What was I thinking?

OK, so you remember when you were a kid right? You remember how your parents used to go nuts at you because 'something' you had done was so stupid or dangerous that it worried them? Not that you managed to grasp the concept of what was the actual problem because, all you knew is it ruined your fun. You all with me on this?

Right well here are two of my absolute classics that stick firmly in my mind....

1) Water, water everywhere.

Back in the day when I lived in Newark (Nottinghamshire not New Jersey) the road we lived on would flood. More importantly though so did all the fields around us. You would get a good couple of feet of water as the River Trent would burst its banks. Well this was a great time for us kids because we could 'paddle' around in the middle of the usually busy road!! Great Fun.

Well on one of these floods my brother Howard and I decided that the paddling side was just a bit to boring and we thought we would step up the pace in the beach quality Rubber Dingy that we had. So away we went to garage and got it out and blew it up with a foot pump, grabbed the oars and set sail off up the road!

Oh what a lovely time we had paddling along enjoying the view and passing what ever piece of junk had been swept away by the flood...like buckets, bits of trees, you name it, we passed it. Round the Rugby Pitch we went boating between the goal posts at both ends. and then heading out across the Cow Field towards the local Cricket Pitch. When we arrived there we moored outside the Club House and ate whatever it was we had taken from the house for our trip. Re boarding our dingy we set sail for the crease because, we were trying to find the edges of it through the murky dirty water, that is when it happened. The next thing we knew we were face to face with a very red faced man in fishing waders....Dad! I tell you this now, he DID NOT look happy!! We were dragged back to dry land, where we were both promptly grounded for the next week.

Reason: Flood water is dangerous and contains god knows what bacteria, you don't know what the current is like and you cant find the edges of banks and ditches, not only that you could drown plain and simple!!!

2) Lets make a den.....

Now my Uncle used to have a yard round the back of our Grandma's house where he participated in all sorts of businesses...from House Removals and Clearances to Paper Baling for recycling. Eco Friendly huh? Now apart from the fact that we got to go out with Grandad to move people from one house to another. We also liked to play around the yard, which Uncle David (My mums brother) did not mind at all. Additionally, it was really interesting watching them press and bale the paper and stack it in the yard. The bales were then covered with canvass to stop them getting wet.

Now talking of getting wet, Howard (yes him again) and I discovered that we could play around under the bales and not get wet when it rained because of the canvas covers....awesome! So we made a den or two in the different stacks but, the flaw in the plan was the distinct lack of light which made it very dark in there...so we needed a source of light. Now at this point I think most people would go get a Torch or Flashlight...Not us we got.....CANDLES!

Oh yeah we dotted all these candles round in our little paper dens. We played all day and then went home, only after we had extinguished our candles. Think we were kind of missing the point somehow!

Well it was no surprise that one day Uncle David showed up at our house and told how he had found the candles etc...It is also no surprise that we got grounded...AGAIN!

Reason: Fire kills, end of story!

Needless to say as a parent myself I can see what the issue was with these incidents and I am grateful that my own daughter never did anything quite as stupid.

As they say 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'