Stupid things you did in your youth.

[MikeO]

Inspired by the Kean thread let's be honest. I'll start.

Late teens/early twenties I was walking home from my pub of choice in Guildford on a Friday/Saturday night, was a three mile walk which involved walking past Stoke Park which had many football and rugby pitches on it. The rugby ones were used by "Old Guildfordians" who had a clubhouse on the side of the park (where I went to several parties over the years). In my drunken state I decided it was a good idea to "rock" one of the rugby posts; it must've been old and a bit rotten because after a while pushing in both directions I managed to collapse the whole thing which I thought hilarious at the time.

In my defence the guilt got to me soon after and I sent the club an anonymous donation to help replace the lost upright.

I'm sure I can come up with a few more if I think about it but come on lads 'fess up.

[pete0]

Drunken lads holiday as a teen. Hung over the balcony with only the support of someone holding only my arm as I used a towel to try and whip a blow up doll from a tree. Can't remember if we managed to get the doll out of the tree, just remember waking up and realising how stupid it was. 

A common one that most did my generation was putting aerosols in fires so they'd explode. 

[MikeO]

7 minutes ago, pete0 said:

A common one that most did my generation was putting aerosols in fires so they'd explode. 

Different one with aerosols was spraying them into a plastic bag and then inhaling the contents, intense but brief high; and highly dangerous.

[pete0]

7 minutes ago, MikeO said:

Different one with aerosols was spraying them into a plastic bag and then inhaling the contents, intense but brief high; and highly dangerous.

Fortunately that had died down by my generation, although it has picked back up in the form of laughing gas the past few years. 

[Matt]

Far too many things, and far too many  lessons learnt but not learnt from (if that makes sense). 

[johnh]

My 'crazy time' was between the ages 12 to 15.  After I left school at 15, I started work and morphed into a very sensible youth.  National Service kept me on the straight and narrow.

[Palfy]

1 hour ago, johnh said:

My 'crazy time' was between the ages 12 to 15.  After I left school at 15, I started work and morphed into a very sensible youth.  National Service kept me on the straight and narrow.

Good old national service I wish that was still around when I left school, would have saved me from myself and a whole heap of trouble. 

[Matt]

22 minutes ago, Palfy said:

Good old national service I wish that was still around when I left school, would have saved me from myself and a whole heap of trouble. 

Still mandatory here in Switzerland. Personally think it’s a very good thing

[Palfy]

5 minutes ago, Matt said:

Still mandatory here in Switzerland. Personally think it’s a very good thing

Never new that, Switzerland would have been one of the last countries I’d have expected to still have national service, for me they have that neutrality about them still that makes me feel they wouldn’t need armed forces, if that makes any sense.

 

[Matt]

2 minutes ago, Palfy said:

Never new that, Switzerland would have been one of the last countries I’d have expected to still have national service, for me they have that neutrality about them still that makes me feel they wouldn’t need armed forces, if that makes any sense.

 

https://www.ch.ch/en/performing-compulsory-service/
 

when you’ve been surrounded by warring countries for centuries, it’s best to be prepared. But nowadays it’s to partake in peacekeeping missions due in part to the neutrality factor 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Armed_Forces

makes me laugh that they have a “navy” too 

[Palfy]

1 minute ago, Matt said:

https://www.ch.ch/en/performing-compulsory-service/
 

when you’ve been surrounded by warring countries for centuries, it’s best to be prepared. But nowadays it’s to partake in peacekeeping missions due in part to the neutrality factor 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Armed_Forces

makes me laugh that they have a “navy” too 

 

3 minutes ago, Matt said:

https://www.ch.ch/en/performing-compulsory-service/
 

when you’ve been surrounded by warring countries for centuries, it’s best to be prepared. But nowadays it’s to partake in peacekeeping missions due in part to the neutrality factor 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Armed_Forces

makes me laugh that they have a “navy” too 

Interesting stuff. 

[Matt]

1 minute ago, Palfy said:

 

Interesting stuff. 

Really is. I’m quite interested in military history, and it’s fascinating reading about the Swiss. 

[johnh]

47 minutes ago, Matt said:

Really is. I’m quite interested in military history, and it’s fascinating reading about the Swiss. 

 

I thought the purpose of the Swiss army was to protect the Pope!

 

 

[MikeO]

1 hour ago, Matt said:

Still mandatory here in Switzerland. Personally think it’s a very good thing

I agree some sort of national service would be good but not necessarily military based, could be community service or hospital/care home stuff. I did a fair amount of voluntary work in my thirties including at an old folks day centre; Josh was born during my time there and I used to take him in with me at times, they loved him to bits.

[Matt]

11 minutes ago, MikeO said:

I agree some sort of national service would be good but not necessarily military based, could be community service or hospital/care home stuff. I did a fair amount of voluntary work in my thirties including at an old folks day centre; Josh was born during my time there and I used to take him in with me at times, they loved him to bits.

That’s the good part here, it can be civil or military service. From what I’ve heard it’s just an excuse to take some days off work, get a bit of exercise then party hard

[MikeO]

2 minutes ago, Matt said:

That’s the good part here, it can be civil or military service. From what I’ve heard it’s just an excuse to take some days off work, get a bit of exercise then party hard

Can we have it for sixty-year-olds please?

[StevO]

I think I was 22, ended up naked in the middle of a street in Bradford at 3am. 

Was on a night out in Leeds, me and my mate ended up back at a house with a couple of girls. The house was miles away in Bradford. My mate got a taxi for us but I was still “busy“, so he came in and took all my clothes and put them in the middle of the road. He then stood in the street and started shouting me. As I’m walking into the street in the buff I could see a few curtains twitching. 
 

Our taxi driver got lost on the way into Leeds city centre. As we were pulling up the bus to bring us home was driving off. So we jumped out of the taxi, didn’t pay the driver and managed to catch up with the bus at traffic lights. 
 

Some stupid things, but was a great night. 

[Matt]

3 hours ago, StevO said:

I think I was 22, ended up naked in the middle of a street in Bradford at 3am. 

Was on a night out in Leeds, me and my mate ended up back at a house with a couple of girls. The house was miles away in Bradford. My mate got a taxi for us but I was still “busy“, so he came in and took all my clothes and put them in the middle of the road. He then stood in the street and started shouting me. As I’m walking into the street in the buff I could see a few curtains twitching. 
 

Our taxi driver got lost on the way into Leeds city centre. As we were pulling up the bus to bring us home was driving off. So we jumped out of the taxi, didn’t pay the driver and managed to catch up with the bus at traffic lights. 
 

Some stupid things, but was a great night. 

For you, maybe. But I hoped you paid for the eye-care of everyone else!

[Palfy]

3 hours ago, StevO said:

I think I was 22, ended up naked in the middle of a street in Bradford at 3am. 

Was on a night out in Leeds, me and my mate ended up back at a house with a couple of girls. The house was miles away in Bradford. My mate got a taxi for us but I was still “busy“, so he came in and took all my clothes and put them in the middle of the road. He then stood in the street and started shouting me. As I’m walking into the street in the buff I could see a few curtains twitching. 
 

Our taxi driver got lost on the way into Leeds city centre. As we were pulling up the bus to bring us home was driving off. So we jumped out of the taxi, didn’t pay the driver and managed to catch up with the bus at traffic lights. 
 

Some stupid things, but was a great night. 

I remember reading that story in the News of the World, the headline being Tiny Tim spotted running naked through the streets of Bradford

[StevO]

I know ill never return to Bradford ever again!

I went there once a few years ago to pick up a table, the guy in the shop was definitely looking at me funny. 

[MikeO]

OK this might be a bit of a long one but I remember it so well.

I was seventeen and on an early stage date with my first "proper" girlfriend Rosa (we actually lived together for two years in the end) in my usual "local" in Guildford. Anyway a bloke I knew a little bit was in there with someone I'd not seen before, they were pretty pissed up and decided to join us; they were older and bigger than me so I couldn't exactly tell them to piss off. Transpired the guy I didn't know had been discharged from prison earlier in the day so they were out celebrating, but they were just getting more and more drunk and loud and lairy and had decided I was their new best friend.

Pub used to have a big biker presence at times and there was a bit of an argument at the bar over a leather jacket that had apparently gone missing and a couple of them came over to our table suggesting it was us who'd nicked it, which we all of course denied. Decided I needed to get Rosa clear of the trouble and a mate took her home, there was no way I could leave because my new best buddies wouldn't let me and the bikers would probably have come after me thinking I had info on the jacket (I didn't). Closing time comes and four of us, my mate Les had come to help me out of what was looking like a nasty situation, held back in the pub with the landlords permission so that hopefully when we left all would be safe outside.

Waited 10/15 minutes and then walked out of the door. There were a couple of steps down onto the pavement and the ex-inmate tripped on the top step and head butted the floor at great pace, huge gash opened up in his forehead. Long story shortened a bit but transpired he was driving and his mate didn't know how to so I was told in no uncertain terms that I was going to drive us all to hospital, though I'd not passed my test and was totally pickled; get in the car (a Ford Executive) and drive to hospital only to find there was no casualty there so needed to drive through town to another one 3/4 miles away. While driving there I got waved at by a policeman on foot and realised I didn't have the lights switched on so I turned them on and kept going, all this time the car interior is being resprayed red.

Made the hospital and got him in but now I'd been "told" that I had to wait (Les was still with me) and drive them home afterwards, which was about ten miles away. My reward for this was that I could keep the car (turned out they'd stolen it) and also the biker's leather jacket, which they'd also stolen and was in the boot. Shitting ourselves by this time as a bit of sobriety kicked in, the guy was stitched up quite quickly and we went back to the car for the next "adventure" but it wouldn't start. So the two guys walked off in the car-park trying the handles of every other car so they could get some more wheels. When they got a "safe" distance away me and Les just looked at each other and bolted, probably about four miles home and we sprinted every step, never run faster in my life.

Never saw either of them again thankfully but did get friendly with a lot of the bikers over the years, nice guys. Never told them about the jacket though.