"My cousins and I, from the time we were toddlers, were just sent out into the forest in the morning with nothing but whistles to “scare the bears.” One time I chased a bear."

"The Great Rock Wars. In grade school we played this during recess. We just whipped pebbles at each other. Hard. Also, I pay homage to my fallen 4th grade friend, may we never forget you."

"We used to dig tunnels through the hay that they stored in the barn that would be like 10 metres high in places. The tunnels would regularly collapse and we’d just shrug it off and dig another."

"We used to play with chemicals in my neighbors garage. Like combine all different kinds of chemicals we could find, I would assume lawn care and car chemicals , in her garage into a hole in the cement floor. At least we were smart or lucky enough to keep the garage door open"

"Bottle rocket wars at close quarters. No glasses."

"Oh man I could write a book about it. Growing up in the rust belt and playing in the industrial relics I’m still surprised I’m somehow alive. Plus my buddy’s grandpa was a gunsmith so we had black powder, you can imagine what we did with that. Also swimming in the river and f@#king around by the train tracks. Yeah, I don’t know how I even still have all my OEM fingers and toes."

"Swimming in the drainage canal by my house. Barb wire, horses@#t, concrete, fertilizer runoff etc."

"I grew up within the boundaries of Tufts University’s campus, at the end of my street was a campus building that was six stories high. I remember climbing to the top of the fire escape, stepping over the railing onto the slate pitched roof. I held onto the dormer and made my way on top of that roof, then I would walk up to the pitch of the roof and straddle the pitch and look out on the Boston skyline. I was under 10 years old. Well over a hundred feet up, one slip and I was sidewalk pizza. I can’t believe I survived being a latch key kid in the 80s"

"Tree riding. Climb a tree and have your friends cut it down. We would have contests to see who would climb the highest. I won more than once. I cannot fathom how I nor anyone else was not seriously hurt, nevermind killed."

"My brother and I would bend our mattresses in half and then sit on them, release them and fling ourselves across the room into the wall. We were not bright children but damn did we have fun."

"Back in the old days when folks didn’t lock doors, my dumb @$$ used to go in my neighbors houses and wander about while they slept. Then I’d get scared and leave. Very dangerous as a 6yr old young lady."

"Growing up in a family that hunted it wasn’t uncommon to find .22 bullets in the garage or in hunting bags. My brother would take bullets that he found, place them on a log, and then smash them with a hammer. Luckily he outgrew that phase."

"Lawn darts. Except no one was throwing em at the rings. Nope toss em straight up in the sky and scatter."

"For a little bit it was a middleschool fad to throw yourself off public buses as they were slowing down and do a roll on the sidewalk. I smacked my midsection on a telephone pole and had bruises for weeks lol."

"As fun as it really was, I am still surprised how more of us didn’t get seriously injured/killed on old school playground equipment. I’m 29 but I’m old enough to remember when playgrounds were filled with gravel, not wood chips or shredded rubber. Holy hell. Good thing small kids are shockingly resilient because I know I face planted on those rocks more times than I can count."

"I used to rollerblade off the roof and onto the trampoline….it hurts to think about it now. I’m still shocked I never got hurt!"

"I grew up in Kigali, Rwanda. After the 1994 genocide there were land mines all over the place. We used to walk to our primary school (about 1.5km). As kids we used to place soccer on the street while walking to school, so 1 day the ball fell in the bush as always, and i went for it. Little did i know the the stone-like thing under the ball was a notorious landmine, i got the ball and i asked the other older kid what it was. 10 min later the entire neighborhood was on site talking about how i just cheated death. Never will i ever forget it. If i stepped on the mine that afternoon, i would n’t be writing this today."