Stupid things you did when you were a kid

I dropped the dime. I was avoiding homework one lazy afternoon and I noticed a small gap in between the extension cord and the cord for a small tv I had in my cabinet and I was curious about what might happen to something like a metal coin if it came into contact with the exposed prongs in the gap. I feel like I must’ve known something “exciting” was going to happen. I just remember that I blew the fuses for my room and possibly the entire end of the house. My parents reading in their bedroom were unpleasantly surprised by the sound of my experiment which I recall was loud like an explosion and I had a small melted spot in the rug in my room where the dime landed rather hot from it’s encounter with the live prongs and it had 2 indentations melted in the edge of it from the contact. Shockingly pun fully intended my TV was not damaged nor was I though I do recall that I missed on my first two attempts to get the dime to land just right and I’m probably pretty lucky that I didn’t receive an arcing shock from how closely I needed to be to drop the dime just right. This was my second “experience/experiment” with household electricity as I was involved with a friends house being browned out from an erector set metal piece being inserted into her wall socket and a dark black stain being left on the light colored socket but again no injuries though she remembers it differently and says we both were electrocuted. She may be right. A little while later I decided I wanted to try and jump my bike and spin it 360 degrees and I made it to 90 degrees and half my face was scabbed over from the way that I landed. I don’t remember having a helmet on either pretty sure that I didn’t as it was 1984ish. By 1986 my safety conscious mother made me wear knee pads elbow pads and a helmet for my first real skateboard. I was so skinny I wore adult sized elbow pads for knee pads because they fit better. Still got plenty hurt.

Lol!
I used Twisties in the outlet. I also tried forks, butter knives etc. I liked the feeling of the electricity going through me. Lol!

I put my fingers in a lamp holder without the bulb - I learnt not to do that again!

My younger brother was struggling to get a plug out of the socket - so he got a metal knife to prize it out. There was a big bang, fortunately he was lucky in the order in which he made the connections so he didn't get a shock but it blew the fuses and spot welded the knife to one of the pins on the plug!

I stuck two salted peanuts up my nose, one in each nostril and wanted to sneeze it out, one came out but the other one got stuck and I panicked, it felt like I was suffocating. Luckily an adult was there and helped get it out. I never tried it again. I have mixed feelings toward peanuts till this day.

I was a very cautious kid but as I grew older I became reckless.One of the worst instances I remember vividly was one afternoon when I was going to pick my kid from kindergarten late.I was in a big hurry to cross the road and when I reached the mid of the road I suddenly realised there was a huge truck heading on one side and a high speed vehicle the other side and it was as though I saw my death being crushed into pieces right in front of me.
I was so stunned and shocked that I stood there completely frozen.

luckily both of the them stopped and I crossed the road safely.
That was a near death experience.

Apparently I nearly electrocuted myself and blew the fuses when very young, by the too-accessible cables on the electricity meter.

I had another go, I am told, using some sort of poisonous berries growing in the garden.

Over the years, accidents like those electrical ones culminated in industry standards that ensure you can't easily poke things into the live terminal of a mains socket, nor as 2cool4school relates, short-circuit the terminals of a plug.

How?

Very simply and ingeniously!

The standard 240V 13A plug's uninsulated earth-pin is longer than the live and neutral pins, and those are insulated for about half their length from the plug face.

The socket has an internal shutter operated by the plug's earth-pin.

The earth contact is made first while the pin opens the shutter. The live and neutral pins do not touch their contacts until inserted far enough for their insulation to be inside the holes. The remaining gap is now only 6mm or so wide, too small for fingers, and exposing no live metal.

Double-insulated items not needing their own earthing (e.g. most 'phone chargers) have moulded plastic earth pins for the above function.

I have no idea who invented this mechanism, nor when (1950s perhaps?) but they do deserve public credit.

{@renkon] been to my auntie and uncles wedding in 1970 and people smoked more freely in them days and there where matches on the table . i was around six at the time and what made me take a packet of these matches i will never know too this day . my mam and dad of course had no idea i had these my sister dared me too strike one so i did i dropped it on my leg and it burned me still got the scar on my right inner thigh too this day

When I was four years old, I would frequently touch a faulty water pipe that had electricity running through it, out of curiosity to understand the sensation it produced. However, it was my mother who noticed what I was doing 😁

There was an old couch in the yard. I was playing with a lighter and I set it on fire.

My mother whipped my ass for the next 3 years.

Oh hell yeah, I know what it feels like to be whipped with a belt

I did the same thing with a small slot screwdriver. It threw me across the room and made the metal badly droop. Luckily it had a rubber covering over the handle.

Some Evil Kinevil bike stunts gone wrong; a few near misses; and a BMX vs Cadillac accident that nearly killed my friend and I.

I did the same thing with a car key when I was a kid !!
Now I use a tester lol