Climbing trees as if you were Tarzan himself, riding your bike without even considering wearing a helmet, or turning an abandoned building into a playground—these are just a few examples of things kids do—or used to do back in the day, at least—that would make the hairs on parents’ necks stand up. (Though, these were arguably also some of the best childhood memories to some.)

Members of the ‘Ask Old People’ community recently shared what it is that they used to do that would make parents sick with worry nowadays. Redditor Ron, going by the moniker ‘ChillwithRon’ on the platform, started a thread about it and fellow netizens had plenty of stories to share. If you’re curious to see what adventures they would embark on as children, scroll down to find their answers on the list below.

Below you will also find Bored Panda’s interviews with the OP himself, as well as with the Professor and Department Head at the Department of Human Development & Family Studies at Colorado State University, Dr. Julie Braungart-Rieker, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions about the importance of childhood adventures.

Read More: 45 Things People Used To Do As Kids Back In The Day That Are Considered Totally Horrifying Now

#1

Unsupervised play deep in the woods. It was glorious.

Image credits: Utterlybored

#2

Anyone remember the scalding hot metal playgrounds in the summer, as kids?

Image credits: ChillwithRon

#3

Played with my friends on construction sites after the workers were gone.

From about age 8-10, they built a bunch of new homes in my neighborhood. We had so much fun playing in peoples houses when they were just wooden frames!

Image credits: Chanandler_Bong_01

#4

Riding in the bed of a pickup truck.

Image credits: Infamous-Depth5982

#5

Going to the public pool all day with a couple of my friends, minus any adults. We’d either ride our bikes or one of the moms would drop us off there at opening time and then pick us up late that afternoon at a pre-arranged time.

We all somehow survived it.

#6

Walked to the store by myself at 9 years old to get some items for my mom.

My friends and I made an Evil Knievel kind of ramp over a creek that ran in the back of our houses. We then tried jumping it on our bikes. No helmets of course. I was maybe 11 or 12.

Image credits: Ineffable7980x

#7

Being left home alone & entertaining myself.

Image credits: romeo343

#8

I grew up in a small town in Indiana. My sisters were 7 and 10 years older than me, and mom’s rule was they couldn’t leave me alone at home, so I tagged along with them and their boyfriends all the time.

Indiana is littered with abandoned quarries, and they’re the best swimming holes you can find.

10 to 100 acres big, 200 to 500 feet deep, or more. They’d fill with rainwater over the years, and with no current, they would just warm in the summer sun to about 85 degrees or more.

However. Below 15′ or so, the water was about 58 degrees year-round.

While the boyfriends were 17-21 or so, I was 10/11.

And when the boys climbed up the walls and jumped into the water, I would follow.

You kept your shoes on, and dropped feet-first into the warm water, but you would zip down to 30′ or more instantly. The cold shock would zip up your body and take your breath away, then it’s time to struggle back to the surface. Sometimes, you’d run out of air about 2 or 3 feet down, and it’s the most terrible feeling to expend your last bit of energy to cover that distance to sweet, sweet air.

I went back to visit many years later and found that we were routinely jumping from 60 and 70 feet to the water.

That was 50 years ago, and I can see it and smell it like it was yesterday. Plunging past the thermocline into freezing water in the summer is something that never leaves you.

And I’m pretty sure it was never Mom Approved^(TM).

#9

Babysitting younger kids at the age of 10. I guess I was responsible enough with my siblings that even neighbors would ask to hire me. Plus I’m male. Unheard of, especially nowadays.

Image credits: Slacker-Steve

#10

My sister and I *regularly* crawled through the storm drain tunnel in our town (we had to hunch over a bit, but it was pretty big). At the halfway point there was a road with a bus stop overhead and a drainage hole. We’d stand under it and use vulgar language at people waiting for the bus. Then we’d continue to the end of the tunnel where we’d sit and smoke a cigarettes. 🤦🏻‍♀️ (thank god neither of us got addicted, bit by a rat, or arrested).

Image credits: Outrageous-Divide472

#11

Grew up in a hollow We spent one early spring cutting down trees with axes and buck saws and dragged them down to the creek We spent late Spring building a dam in the creek at the base of a small waterfall to make a swimming hole We spent the Summer at our swimming hole. Built a club house, made a rope swing and a fire pit. Would camp out there. Swim all night. Cook hot dogs on the fire We were around 11 years old.

#12

We lived on a lake with channels that went on for miles through woods. I used to get on my bike and spend the day catching frogs, crawdads, turtles and snakes. Sometimes I would build a small fire and eat the crawdads and frogs. One time I found a poor snake who had a fishing hook and line caught in its mouth. I took it home and was using my dads pliers to get the hook out. He came up and snatched that snake up so fast and tossed him into the woods. I was like, “Im trying to save him!” He said “Thants a gaddam cotton mouth! You could of died!” Lol I was grounded for 2 weeks and had to read a book on snakes. Heh.

#13

I lived on Guam about ten years after WWII and in certain areas ammunition had been unceremoniously dumped, other places where it had been left by the soldiers in the heat of battle.

Anyway we used to go looking for the ammunition, and then, here comes the fun part, when we found it, we disarmed it, cleared it up and added them to my collection.

I knew how to completely unload Japanese and American frag grenades, knee mortars, and shells below 40mm.

Every few weeks or months you would hear about kids trying to disarm bombs killing themselves. Never touched one.

I was eleven.

#14

Sat in my dad’s lap while he drove. From ages 2-6 would regularly sit on the arm rest between the seats in the front seat of the car (so I could see where we were going, obviously). Would push the lighter in (to heat it) in the car so mom could smoke while we drove around (pretty sure all the windows were up, too).

Image credits: joeyrunsfast

#15

My sister and I rode for hours home from vacation one time. We were sitting on lawn chairs in the back of our Dad’s truck….

#16

I used to babysit, at the age of 13-17, for families I didn’t know before that night. Yes, they were recommended by other parents, but quite often the first time I met the parents would be when they came to my house to pick me up. The dad – a 30something man previously unknown to me – would then drive me to their house, where I would meet the kids, and the parents would go out on their date or whatever. Then, at 11 or 12 at night, they would come home. The dad, quite likely already drunk, would then pay me and drive me home along narrow country roads.

Image credits: HootieRocker59

#17

We used to go up in the hayloft of a neighbors barn and grab a rope and swing across the whole barn and fly thru the air into the hay pile on the other side. : 0.

Image credits: Dangerous_Pattern_92

#18

I rode in railroad boxcars. From my northern New Jersey town’s railyard up into New York and back again. Running and jumping in was crazy stupid.

Image credits: anon

#19

I remember trips to the amusement part – Cedar Point in Ohio – that was about an hour drive. The three of us boys would all clamber into the back of the station wagon and rough house away during the drive. Pushing shoving, rolling around in cargo area while dad smoked and mom yelled at us to simmer down .

No seat belts, second had smoke wafting back, windows open. Ah the joys of being a young child in the 60’s! And here I am, as are my brothers, alive and well in our 60’s!

#20

There was a swimming hole near our Alabama home in a creek. In order to use the hole, you had to throw a couple of large rocks into it. This caused the water moccasins to run out of the water and into the woods. We would then swim here. Crazy, I know.

#21

Oh God. Don’t come for me. I know I’d never be able to run for public office because of this.

I played a character in a play who was supposed to be black. I am not black. So… Yeah.

At the time my black friends loved it, we all thought it was hilarious, they and took me under their wing to teach me things. It was a different world.

#22

Yippoing Grew up in northwestern Pennsylvania, on the shores of Lake Erie. Think “lake effect” snow. At least 100 inches a season. We would go out at night and wait for a car to come by, run to the back and grab the bumper and get pulled as far as we could without falling off. Our parents had no idea, my mom blanched visibly when we told her about it just several years ago, and we had done this about 35 years ago. My stupid cousin lost my best mittens this way 😂.

#23

Besides the things you mentioned, I also built model rockets. Also, tricks off the high dive at the local swimming pool. These days public pools don’t even have diving boards, let alone high dives.

Image credits: porkchop_d_clown

#24

This was not a regular occurrence for me, but when I visited a family in rural Tennessee a group of kids got together after dark, formed two groups, and shot bottle rockets across the field at each other as long as they lasted.

#25

I was born in 1965. We lived on a very busy Main St in small town Indiana. When I was 4/5/6 years old, if it rained – my grandparents would let me put my bathing suit on and go stand on the sidewalk, so I was sprayed when cars drove through the puddles passing the house.

#26

We made homemade fireworks..

Image credits: Dry_Enthusiasm_267

#27

Running after the “smoke truck” that sprayed insecticide in our neighborhood.

Image credits: slowpoke257

#28

Bottle rocket wars with my friends. It’s a wonder we didn’t put an eye out.

Image credits: SCCock

#29

Buying cigarettes at age 8 (for my mom who had provided a note), riding in the back of pickup truck on highway, no seatbelts, driving at age 10 (with dad in passenger seat) on country roads, hitchhiking with my dad after our car broke down, and my car seat as a baby was a laundry basket on the floor of the car.

#30

My best friend and I were spit sisters. You each spit into your hand, then rubbed and shook each other’s hand. Less cleanup than the blood brothers’ pledge.

Walking solo to school over a mile away, in blizzard conditions. Riding bikes for miles, no helmet, no water, over all sorts of roads, plus going to the park by yourself — with no one knowing truly your whereabouts.

Climbing really old trees to the very, very top, often requiring an older sibling to figure out how to get you down.

Watching the stars at night after climbing out on a precarious roof.

Skipping school to go fishing along a major river.

Might not be “horrifying,” but not as many kids today had our freedom to try.

#31

I stole cigarettes from my mom and got caught in 6th grade. It was a big deal and I felt horrendously guilty, even though my mom was pretty nice about it.

My brother and his friends started a fire from having match fights, you know where you light the match and fling at each other at the same time? They barely successfully stomped it out.

I told a neighbor girl my dog would bite her if she pushed me, she pushed me and my dog bit her.

We drew up a very elaborate battle plan in order to ambush by dirt clod a neighborhood kid who hated getting dirty.

I walked my bike up a very very steep mountain road repeatedly and rode my bike straight down the middle of the road, like an idiot. On a regular basis.

Made pancakes from pancake mix a neighbor threw away, and we ate the dough. More authentic than mud pies, and edible!

#32

Rock & Dirt Clod battles.

#33

There was a medical clinic near our house. They would dump the test tubes full of blood into the big trashcan. We liked those glass tubes with stoppers so we pulled them out and washed out the tubes so we could play with them.

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