To ask what stuff you did as a kid that now seems weird and/or wildly inappropriate

[CheeseyToast]

For whatever reason, today I was reminded of being three years old and lunching with the street cleaner. He drove a little cart/sweeper thing and would take his break sitting on the grass outside our house. I called him The Jigger Man.

When I spotted him, I'd run inside and say, Mim! The jigger man is here! Can I take my lunch outside?

She'd give me little sandwiches wrapped up in paper and I'd rush out to sit beside him on the grass.

Oh I loved my jigger man picnics.

Was I a complete weirdo or did other kids do stuff like this?

At 9/10 I would take the public bus across (a big) the city to school, make my own way to after school activities and often have my own supper until my mother got home. Would this be done now?
I wouldn't think twice if the children were mature enough, and I'm very uptight when it comes to health and safety.

Oh, we had that new teacher at the secondary school, just fresh from the university. He wasn't attractive or anything, an ordinary bloke but very inexperienced and no tough skin like the more seasoned teachers. One day we brought potassium pomegranate crystals to school and stuffed them up our noses so the lesson was constantly interrupted by sneezing. Funny enough, he ended up marrying a girl from the same year's class after we left school.
Another teacher was nice but a miserable maths teacher. He spent his lessons writing formula on the blackboard. We would swap seats behind his back so every time he looked back at us, there was a different setup. He was very confused about it.

Swimming in the river as young children, miles away from responsible adults. Also wandering around abandoned buildings like old farms and mills hoping to see ghosts. Usually crossing through fields with grumpy horses and cattle in them on the way

How about when you was a brownie /girl guide and you went knocking on people's doors asking if they had a job that needed doing. Mowing lawns,cleaning Windows, ( anything really ) You went with another girl (hopefully ) but they could be complete strangers letting you into their home. I'm sure a few dodgy situations must have happened back then.

Playing for hours at Battersea Adventure Playgroud. No adults were allowed inside and there was a fence around it (no adults appeared to care they weren’t allowed in or watched from the fence)

It was basically anything that was going to be dumped that could be of use old doors, broken furniture, bits of timber, old tires it’s was filthy and not particularly safe but was fantastic we went absolutely wild

I am still terrified of fireworks becuase of the Public Information Film is watched at school when I was about 7

We played is old houses and would walk across the ceiling beams

We played in a disused old sewer (had been cleaned) when someone told their parents the rumour got round and a stop was put to that can’t remember how as we still went out for hours without any adults keeping an eye on us

Went camping on my own with my Guide patrol, bought all our own food, pitched our tent and cooked our food on a fire. I was the patrol leader and aged 12, the others were 10.

That's the link to the terrifying railway film!

Shadow666 aaaah! There's a long tunnel in the Peak District and I have a kind of claustrophobia and when I realised I had got to drive through it I was crying! I was only in my 50s at the time though so not very old.....

Tried to make toffee during Chemistry lesson. Took in small saucepan and ingredients, used bunsen burner. Nearly managed but toffee needed longer so it did not set.

Definitely PE and music & movement at infant school in vest and knickers...

I remember being encouraged to swing upside down from climbing frame about 8 feet above ground... hard asphalt...

There was another game where a large rickety ladder was placed against a wall... And we would all climb up... Often several on rickety ladder and dance along the unstable edge of the wall...

We'd explore empty houses... Get ourselves locked in damp cellars by playing hide and seek.
Sneaking into 18 films via the loo windows at 12 or so...

I was actually a really ok kid!

I lived near the beach, and from age 7 onwards used to take a biscuit tin with sandwiches, a drink and a small towel in it, to swim in the sea with my friends. We would stay on the beach for the day and often swam naked- not sure why! The only time my mum showed any concern was when I was slightly older and me and the boy from across the road hadn’t come home for tea. We’d taken sausages from his fridge and had built a fire to —burn— cook them over on the beach. The police found us and took us home.

We also built bonfires on the field next to our road. We’d make a sort of cave underneath and hide from rival bommie gangs who would try to light it early....

The public information film that scared me the most was the grain silo one. I was terrified of farms after seeing that. The train one came a little too late, as at around age 4, we lived next to an ungated crossing. I used to wander there with my pink plastic pram and wave to passengers as the train passed.

All things considered, I’m surprised I’m still here!

Definitely remember music and movement in vest and pants at infants school, by the time I moved to primary there was a PE kit.
Public information film about the dangers of slurry pits terrified me. Playing in playgrounds with concrete under the monkey bars and the very tall slide - people regularly fell off it and broke bones - didn't stop us playing or the council doing anything about it though.
Sitting on each other's laps in cars and in the boot.

IamtheDevilsAvocado Oh yes! You remind me! We used to have the same - climbing frame over asphalt. I used to climb up the big swings metal poles and sit along the top rail. My mother kept saying a neighbour went to her and said I was sitting there "without a stitch on". I can't remember the no clothes bit and think it unlikely as I would have been so embarrassed except my big sister and her friends used to bully me and it might have been something they did to me.
I too remember Music and Movement in the "Art Room" as there wasn't a school hall as such.
I have other memories from the Art Room which are so bad I hope they were just nightmares though.

We used to do all our PE including outdoor games in a t-shirt and knickers but the boys were allowed to wear their school shorts. Our knickers had to be blue from a special shop for this very reason.
The films the school policeman brought were terrifying and, like a PP said, we all knew what was coming and were scared. We had the one about playing on the building site with a bottomless watery hole and the old fridge plus heaps of stranger danger ones featuring Hansel and Gretal and a flashing red car.

I don't recall doing p.e. in vest and pants, but nobody at primary school had regulation kit like they all do now. You just wore whatever t-shirt and shorts you had at home. This was mid 70s onwards.

ALongHardWinter I was out coach driver’s favourite on our School French trip and my junior School began with H! He was called Steve and was so good looking and to this day I don’t know why he took a shine to little old me. I got a kiss at the end of the trip and cherished his page in my “autograph” book!

Oh Geez, the innocence of childhood

The public awareness films.
Charley says never talk to strangers
There was actually a DVD out s few years back called "Charley Says" which had all those old danger films on.
I vividly remember my friend at primary school receiving a 12 Bore Pump Action Shotgun for his birthday!! I kid you not, I think it was called a mossberg ?
We'd all go down the woods and shoot anything.
He and another friend were stopped early one Sunday morning - they were 8/9yr at the time. Plod pulled up in a Rover P3500 jam sandwich and asked what they were doing "off to me nans" they answered. Well run along said plod.
Actually they been out since 6am poaching. Under their wax jackets were 4/10 shotguns folded up. With rabbits and pheasants shoved into inside pockets too!
Can you imagine that today!!

We all played in an old disused quarry, going down mine shafts, etc etc
Crikey, it's a wonder we all survived.

The thing is, while I think it has gone too far the other way now, there's a reason all those health and safety videos were made, because kids didn't always survive or make it through.

My uncle was killed on a railway as a boy, I don't know all the details as my mum doesn't like to talk about it, but it was a horrible accident. I was sexually assaulted in church as a child. One of my friend's brothers ended up in a wheelchair after doing bike stunts on a big hill thing near us.

Although I miss a lot about my childhood and the fun Good Old Days, some of it was plain dumb or neglectful, and I'm glad that there's more safeguarding around now.

Just watched The Finishing Line, it's horrendous!

I remember going to my grandparents' and taking a basket and going out for the day picking berries alone, nobody knew where I was or when I'd be back. I'd be out for hours!

Also going to a friend's house who had horses and riding one with no saddle, bridle or anything, it was a proper horse not a pony and I remember clinging on to its mane for dear life and knowing I would probably die if I fell off mid-canter!

Also remember knocking on a lady's door and asking if we could take her baby out in the pram, we only vaguely knew her but she said yes. Must have been only around 11 years old and obviously knew nothing about babies or even how to control a huge pram on a pavement! Mind boggling.

We used to ride our bikes all over the town and my fave thing would be to push my bike up the flyover and ride it down the bloody steps to the bottom! It was really high and steep!

Also used to steal daffs from people's gardens and then leave bunches outside the houses we thought lonely people lived in!

Sitting in the guard's van with little brother in the pram.

Blimey, Tarara, this gave me a flashback: riding in the guard's van with my baby brother in his massive Silver Cross pram (that was at least 2nd hand when it was mine, then passed on for my cousin, then to someone else - god knows how many babies rode in that pram).

The guard and someone at the railway station would lift it on to the train, we'd go 3 stops to where my aunt lived and the guard and a station man (they were always men) would get it off again at the other end.

Nowadays, most small stations are deserted and there are no guards on the trains.

Oh the memories... PE in pants and vest, or just pants if you didnt have a vest on

Anyone remember the 'Tufty club'?

👀🕵🏼‍♀️🕶 to my fellow neighborhood spies!

It does make me wonder if my DC and his friends ever did similar and what they might have overheard!!