I'll start.
Back in the late 1970s, I was visiting a friend of mine I northern Wisconsin. We drove from his place to Iron Mountain Michigan. He took me to the SKI JUMP there, and told me how great the view was from the top. It was summer, and he talked me into climbing to the top. It was in disrepair, with boards missing. There were. No stairs, you had to climb the actual jump. Only 2" X 2" boards along the sides to climb up (with some missing!) Well...I made it too the top, and the view was amazing! ......then I realized I had to CLIMB BACK DOWN! Talk about white knuckling it! Those that don't know what a ski jump is like, about half way up, it's almost straight up!
Now, they fixed it up and there are stairs to go up to the top.
It was quite a trip!

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While I know I've done many stupid things in my life I can't remember the dumbest or craziest thing.

In Jr High I climbed on a roof to get the frizbee. I was short and too afraid to have over the edge and climb back down the ladder. I didn't think I could reach it. I also tried but was afraid to hang off the roof and drop to the ground. That would have been 6 feet or so. I decided to try and jump to the swing set that was 25 feet away. So I ran and jumped falling 10 feet short. I thought I broke both ankles.

Maybe I will think of something crazier later.

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Once did a u-turn into oncoming traffic. I was only going about 15-20 mph and just yanked the parking brake to kick the ass end around. The guy in the truck next to me was pumped up about it and gave me a huge thumbs up. Even thoough I nearly side swiped him.

Out ran a police officer when I was in my early 20's in Sturgeon Bay. I was doing about 85 in a 45-55mph and when I saw the lights I took my foot off the gas and then went hell with it, he can't catch me and floored it. Went down a hill, slammed on the brakes and went driving through backroads slowly with the lights off.

Jumped off a two story building into snow when I was kid.

Ran into a car trying to catch a football. Multiple times.

Dove on concrete to catch a football. Multiple times.

Did a back flip on a bike. Landed on my head.

Carried a bowling ball up a tree so I could see if it could bounce off the road.

During my late teens had a gun held to my head as I was about to get into my car and said don't be a pussy, pull the trigger or to get the hell away from me. (after the incident, I was shaking like you wouldn't believe)

Drove my '87 Escort EXP over Tower Drive Bridge over 100mph and felt the front end lift up as we went down the peak and freaked out. Not sure if the front lifted or not, but felt like it so I popped the clutch and put it in neutral and coasted.

While driving about 60mph I threw my car into Park trying to blow the engine. It worked. Blew engine and trashed transmission. (car was wrongfully being repo'd)


I think I added some stupid things in there along with potentially crazy. Sadly, that only scratches the service of my stupidity as a youth. 😥

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Wow! This is turning into a fun thread! I hope others join in!
When I was a little kid, my Dad's friend was a "polar bear". For those that arent aware of what that means, it happens every year on January first at Bradford Beach in Milwaukee. They dive into Lake Michigan. I always thought it was "cool", and said someday I will do that. In the early 1990s, A friend of mine decided to jump in. I was standing on the beach, then started stripping down. The young woman next to me said "you are not going in, are you???" I replied "I would'nt be taking off my clothes if i was'nt going in!" (yes, I had my swim suit on under my clothes!) So I did it! And man, was it COLD! The hardest part was trying to get OUT of the water, as there was a shelf of ice to try to climb onto!

Bow hunting for deer back in the early 1990's, I was sitting on the ground, when I heard something running through the brush, coming right at me. I thought it was a deer, and got up on me knees, and readied my bow........out comes a huge black bear! I jumped up, grabbed my knife, and yelled HEY! GET OUTTA HERE! He stopped, 27 yards away from me, and WOOFED at me! I knew he could cover that space in a second or two, and i figured he'd kill me, but I'd at least get a few stabs in him before I got ripped to shreds. I yelled at him again, and waved my arms, trying to look bigger. He woofed at me a second time, then turned around and ran. And just like Zero said, when it was over I started to SHAKE like never before!

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The hunting thing reminded me of a couple more.

I used to shoot a BB Gun in my basement. We thought it was funny as heck listening to how many times the BB would ricochet. Dad didn't care until I started shooting out the light bulbs.

Some buddies and I banded hundreds of rubberbands together to make a huge slingshot. Then we took turns hitting each other with huge full sheet paper projectiles that we shaped. Think of it like this. Take a piece of paper and fold it a bunch of times and then put a nice crease in it. That's where the slingshot stood and then we'd yank it back (hooked wall to wall) and leave welts on the target.

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I have another one for you. I probably mentioned this a few years ago.

My wife and her 4 sisters were doing some clean up work at their mom's house. Dad had passed away a about 5 years earlier and Mom was in a nursing home. Time to get ready to get rid of the house. I was with them along with a couple of the husbands.

We were cleaning up the yard. Cutting down saplings that had sprouted. Picking up trash and pulling weeds. We took down a pine tree that was too close to the house. It was a day long project and the sisters were coming and going all day long. I and another husband/brother-in-law were probably the only two that had been there and actually working all day long.

After a break he and I were talking about taking down a limb that was in the way. The branch stuck out towards the driveway. It was a little problematic when mowing but not overwhelming. It would help open up that part of the yard if it was gone.

to me it was a no brainer. The tree had to go. He agreed. As a courtesy I asked the girls what they thought and they all wanted to keep the branch. "Daddy had planted the tree and it reminds us of him." I wasn't taking down the whole tree just one branch. Not all the big of a branch either.

It was a little surprising the push back I was getting. All day long when I asked what they thought it was always "Go ahead" but not this time. I walked back over to the other guy and asked him what he thought now. He still agreed the branch should go. I handed him the chain saw and told him I would back him up. He backed down and wouldn't do it. The coward.

Walking over to the branch I revved the saw so it wouldn't die and eyeballed where I wanted to make the cut. Looking over at the sisters all sitting on their butts at the table (and had been for at least a half hour) they were all giving me "THE EYE" and telling me in no uncertain terms that I better not cut that limb if I knew what was good for me.

I couldn't believe it. I had been working all day long. Not a complaint while they came and went and sat and talked. (Between the 5 of them they are in 3 different states and it is rare they are all together so they had some catching up to do.) But now they are all acting like they are my boss and I would suffer the consequences if I didn't listen to them. I remember thinking, "I only sleep with one of them so why are they all acting like they are my wife giving me the ultimatum"? I then thought, well i have a lot of "Kudos credits" in the bank, I may as well cash them all in on this one act. I cut the limb.

You should have seen the look on their faces. They were totally shocked. I had never done something like that to them. Next came the look of rage. I had disobeyed their direct order. Fortunately for me the chain saw was still buzzing so I didn't hear what they told me. Next I had to cut up the branch so I was looking at the ground while they carried on.

Not 5 minutes later I bound the saw on a downed branch. I don't remember if it was that one or another that had to be cut up. I pulled the chain off trying to get the saw free. All I could hear was, "See, Daddy is getting even with you for cutting his tree down.

Next day the IT sister posted this photo on Facebook.



BTW the other guy in the photo was the one who was too scared to cut the branch.

I think they finally forgave me but I don't bring it up. Ever.

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Probably not the craziest thing I've ever done but certainly one of the scariest.

Like Cheesey, this event took place at Pine Mountain Ski Jump in Iron Mountain Michigan.
I had been downhill skiing since second grade and ski jumped off smaller slides since fifth grade.
My sophomore year in high school, my cousin Tom, who was also an accomplished skier, went to the Pine Mountain ski tournament with his sister and her boyfriend.
Pine Mountain ski jump is a world famous 100 meter ski jump that has hosted many of the world's finest ski jumpers.
Tom and I had a plan and we took our downhill skis with the intent to ride the Pine Mountain landing at the close of the ski tournament.
Neither one of us had ever ridden a hill that was that big or that steep, but what the hell!!
At the end of the tournament we carried our skis up to the knoll just underneath the launch ramp that Cheesey climbed years later.
We strapped our skis on and looking down I couldn't believe how steep the landing was, nor how rough.
The people and cars in the parking lot looked miniature.
Tom and I looked at each other and took off!
I had never gone so fast on a pair of skis.
I was scared shitless.
I thought of intentionally falling to end the madness but the landing was so rough that I was afraid that I would break some bones or just look like an idiot.
We both rode it out and to this day we laugh about the fear we felt during that 30 second ride of horror.

Oh my!!! I know how that landing is! I can understand how scary that must have been!
Isn't it something how we can do crazy stuff like that?

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The stupidity of youth was not lost of me.
I have countless stories riding with drunk people. One that really sticks out was going to a party with a childhood friend who was bombed and he was just flooring it going almost a 100mph. He had his mug of beer with a bottle cap in it between his legs as I recall. I was sober enough to try to get him to slow down, but we needed to get to the party. I thought for sure we were going to lose it. The road was windy and lacked of street lights.

I am not sure how many snowmobilers we have in the group, but I do recall snowmobliling on a lake in the winter and purposely hitting the areas where the water was exposed to skip over it. Again, this wasn't done sober so if we would have went through probably not here to re-tell the story.

The scariest moment in my life was being in an airplane whose engine blew while we were in cruise. It sounded like a bomb went off in the plane. I swear I thought I was going to die that day. There is actually a Youtube video of Air Traffic Control and our pilot discussing the situation. Pretty weird to be referred to as a "soul on board".

Yikes sounds like you are living on borrowed time.
You are right, stupidity of youth 😱