Around 11 years old or so. I wanted to make one of those soccer balls with a rubber band.
But I had no rubber band. Or a way to properly fixate anything to a ball.
So I took some nylon string for kites, tied it around a 2cm nail and stuck the nail into the valve of a soccer ball.
Tied the end of the string to myself, kicked the ball, the string made βtwangβ, and the ball rolled off.
I was annoyed that it didnβt work. So I followed the string from the end that was tied to myselfβ¦ and found out the nail was stuck a cm or so into my upper arm.
Pulled it out and it didnβt really bleed much or anything. Never told my parents about this.
I was very stupid and very lucky that day
I had a similar βstupid but luckyβ experience where I stuck the ends of a copper wire into the electrical socket. Thankfully I was stupid enough to use one wire and not two, or I wouldnβt be here typing this. Instead, I got severe burns on my hands for a few weeks.
Thinking about it, this and my other comment, I was a majorly stupid kid that should have not lived past my teenage years. Iβve fallen out of trees, been run over by cars (twice), had my face inches from a tractor trailer on an expressway, held at gun point while hitchhiking, caught a forest on fire and put it out with my jacket, stuck down a storm drain, accidentally made mustard gas cleaning the bathroomβ¦
Iβm either lucky, cursed, or possibly a cat. π±
I was stupid enough to use one wire and not two, or I wouldnβt be here typing this
Well, I was smarter, but, thankfully, still here.
I was maybe 5 years old when one day I decided for some reason that I have to know how the electricity works βfirst handβ. So I took an electrical plug with a wire from dadβs tool box. It had two exposed copper ends. I plugged it in the outlet and while trying to inspect the βelectricityβ flow I, most likely accidentaly, have completed the circuit with my hand.
Interesting how the experience wasnβt painful itβs just muscles in your body get tense and you literally canβt drop the wire or move at all. Thank god my Dad was around and maybe 10 seconds after I got shocked he pulled the plug. I had no serious injuries: just burns, a bit of shock and a lifelong lesson.
P.S. It was a 220V outlet too. But Iβm not sure if itβs more dangerous than the US ones.
I almost killed my Dad and Grampa when I was six.
Grampa came to visit in his RV which had a gas oven. I mindlessly turned knobs as most kids do.
Dad was a smoker back then, and would frequently walk into the RV with a lit cigarette.
Grampa lost his sense of smell years ago so he didnβt care.
By some miracle, Mum, who didnβt go into the RV unless absolutely necessary (because she hated the smell of cigarettes), walked in and realised the smell wasnβt from cigarettes.
Kids sure are stupid.
My thing was to jump off of things using an umbrella. Luckily, I knew enough to increase the height slowly, so I never jumped off of dangerously high levels. Still, Iβm really fortunate I didnβt hurt myself seriously considering how reckless I was as a child.
I used to do that by jumping off the roof of my parentsβ single-story ranch house; minus the umbrella.
My neighbors had a big TV antenna right next to their house, that you could climb like a ladder. I was up there all the time lol
Someone should put together a book about nearly-fatal stupid kid stories.
The summer I was 9, my younger sister and I were home alone, and I was playing on our open front door, hanging from it and swinging. It had a window with curtains hanging from a rod. The rod was attached to the door by these metal hooks on either side. When I dropped off, I knocked the curtain rod off and ripped the inside of my wrist open vertically about 2 inches. As I held my gushing wrist, my sister and I walked around the neighborhood trying to find an adult; eventually, we did, and I got a visit to the emergency room, some stitches, and a wicked scar. The doctor said if itβd caught me a half inch to the right, I would have torn out along an artery and Iβd have bled out before we got help.
I have a similar story, I was planning on making homemade paper with my sister by blending up newspapers in our blender. Except, I was too stupid to figure out how to open the blender lid, which was held on with a suction, which is opened with a button. I eventually got it open by forcing the lid open by holding it upside down and forcing down with my left hand. The blade fell out and sliced my wrist open horizontally, at first I didnβt realize until I looked down and saw blood gushing onto the floor. I told my sister to help and get our grandma who lived on the property but in a different building. Eventually we got to the ER and they gave me a bandage, but refused to give me stitches without my mom being there (I donβt know why they did that it was stupid). Eventually my mom left work, sheβs a nurse, and gave me liquid stitches. She said she didnβt do normal stitches is because I just barely missed an artery and it was exposed to the air, and she didnβt want to risk poking it with a needle. I do wish I had normal stitches done though because the wound kept opening when I went to school, causing the scar to get pretty big.
Sweet story! Speaking of scars, though, they can be pretty cool. I had my appendix out when I was young, and in an era when the cosmetic side wasnβt as advanced. As a result, as a young man I had a disproportionately large, ugly-looking scar on my abdomen, and I took to telling girls who asked about it that Iβd gotten it from a knife fight. Which was kinda technically true.
I wonβt say it got me laid, because by the time women were in a situation to ask about the scar, that train was usually already in motion, but it was a good story.
I chewed on wires when I was younger so same