what looked like a crack-house to my young mind. Tons of people, all somewhat dirty. Beer cans and what have you everywhere. They were probably just normal college kids. The dude had me put the box down on the coffee table and then he wandered off. The News in the 80s made it out like being kidnapped was a matter of when, not if, so after about 2 minutes of awkward glances, I decided to just nope right out of there. Then I had to ask another stranger on the street how to get back to the fish market.
hibou-ou-chouette@reddit
Helping fight a forest fire. I grew up in the Canadian woods. One dry summer, a fire started on the other side of the lake. I spotted the smoke from my side of the lake. The firefighters arrived, but the area was not accessible by any vehicle. Myself (13 year old girl) and a friend (12 year old boy) knew the woods and where there was an animal path skirting the lake that would get them to the area. We led them to it on foot, helping to carry equipment. We're barefoot, in shorts and t-shirts. I tell one of the guys that we can show them a nearby creek that feeds the lake, so we can use that for refilling. We grab some portable water cannisters and work the perimeter putting out hot spots.
It took hours, but we got it out. Thankfully, it wasn't windy that day or frig that and GTFO. I had soaked myself in the creek so my hair and clothing wouldn't catch fire. At the end of it, I was caked in ash/soot. The firefighters told us to head home, but they were going to stay for another couple of hours to watch for flare ups. They were all shaking their heads and grinning at us. I'm sure they were thinking, "Those are some crazy little bastards." When I got home, my mother wasn't impressed. She told me to grab a bar of soap and clean myself and my clothes in the lake.
I know this seems far-fetched, but I SWEAR I helped fight a forest fire when I was a kid. I don't think that would fly today.
Wild_Tea_2724@reddit
I'm 16, sitting at the mall in St Louis, it's connected to a huge hotel. A guy says do you want to come do a survey at the hotel for a mall gift card. Yep, I did it! I lived and got the gift card!
scramblelated@reddit
Same mall…only I got laundry detergent. Crossing over the street in that walkway was fun, though!
DCDude67@reddit
I was around 17 drinking in a bar with family and friends (Owner was friend of family and did not care) on Saint Patrick's Day. The place was packed and one of the parade horse riders decided that his horse wanted to come into the bar. Rode his horse to the bar, up four steps and in. Horse didn't like how tight it was and freaked out and the rider was barely able to turn him around and get him out. We all had a good laugh and then got back to the festivities.
scramblelated@reddit
I was with some boys in the hood who were throwing rocks at a house. The owners called the cops and I got a ride in the police car…down one driveway and up the next one to my house.
I was seven.
Never did anything bad after that.
djbuttonup@reddit
As a 15-17 year old I worked at the fancy grocery store as a bagger and etc, and the number of good looking older women (so probably in their 30s) who hit on me and slipped me their number was, in retrospect now, literally crazy. Like, I was good looking confident and charming but obviously a teenager. And no, I never connected with any of them, I was working my way through the Catholic girls in my youth group at the time.
SXTY82@reddit
I was a nerd / geek in the 80s. I still have so many stories that I'm surprised I didn't become a statistic. No regerts. :)
iwastherefordisco@reddit
We used to drive around the city to house parties on the weekends. Coolers full of beer, hard liquor etc. At times we drove across the city to multiple parties.
It was amazing none of us got hurt or had accidents or hurt others. We did it for years. I never drove but I was a willing passenger.
JimmyJamesMac@reddit
Was this Adderbury, by any chance?
4thStgMiddleSpooler@reddit
I wasn't with them, but my friends left a Taco Bell drive thru and some other teens they didnt know thought it would be funny to point shotguns at them and mug them of their soft tacos. A few years later, I was sitting at a campfire with this girl. She had just gotten out of juvie, but I didn't know what for. I told the story and it turned out she was one of the perps.
aogamerdude@reddit
I was 15, by this time a younger cousin would downplay against me his retail thievery, at one point I stole a new bb gun, then later on stole a new firearm pistol. This of course was before security cameras & loss prevention personnel were widely used. I've resigned of those ways soon after.
Error262_USRnotfound@reddit
i was 14 city kid staying the summer with my grandparents in a rural area, my uncle was doing construction as a job and he needed to move stuff from one job site to another, it was after hours as he was running behind and again this is rural area.
we are loading the truck and out of nowhere some good ol boy shows up aiming an AR-15 at us, he tells us that we are trespassers and he has called the sheriff, he held us at gun point for at least 20min my uncles truck had no signage on it, and all we had were the details of what we were doing and uncles ID.
about 5min before the sheriff shows up the guy holding us at gun points figures out that we are legit and not actually stealing. He then goes on to beg us not to tell the sheriff about his AR-15 as he is on probation and not allowed to have a firearm. Sure pall thanks for keeping the gun pointed at us. Me and my uncle were young he was only 6yrs older than me so we agreed not to tell the sheriff.
Sheriff showed up he believed that we were not stealing and let us finish what we were doing and we took off.
garygnu@reddit
A group of us high schoolers were going to sing Nightmare Before Christmas songs at a community center. I found myself in the back "seat" of my friend's Volvo P1800 to get there. Cool, old car. No seatbelts in the back though, which became of mortal concern when he started fishtailing in the night's rain.
Definitely a record-scratch, "bet you're wondering how I got here" moment in my life's movie.
RCA2CE@reddit
I can remember a time when we would throw toilet paper and eggs at the homes of our enemies
Those items were bountiful and today we stand in line to hoard them.