Childhood skills you either did or didn't have

[Blue Hills]

I could’t/can’t do a handstand. This is the same sort of social death for a primary school age girl as being bad at football is for a boy.

Do they still do that?
What was/is it all about anyway?
Dare I ask?

 

[Julia9054]

Do they still do that?

Not a clue. I have sons and work in a secondary school!

What was/is it all about anyway?

One up womanship!
Whoever could be upside down the longest was Queen Bee!

 

[Yellow Fang]

Not a clue. I have sons and work in a secondary school!


One up womanship!
Whoever could be upside down the longest was Queen Bee!

Could you skip? I could skip but I could not do anything fancy. I couldn't do any of the Ali moves.

 

[Drago]

Vulcan death grip - oh yes!

skimming stones - yes

whistling by putting fingers in your mouth and blowing - no, never.

cycling no hands - yes, but now I'm elderly I simply cannot do it any more.

wheelies - yep, to make Evel Knieval jealous.

making fires by rubbing sticks together - yep, only once, but did it.

making fires with a magnifying glass - most assuredly.

making fires by banging stones together - yep, can work amflint and steel.

using a catapult - oh aye, was a positive sniper.

making a decent go-cart - no. Made many but all were horrendous or deadly.

skateboarding - yes, but barely.

roller skating - no, that was for girls!

making a decent sledge - no need, had a posh factory made one.

 

[Julia9054]

Could you skip? I could skip but I could not do anything fancy. I couldn't do any of the Ali moves.

More childhood trauma!
I could skip but was really bad at running in and out. Which generally meant I got shouted at for stopping the rope and ruining the game!
Two ropes was never going to happen

 

[swee'pea99]

I could do yoyo tricks that brought gasps of amazement and wild outbursts of applause. (In my own fevered imagination.) But I could never do keepy-up - other boys could get to 30...40....50....how many d'you want? On a good day I could manage four.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Got some more:

• Catch stickleback in a jar - never tried
• Catch a fish with a self-made fishing rod - never succeeded
• Collect frogspawn - never appealed
• Read a compass - yes
• Make a compass using needle, magnet and thread - yes and I'd be 50% sure which way north was afterwards
• Read a map - yes
• Recognise the constellations - only Orion, the Plough and the North Star
• Navigate from the sun - yes, but I was often mistaken in where I was in relation to my destination
• Flick towels - sounds a bit gay so not admitting to that
• Make a snowman - yes
• Inflict dead arms - yes
• Wiggle eyes like Lenny Henry - yes, could wiggle my eyes better than Lenny Henry because I didn't need to grin
• Waggle ears - yes, but not without moving scalp as well
• Wriggle nose like the woman from Bewitched - no, can anyone?
• Rub tummy while patting your head - sounds like something Blue Peter or Why Don't You would suggest, but yes
• Skip - yes, but could not do any of the boxer moves
• Make model airfix kits - yes, but not without getting glue all over it
• Make models of aircraft out of balsa wood - no
• Be able to differentiate a Messerschmidt Bf109 from a Bf108 - yes and was disgusted film makers assumed we couldn't
• Be able to differentiate a Spitfire mark I from a mark V - yes, but not a mark V from a mark IX
• Kung Fu - no, did some Judo classes, but was at horrible disadvantage when fighting someone who did it regularly
• Build a cat's crystal radio set - no, that was both old-fashioned and akin to rocket science
• Do a Chewbacca or Darth Vader impression - no
• Do a passable Frank Spencer impression - no
• Do a Monkey (Chinese programme from the 80s) impression - no
• Recite any Monty Python sketch without killing it - no
• Fashion a working boomerang - no
• Throw a knife so that its point embedded itself in the piece of wood you were throwing it at - no
• Catch a wild animal in a trap comprising cardboard box, stick, string and bait - no
• Whittle pieces of wood into something decorative or useful - no
• Make paper chains of people using folded up paper and scissors - yes
• Pick locks with paperclip - only my school briefcase lock
• Differentiate a reef knot from a granny knot - to my shame, no

 

[Spiderweb]

I was good at building sandcastles and won ‘best sandcastle competition’ Alcudia 1976, got a certificate too!

 

[lazybloke]

In my teens, handstands evolved into headstands in the pub garden and ... upside down drinking contests.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Making bows and arrows. With a little help from our dad.

 

[Mark Grant]

Useless at football and still hate it.
Could make a great go cart with wheels bought from the guy behind the vegetables shop in the high road, could never afford the big ones with the smooth bearings.
My mate and I were very good at making bombs. Used to buy fertiliser chemicals and mix them up in his garden shed. Old motorcycle frames were cut up filled with our gunpowder and ends folded over in his fathers large vice. Jetex fuse was inserted through pre drilled hole.
”Rescued” old bikes from peoples back gardens before repairing them and using off road.

A boy in my wifes class at school lost his right forearm making a pipe bomb!

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

I was really good at annoying my father, he use to call me a tired lazy good for nothing sod

Nothing changes does it?

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Making bows and arrows. With a little help from our dad.

View attachment 544680

You'll have someone's eye out with that

 

[Accy cyclist]

You'll have someone's eye out with that

Notice the arrow is not exactly against the bow. It's going off somewhere else. I don't look too happy about it do i!!

 

[Cycleops]

A boy in my wifes class at school lost his right forearm making a pipe bomb!

And that wasn't the worst of the stuff we used to get up to . Why is it kids are so stupid?