I decided to clean the kettle while doing the dishes one night. I put several tablespoons of baking soda in the bottom of it and forgot to rinse it out. The next day it was filled with water and boiled and used for making tea for the bridge club. Several ladies said the tea was just fine and drank it. Other ladies politely did not drink it after the first sip. I never owned up to it.

We were vacationing at a lake. We had spent two weeks climbing out on a tree that hung out over the lake, scooting out straddling the trunk. I was the only girl and next-to-youngest among my siblings and cousins and I pretty much kept up with them.

On the last night, the families were hanging out by the shore, and of course we kids were back and forth on the tree.

Well, when it was time to go head indoors, for some reason I couldn't scoot back off the tree. I suddenly got scared, though I wasn't sure if what, and I just couldn't. The adults tried to talk me through it, but I just kept crying. Finally my uncle scooted out, somehow got behind me, and scooted back with me on his lap. Just before we reached the grass, for some reason we fell off. Only a couple of feet, into probably less than a foot of water, but we were fully clothed and shod and while it was funny everyone was also mad at me.

Remember Viewmasters? The toy where you put a circular thingy with photos on it that you put in the viewer and the you could see 3d pictures? I had one and was looking through it and my little brother wanted it. I wouldnt share with him so he took a toy rifle and whacked the end of the viewer so it rammed into my eyes. I walked around with a purple shiner for quite awhile.

The gym teacher pitted a little boy and I against each other in gym class, in Dodge Ball. One on one across from each other. The big red ball was very squishy, hard to throw fast and I'd dodge out of the way each time. The gym teacher tried egging the little boy on, "Don't let a girl get the best of you! YOU can do it!" The little boy said, "If she would just hold still!". I said, "That's why they call it Dodge Ball!. ☺ Remember Dodge Ball?

When I was about 6 I thought I would try on a pair of ladies high heels in size 7. I thought they were beautiful on me and decided to clomp down the stairs to show all the adults how nice they looked. I made it down one step and fell all the way to the bottom and knocked myself out cold.

As I've probably mentioned before, I grew up on a farm. There was a cherry tree that grew on the very back of our acreage, (probably about a quarter mile from our house), that produced delicious dark cherries. One summer when I about 10 or so, I decided I wanted to make a cherry pie. So I took my pail, walked back there and picked enough cherries to make two pies. We only had those deep Pyrex glass pie plates, so it took a lot of cherries. I cleaned and pitted all those cherries, made the crust, got them in the oven. They baked and looked beautiful (to me, anyway).

BUT, as I was taking them out of the oven, my hand hit the edge of one of the racks, which made me jump back, which caused the rack to slide out (it was an old stove, and the racks didn't fit properly). When it hit the oven door, both pies sort of bounced, and landed, upside down, on the floor. To make it even worse, both pie plates cracked.

And I sat there, on the floor, next to that hot cherry mess, and cried my eyes out! While my mother laughed.

Now I can laugh about it, too, but it sure wasn't funny to me back then! That was a lot of work for a kid that age!

Rusty

Oh Rusty, i did something similar as an adult. i caught the ege of a blueberry pie on the top of the oven , it flipped and threw cooked blueberries in the stove, on the floor and on my pants. Wah!

Rusty, if they fell on the floor....that was bad. If they fell inside the oven....that would have been worse!

The dodge ball I remember was horrible and the boys threw so hard and fast that I and my friends usually would pretend to get hit and just walk out. One time some guy hit me right in the face and broke my glasses. I still don't think it was funny.

When we lived in California my brothers shared a room. Twin beds and they moved them a week or so before me and my one brother were playing and he was giving me a shoulder back ride. He turned to drop me off his shoulders onto the bed but the bed wasn't there because it had been moved. He forgot and I hit my head. No permanent damage, at least none that I know of...and we both later laughed about it but it really hurt at the time.

^I did something similar with blueberry muffins, though not quite as bad as Rusty (Yikes!) or dedtired. While putting the pan in the oven I somehow flipped it over into the oven. Another mess!

I remember my first attempt at oatmeal cookies as a child. My mom was gone and the recipe called for shortening. I decided I could use the bacon grease in the tin my mom kept by the stove. I can still remember biting into that first cookie. :-O

I also remember trying to suck my sister's hair into the vacuum cleaner hose. She jerked her head and the end of the hose chipped her teeth. :-(

I well remember dodge ball!

My grandfather had a smallish cement fish pond filled with his prize koi at our summerhouse, on the Canadian side of Lake St. Clair. I was about 6 years old when I caught my first catfish. I was so proud and hated to release it back into the lake, so Grandpa put it in a large metal bucket filled with lake water for me to admire it “for just a few minutes more”. But, while he was busy fishing with my dad and uncles, I had this brilliant idea! I talked my sister into helping me haul Mr.Fish around back and we “freed” him into Grandpa’s koi pond. I never told anyone, BUT early the next morning my grandpa bellowed up the stairs (to the bedrooms), “Lynn Marie!!!” During the night Mr.Fish had made fine work of my grandfather’s prize koi😳. Needless to say, I was not allowed to fish for the rest of that Summer . . . among other things!

When I was around 7-8, I had a play date with a friend who lived about a block from a home that kept a cow on about an acre behind their house. Her older cousin came over and as we were walking around we decided to climb the lovely tree that was near the fence but inside the pasture. The cow decided to investigate as we were standing around and started running down the hill toward Judy, the older cousin. Nancy and I scrambled up the tree quickly, followed by Judy, just in time. That cow had horns and was pretty angry we had invaded its territory and started butting the tree. We were probably up there 30-45 minutes or more before it finally lost interest and we got outta there. We laughed about that for quite a while. My dear friend Nancy passed away a few months ago.

@Kathsgrdn...I'm so sorry that happened to you. Not a good memory. I didn't mean to dredge up bad memories for you.

Not a big deal, Nicole. I just really hated that game. The teachers always made it boys vs. girls, which made it worse.

OutsidePlaying When I was around 12 my friend and I were went on a day hike on open rangeland while on a family camping trip. We were pretty much let loose for the day back then. We got treed by an angry cow.

When I was little we lived across the street from a wide open field. Sand, rocks, scrub trees, rabbits, lizards -- and a cute little gray mouse! Luckily my sisters and I had a couple buckets and we surrounded it, it ran this way and that, then straight into my bucket! Proud of our catch, we walked it home to Mom, not really expecting her to let us keep it as a pet, but she did say we could keep it until Dad got home to see it, then we had to let our cute little mousy go. Thinking back, I'm pretty sure it was a rat. And maybe not the healthiest rat out there since it couldn't outrun a couple schoolkids.

I have so many, had to choose just one. LOL

My DMIL sent my Dh when he was young to the corner drug store to get her some napkins. He came home with sanitary napkins!

dedtired’s viewmaster story reminds me of the time in elemenrary school I was walking in the hall with my trumpet and raised it, pretending to be about to blast it in someone’s face. He pushed it away, chipping my front tooth. My dentist just ground both front teeth down, not quite enough to fully smooth down the chip but going any further would have made them ridiculously short. Years later at a party a dentist offered to fix my teeth. I was excited about it but my girlfriend at the time said that chip was part of who I am, so I never did fix it. I can’t say I laugh at it now, but I’m very conscious (not self-conscious) about it to this day. Pictures, mirror, or just a natural place my tongue goes.

As girls, we were to always have long hair. I finally talked my mom into letting me cut some bangs. I pulled a little bit of hair forward and cut. Didn't look like what I envisioned, so I pulled more hair and cut. Nope still didn't look how I saw it in my mind's eye. By the time I was done, I ended up looking like Moe from Larry, Curly and Moe. I can laugh now, but can you imagine having to face the family and go to school looking like that!

leisure suits

I just saw this post. I have to add mine. I had nine siblings and grew up on a farm. Our parents went to Bismarck one day and we were playing. I don't know whos idea it was to get moms 2 piece angel food cake pan\ out to play with. We were messing around and I told my sister I would make her a queen and I put the outter ring on her head. Ir went on easy. We couldnt get it off. It wouldn't go up past her nose. She had to walk around all day with it on and look over it to see, When they came back home Dad had to take a tin snip and cut into the bottom rim and bend it so it would come off. It is still being used to this day like that. She was 2 years older than me. Why did she let me do it? I don't remember if I got in trouble or not, but we still laugh about it after about 60+ years.